A worker delivers packages at a logistics center owned by Ningbo Peacebird Fashion Co Ltd, in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, on Nov 10, 2020. [Zhang Yongtao/For chinadaily.com.cn]
Ningbo Peacebird Fashion Co Ltd, a major multi-brand fashion company in China, will add more digital solutions to boost sales, and expand its global presence via cross-border business platforms and enhance supply chain over the next five years, its executives said.
Many Chinese brands are increasingly partnering e-commerce platforms in global markets because they realize they must be omnichannel players, he said. They must sell at all touch points in the retail infrastructure, said Chen Hongchao, CEO of Zhejiang province-based Peacebird.
Even though the COVID-19 pandemic impaired many companies' earnings this year, Peacebird's sales revenue surged 10.35 percent on a yearly basis to 5.52 billion yuan in the first three quarters of this year.
Its sales, contributed by both online and brick-and-mortar stores, reached 1.45 billion yuan during the Nov 11 shopping festival this year, while its online sales exceeded 1 billion yuan for the first in the company's history.
"Crossover branding also has become another hot term for many sectors. Brand collaboration arouses consumers' curiosity, giving them a new reason to spend. It usually generates unexpected market feedback. Their brand image can not only be promoted but also be used to boost sales," Chen said.
With growing disposable income, Chinese consumers are highly sophisticated, said Zhang Jiangping, the group's chairman.
"Their budgets were not even impaired during the epidemic, as long as the product addresses certain needs," he said, adding they are not only taking the lead worldwide in terms of the adoption of technology and digital solutions, but even regarding the understanding of fashion.
"When we think about future, we have to first realize we are already living in a digital age. We have found that both Chinese and global consumers are very focused on digital technologies and related products, not just about e-commerce, but everything in the virtual world," he noted.
Supported by over 12,000 employees, Peacebird runs three factories and 4,300 physical stores across China. To embrace these changes, the company has already set up a big data and artificial intelligence team to better serve customers' demand in both home and overseas markets.
Apart from focusing on middle-income earners, China's millennials will have more purchasing power because many of their parents not only own an apartment but are not weighed down excessively by accommodation or mortgage concerns, said Ma Yu, a researcher at the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
"Therefore, they like shopping in both physical and online worlds. Many of them in big cities are also looking for stylists to provide personal and professional fashion advice to help them better define themselves," he said.
(Source: China Daily)
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