Shanghai Mart: Serving as the Right Role

Author: Deng Qiwei

April 22nd, 2009. SHANGHAI-the export of Chinese traditional commodities has been held back since the subprime mortgage crisis broke out in the USA. This terrible crisis has influenced some labor-intensive industries in China, such like apparel industry, toy- manufacturing industry and plastic-manufacturing industry. The amount of orders has reduced sharply for these labor-intensive industries. Because of this, the exhibitions which belong to "export status" also have been cancelle or downsized due to the chain reaction of the sour economic atmosphere.

However, ShanghaiMart took an option to adhere in this tough time. From April 22 to April 24, it held "2009 China International Textile&Apparel Trade Fair", not only the Chinese enterprises can beneit from this trade fair, but also overseas brands can be introduced into China. The 23,000 square meter exhibition grounds accommodated 800 exhibition booths, among which China (460 booths), Korea (280 booths), Japan (40 booths), Europe and America (20 booths). Meanwhile, this trade fair established 100 overseas brands promotion areas for international second and third line brands. And the rest booths were funded by the governments of Chongqing, Hangzhou, Haining, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou.

Purchase Requirements continued, Amount of overseas buyers doubled

Several domestic apparel exhibitions which refer to the "export status" were cancelled or downsized owing to the total orders of textile industry has reduced more than 10%. During this speciical period, "China International Textile&Apparel Trade Fair" combined "Korea Fashion&Textile Fair" catered 800 booths for manufacturing industries. Among these booths, China shared about 500.

Unexpectedly, the number of overseas buyers remains unabated.

According to the exhibition register, there are nearly 500 buyers who come from USA, Europe and Japan, the total number doubled as compared with that of the previous exhibition. However, the actual attendance reached to 1,500.

ShanghaiMart provided a classical service which called Business Matchmaking (B-March). 150 overseas buyers matched 300 suppliers through this channel. This eficient business communication method saved the purchasing time and cost. It"s no wonder that the 40 enterprise from Guangdong province chose B-March as their irst option.

How this phenomenon occurred? Due to the overseas buyers are retailers and small-medium enterprises, they have clear demand of orders.

Especially for some retailers, their purchasing system is lexible, and their purchasing behavior is clear. In other words, the amount of orders maybe not the highest, but the rate of cooperation success is much higher than before. There are two reasons why ShanghaiMart held this exhibition in this particular period. Firstly, the attribute of apparel belongs to daily necessities, therefore the purchasing demand can be guaranteed. Secondly, the macro-environment of China is stable, so "made in China" has continued itcompetitive ability in overseas market. It leads to that China still poses "a world factory" status.

Government enhanced support,  Enterprises formed groups to attend this exhibition.

A special phenomena occurred in this Trade Fair is that local governments funded some enterprises to attend this exhibition.

The six local governments (Chongqing, Hangzhou, Haining, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou) assembled 20 representative enterprises to attend this exhibition so as to exhibit their advantages.

The reason was that the economic crisis impact on apparel & textile industry hardly, therefore, the local governments show their active behavior towards this exhibition owing to textile and apparel industry play an important role in these areas economic elements. In accordance with the new policy, the government also has the responsibility of supporting small and medium textile enterprises and helping them to pull out of the crisis.

The Municipal Economic Commission of Hangzhou organized its local key silk- manufacturing enterprises to attend this exhibition. The Municipal Economic Commission of Chongqing organized the top-ranking tatting and feather-goods-producing enterprises to take part in this exhibition. The warp knitting zone of Haining recommended its inest enterprises to appear in this exhibition. In addition, the small and medium enterprises development bureaus of Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou guided their local knitting enterprises to deal with the Japanese orders.

Take Wuxi for example, its local government organized two famous enterprises to attend. Hongdou Group, which ranks the top five brands of Chinese apparel, is expert in knitting and producing suits. The other one is Liutan Group, renowned for its ready-to-wear clothing. On the other hand, Chongqing government also introduced its local key enterprises to attend. For instance, Chongqing Duanshi apparel Co., Ltd, Chongqing Yesheng apparel Co., Ltd, (feather), Chongqing Xinda children apparel Co., Ltd, Chongqing Suwang Group (Women Apparel). The local government expected that this exhibition can bring the inancial and economic beneits to their local enterprises.

This exhibition provided a good opportunity to business cooperation and communication. Meanwhile, the enterprises are from different parts of China. They provided various resources to this exhibition. For instance, the enterprises from eastern China are expert in mature management and technology, the enterprises which from western China have their favorable conditions of cheaper labor cost and land cost.

Resource complementarity and making full use of favorable factors can help both western and eastern enterprises to pull out from economic crisis mire. 

Overseas brands promotion

In the wake of the economic downturn, many overseas brands turn their scope to new market in order to maintain the development and survived. China, which has the largest population in the world, and the consumer market is also the largest. Luxury-consumption in China is boom, the total number exceed two billion US dollar, and held 1/4 world market share.

In 2008, base on ShanghaiMart, the J-Mode overseas brand promotion exhibition emerged as the times required. During that exhibition, 10 top brands of Japan and Korea contact with more than 100 domestic department stores and 200 band agencies at irst time. In those three days, the exhibition provided a chance for overseas brands introduce to China, and also built an overseas brand promotion shortcut for Chinese channel intermediaries and brand agencies.

This year, the exhibition covered eight countries and more than 100 brands, among which Japan (20 brands), South Korea (70 brands), USA and Europe (10 brands). Some overseas brands were not the irst time to attend this Trade Fair. For instance, YORKS Company is famous for its glove-making. And of course there are still a lot of overseas enterprises introduced to China at irst time, for example, the Achilles and NAKA KNIT.

It was attracted for several largest domestic retailers and channel intermediaries to attend due to the introduction of overseas brands into China. It is of convenience for participants to understand the market situation and ind out appropriate partners in this exhibition. No doubt, this exhibition has the attraction for domestic enterprises who want to pull out from current economic crisis mire.

Source form China Textile Magazine

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