A new story of a national clothing brand going global | Pioneers in the global market

Introduction:

Going global is no longer an option for enterprises, but there are still many choices in the way of going global. Brand going global, supply chain going global, cross - border e - commerce... Behind each model, there are countless stories of Chinese companies' arduous exploration; North America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America... On every distant continent, there are more and more international figures of Chinese brands.

From introducing foreign investment forty years ago to "going global in groups" today, Qiantang, as the main front of Hangzhou's export - oriented economy, has always been the bridgehead for enterprises to transform themselves and break through for innovation. The International Service Center for Chinese Enterprises has been paying long - term attention to overseas markets and enterprises going global. Based on this, in 2025, we launched a new column "Wave Riders in Going Global" to find benchmarks in various fields for going global, disassemble practical cases from a professional perspective, precipitate methodologies in the process of seeking consensus, and explore differentiated development paths in non - consensus.

The following is the fifth article in this column.

In December 2024, Semir's first store in Malaysia officially opened at 1 UTAMA Shopping Centre, a large commercial complex in Kuala Lumpur. The store is located in the prominent main passage area on the first floor of the mall, adjacent to international brands such as mango and timberland. Less than a month later, Semir opened its second store at sunway pyramid mall, and Balabala, Semir's children's brand, also opened its first store in Malaysia at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

The successive opening of the three stores is just a small step for Semir in its overseas market expansion in the past nearly ten years. To some extent, it can also be regarded as a microcosm of Chinese domestic brands going global. In the past thirty years, a group of Chinese domestic clothing brands represented by Semir have experienced the "golden decade" of offline business at the turn of the century and survived the brutal competition in the e - commerce era. Now, facing the sluggish and involuted domestic market, they are turning their eyes to overseas markets and regard going global as a necessary option to drive growth.

On this increasingly crowded track, white - label merchants rely on the growth dividends of e - commerce platforms such as the "Four Little Dragons" to "exchange price for volume", while brand enterprises look further ahead. They hope to participate in the global fashion industry competition through this wave of going global and achieve the leap to a "global brand".

Relying on the precipitation of the domestic supply chain and industry understanding, Semir adopts a regional strategy of focusing on Southeast Asia, actively expanding in the Middle East, and "breaking through" in Europe and the United States, and explores a new growth path suitable for overseas markets through a multi - channel model of "direct - operated full - domain layout + cooperation with agents".

Deeply cultivate Southeast Asia and the Middle East, break through in Europe and the United States

In April 2023, Semir Clothing officially established its overseas business department and held its first overseas agent customer meeting in September.

In fact, ten years before this, Semir had been continuously exploring internationalization. It first established cooperation with agents in Europe, the Middle East and other places by participating in exhibitions. In February 2017, Balabala's first overseas store opened in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

In 2018, Semir set up a company in Hong Kong, China, and began to explore the overseas direct - operated model. In 2020, Semir extended its reach to Southeast Asia. In November of that year, Balabala's first store in Vietnam opened in Hanoi.

The financial report shows that as of the end of 2024, the two brands of Semir and Balabala have entered 15 countries and regions around the world, and the number of stores outside the Chinese mainland (Hong Kong, China and overseas) has exceeded 100. Among them, more than 30 new stores were opened in 2024, mainly covering regions such as Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mongolia, and Jordan.

Due to the similarity of social and cultural environment and lifestyle, Southeast Asia has always been the preferred destination for Chinese domestic clothing brands to go global. Chen Shu, the person in charge of overseas digital business and market, introduced that Southeast Asia is also the key overseas market for Semir at this stage. "After all, Southeast Asia belongs to Asia. When Chinese high - quality products go overseas, the cultural barriers, aesthetic barriers, and physical barriers of people are not so high."

In 2023, Semir launched a brand transformation, changing from a "Chinese version of ZARA" to focusing on family scenarios, and the target customer group also changed from "post - 95 new youth" to "Chinese general families". This brand positioning has also been extended overseas. Semir's first store at Aeon Mall in Hue, Vietnam, features the "Family Concept", providing one - stop shopping solutions for family members of different ages.

Judging from the results, Semir's development in Vietnam is the most successful at present. Chen Shu believes that "We entered the Vietnamese market relatively early and have some resource precipitation. Vietnamese consumers also have a relatively high acceptance of our products, so we have achieved rapid development offline." At present, Balabala has 9 stores in Vietnam, and Semir has at least 2. In order to better cultivate the local market in Vietnam, in 2024, Semir fully upgraded Vietnam to a regional manager system.

In addition to Vietnam, the main markets where Semir operates in Asia also include Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. In smaller markets such as Laos, Nepal, and Cambodia, it mainly cooperates with agents for product sales and brand marketing.

Most families in the "wealthy countries" in the Middle East have multiple children, and the high birth rate makes the demand for children's products very strong. Therefore, it is also an emerging market where Semir focuses its investment, mainly relying on cooperation with local large - scale agents. At present, offline stores have been opened in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.

"The popularity of English in Middle Eastern countries is not particularly high. The local resources of local agents, including the buying team and the display team, can give us a lot of empowerment in reverse, and they are also better at communicating with local consumers. For us, the current market expansion method is more efficient and can avoid detours." Chen Shu explained.

In the highly mature European and American markets with numerous international brands, at this stage, Semir mainly conducts market tests through online e - commerce platforms and cooperates with e - commerce platforms to expand the market. Compared with international giants such as Nike, Semir's advantage lies in having a professional children's clothing brand like Balabala, with deeper product accumulation in understanding children's users and consumption scenarios.

Direct - operated full - domain layout, agents to expand resources

Chen Shu told us that Semir adopts different channel expansion strategies in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe and the United States, mainly based on the characteristics and advantages of different channels.

The advantage of the online channel is that the market expansion cost is lower. It can quickly reach consumers around the world through cross - border e - commerce platforms such as Amazon and SHEIN. In 2024, the two brands of Semir have covered more than 130 national markets around the world through online channels, with more than 2.5 billion brand exposures per year. The online revenue increased by more than 80% year - on - year, and the overall growth rate reached 300%.

For example, in Southeast Asia, Semir has entered cross - border e - commerce platforms such as Lazada since 2017. According to Lazada data, in the 2023 Lazada Mega promotion, Semir ranked among the top in the clothing category on the platform. The sales of the children's clothing brand Balabala on Shopee have also increased rapidly.

The brand can also rely on the natural digital ability of the online channel to conduct product tests, and the cost of trial and error is much lower than that of offline stores. "We will quickly collect the sales data of e - commerce platforms to understand the dressing tastes of consumers in different markets, test the consumers' acceptance of products, and whether the版型 and size need to be adjusted." Chen Shu said.

However, the shortcoming of the online channel is that it is difficult to form a deep brand mind - set. That is to say, consumers only purchase through e - commerce, and it takes a longer time to form a perception of the brand's visual style and product quality and then generate recognition. Moreover, the cost of online marketing for the brand is higher, and the reach efficiency is not as good as offline activities.

Therefore, offline stores are also the key layout channels for Semir in overseas markets. "If you want to have a clearer perception of the market, you need to have in - depth communication and relationship maintenance with consumers, which can only be achieved through offline channels." Chen Shu introduced that at present, the overseas business department headquarters of Semir has more than 50 full - time employees with multi - language abilities, providing operational support including store design, operation training, purchasing guidance, and marketing suggestions to overseas direct - operated stores.

"We found that products that are relatively popular in China will be more high - end in the Vietnamese or Malaysian market." Chen Shu explained that Semir mainly chooses to create benchmark stores in the top commercial districts in Southeast Asian markets to build a relatively high - end brand image. And the sufficient passenger flow in the top commercial districts can also help the brand test consumers' preferences for styles, price ranges, etc.

Local agents, including overseas Chinese who have been deeply involved in the local area for many years, can be an important means to understand and adapt to the local market in the early stage of an enterprise's entry into the market, helping the brand quickly obtain the support of local resources and thus achieve rapid expansion. In February 2025, the overseas business department of Semir Clothing held an overseas targeted investment promotion negotiation meeting, displaying the overseas development strategy, target plan, and key elements for the new year, hoping to further expand the international market through investment promotion cooperation.

Deep insight, keep up with changes, and provide differentiated supply

In the past decade, the overseas image of Chinese brands has undergone a leap from "cheap OEM" to "innovation - driven". The "2024 China Globalization Brand Report" shows that 75% of overseas consumers choose Chinese brands because of factors other than price, such as brand trust, brand awareness, demand satisfaction, fashion trend, and quality.

In this trend, Semir did not choose to "start from scratch" overseas, but let its domestic original brands go overseas. "Semir and Balabala are both well - established brands in China for more than twenty years, and the entire value chain from product R & D to brand marketing is already very mature. China has a vast territory, and the complexity of climate conditions, wearing needs, and consumption levels in different regions is not lower than that in overseas regions." Chen Shu said.

Going global with original brands will inevitably face implicit barriers of cultural differences. Therefore, Chen Shu believes that the brand needs to promptly insight into the changes in local market trends and consumption habits and make targeted adjustments continuously. For this reason, the overseas business department of Semir Clothing has established its own merchandise planning and buying team, which regularly conducts research and inspections in overseas markets.

For example, in the Middle East market, in the early years, due to the relatively conservative social culture, female models in advertising posters could not show their faces. However, the Semir team noticed that as the internationalization level of countries such as Saudi Arabia increases, the freedom of commercial marketing is gradually increasing. By promptly capturing the changes in marketing trends, the brand can seize the opportunity without offending local culture and achieve better marketing results.

For Semir, the target population and population portraits in different overseas markets vary greatly. It is necessary to form in - depth consumer insights through data analysis, consumer interviews, or customer feedback, and then select suitable products from the brand's overall product portfolio to build a differentiated market supply. For example, in the Middle East, for important traditional festivals such as Ramadan, Semir will develop and launch special product series according to local festival customs, from product styles and color schemes to the visual expression of model photos.

In terms of wearing scenarios, Semir found that Middle Eastern women mainly wear black robes in public, so family gatherings have become an important scenario to express fashion taste and show themselves, with a high demand for new products.

In order to achieve efficient matching between the overall product portfolio and overseas differentiated markets, Semir adopts an organizational model of "headquarters coordinating with regional functional personnel", with the headquarters overall controlling the brand tone and the regional functional personnel implementing it. To prevent the brand image from being damaged due to risks caused by cultural differences, the headquarters also controls overseas marketing content.

"What Semir wants to do is to globalize the brand and achieve a certain influence and market scale." Chen Shu said.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Hangzhou Qiantang Enterprise Going Global Service Base". Author: Qiantang Going Global. Published with authorization from Qiantang.