With just one swimsuit, CUPSHE products are sold in more than 40 countries

The weather is getting warmer and the northern hemisphere is about to enter summer. The swimwear category will usher in its peak season! Last year's Prime Day, swimwear also became a hot-selling subcategory. On the Amazon platform, there is a swimwear brand from China that has been the best seller in the Amazon swimwear category for many years.

Focusing on the swimwear market, its products are sold in more than 40 countries

Starting out as a swimwear brand , CUPSHE ’s products are sold in more than 40 countries around the world. This Chinese cross-border e-commerce brand, which focuses on the global women’s beach swimwear market , has received over 100 million yuan in financing just six years after its establishment . It is understood that the brand belongs to Nanjing CUPSHE Network Technology Co., Ltd., which is headquartered in Nanjing and has a supply chain in Guangzhou.

According to public information, CUPSHE was founded in 2015. As an explorer of Chinese brands going global, the brand takes swimwear as its entry point and is committed to providing the most attractive swimwear products to global consumers, striving to create the world's No. 1 and most popular beach brand. Its products are sold all over the world and are widely favored by European and American consumers. Its product - swimwear - has been firmly at the top of Amazon's swimwear sales list for many years.

After gaining a firm foothold in the swimwear category, CUPSHE announced last year that it would expand its product category and launch a sportswear series "Weekends at the Beach House", entering a broader sportswear market. Since the beginning of this year , CUPSHE stores have launched hundreds of dresses, which also shows that the brand is actively exploring new market possibilities while being rooted in creating the world's most popular beach brand.

Looking back at the company's development history, in 2015, an independent website was built and put into operation, overseas traffic channels were developed, and a self-operated supply chain system was established. At the beginning, CUPSHE was positioned as a fast fashion brand with a wide range of products, and swimwear was not the main category .

In 2016 , CUPSHE began to focus on the market segment, take the branding path, create a professional swimwear brand line, and successfully open up the North American market . In 2017, CUPSHE became the No. 1 online sales volume of swimwear in the North American market. In the same year, the company quickly expanded into the Australian and European markets, achieving a doubling of expansion.

In 2018, the brand's customer volume and traffic growth reached a new level, and sales also reached a new annual growth high. In 2019, CUPSHE became one of the top 100 Chinese import and export cross-border brands. In 2020, the brand was named one of the top 15 most global brands in China by Google's 2020 BRAND Z, with annual revenue of US$150 million. In 2021, it received a strategic investment of more than 100 million yuan from Jiayu Fund.

The reason why the company has been able to achieve such rapid development is not only due to its own strong comprehensive strength, but also closely related to the high demand in the global swimwear market.

According to data from Statista, the global swimwear market sales in 2019 were $18.6 billion, of which nearly 20% came from the US market, reaching $3.7 billion. At the same time, Statista research data shows that the compound growth rate of the global swimwear market will exceed 6% in the five years from 2020 to 2025, and the market size will reach about $29.1 billion by 2025.

The chairman of the Cannes Swimwear Fabric Expo also said that the global swimwear market will reach US$22.7 billion in 2022.

Social media marketing helps brands go global

CUPSHE, which mainly focuses on the European and American markets , has greatly increased its brand awareness through social media marketing, bringing brand traffic growth to a new level. It is understood that the brand has marketing promotions on multiple social media, including Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn, etc.

According to similarweb data, CUPSHE's social media marketing has brought a lot of off-site traffic to its official website. More than half of it comes from Facebook, nearly one-third comes from YouTube, and Pinterest follows closely behind . It is understood that the brand has millions of fans on the Facebook platform.

In addition, the diversity of CUPSHE swimwear styles, the aesthetic inspiration from European and American consumers, and consumers' preference for embracing a lifestyle full of sunshine, surfing and beaches have also won most of the swimwear market on the Instagram platform.

The diversity of styles also enables CUPSHE's products to reach more consumers, such as women who need larger sizes and full-time mothers, who are often not paid much attention to by swimsuit brands.

According to its tweets on major social media, CUPSHE does not simply introduce its products during promotion. It also uses videos to show the fashion sense, wearing scenarios and fitting effects of the products, and focuses on showing women's confidence in wearing swimsuits. At the same time, it also displays the brand value of "women's self-worth recognition" through product copywriting, pictures and other details to further attract potential customer groups of the brand.

As for the KOL marketing method that is currently popular all over the world, the brand has also kept up with the pace and promptly launched a KOL promotion project called "Ambassador Program", attracting a large number of loyal fans.

In addition to using social media to promote brand concepts and increase brand exposure, the brand has also established its own private traffic community. Currently, its community platform has received nearly 6,000 product and brand reviews.

Amazon's independent website is developing dual channels

Although the main category is swimsuits, CUPSHE still divides them into one-piece swimsuits, bikinis, tankinis, dresses, cover-ups, plus-size swimsuits and other categories from the Amazon store and independent website . Among them, one-piece swimsuits and plus-size swimsuits have the highest sales . Especially one-piece swimsuits , there are many products with more than 10,000 reviews and close to five stars. The prices of products in this category are also concentrated, most of which are around US$30.

For consumers in Europe and the United States, swimwear is inseparable from beach scenes in most cases, and is often associated with beach scenes in CUPSHE store promotional images and copywriting.

The promotional copy and pictures of its products also reflect its brand positioning and concept everywhere. For example, the promotional copy will emphasize that the product is designed with different body shapes and sizes in mind, is highly inclusive of body shapes, and demonstrates women's confidence.

This kind of publicity has also been effective. In the product reviews, quite a number of consumers believe that the product is very suitable for pregnant women and women in the postpartum state. In addition, the keyword that appears frequently in the reviews is "cheeky", which is a type of underwear style that covers less than a bikini but more than a thong, which can show the shape of the buttocks while keeping a low profile.

On the Amazon platform, CUPSHE has become a first-tier brand in the swimwear category, but CUPSHE's senior marketing director once said that Amazon stores only account for 30% of its brand sales , and the remaining 70% comes from independent sites .

Entering the CUPSHE independent website, you can find that its independent website has a variety of preferential activities, which are much richer than Amazon. For example, customers can get a 10% rebate on their first order of $65. In addition, the price of products on the independent website is slightly lower than that on the Amazon platform. For example, the unit price of one-piece swimsuits on Amazon is mostly between $30-35, while the same product on its independent website is generally $25-30.

Like most independent websites, CUPSHE has also established a membership system on its independent website, including points for registration, rewards for inviting friends to register as members, etc. With a membership system, the repurchase rate can be increased through various means, such as regular and irregular coupon distribution, and email marketing, etc. In short, compared with Amazon, CUPSHE's independent website has more diversified marketing methods and is easier to build its own private domain traffic.

Through the dual channels of Amazon platform and independent website, CUPSHE has successfully occupied a place in the overseas market during the process of brand expansion.

Domestic brands

Swimsuit

Independent website

Amazon