The single-day GMV on Double 12 exceeded 10,000 US dollars. This overseas expansion of Chinese products is unstoppable!

Semir is the "youth" of countless "80s" and "90s" people. At that time, in their eyes, Semir was synonymous with "trend" and "fashion wardrobe". This clothing brand, which once occupied the wardrobes of tens of millions of students, has faded out of your sight as everyone grows older.

Not at all!

It just opened up a wider world. With the influx of foreign fast fashion brands and the intensified competition in the domestic market, Semir began to expand globally, including entering Alibaba's Southeast Asia flagship e-commerce platform - Lazada. Now Semir's products are widely popular in Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam.

Global layout, starting the cross-border overseas journey

Not long ago, a new product show held by Semir in the sky realm "Chaka Salt Lake" once again became the focus of discussion among Chinese people.

From the city of steel and concrete to the vast and ethereal Chaka Salt Lake, Semir's brand concept of "comfortable and fashionable" is fully demonstrated.

In fact, this is not the only thing that surprises people about Semir.

Semir , founded in December 1996, is now 25 years old. In the past 25 years, in the apparel industry in mainland China, new brands have emerged and become rising stars, and old brands have been declining and forgotten. However, Semir has always been active in the public eye. Even its performance has been growing continuously.

According to the 2021 semi-annual report data, Semir achieved revenue of over 5 billion yuan, an increase of 13.65% over the same period; the net profit attributable to the company's shareholders reached 600 million yuan, an increase of 2980.24%.

Such achievements are closely related to its global layout.

In 2017, Semir set a sales target of "80 billion by 2023" and regarded its international business as an "important engine" for development in the next five years.

Semir has been paying attention to the Southeast Asian market in the early days . In 2020 , Semir officially started operations on the Lazada platform and started its cross-border overseas journey through the Lazada brand mall Laz Mall , known as the "Chinese version of Tmall " .

When talking about the reasons for developing the Southeast Asian market, the relevant person in charge of Semir said there are five main reasons:

1. The national “Belt and Road” strategy guides Chinese enterprises and Chinese brands to try internationalization;

Second, the current Southeast Asian market has a prominent demographic dividend, GDP maintains rapid growth, and the Internet economy develops rapidly. The e-commerce penetration rate in the five Southeast Asian countries is less than 5%, with an average of only 2.5%. The e-commerce market has huge potential, and per capita online clothing consumption continues to grow;

Third, the growth of the Chinese market is slowing down, while the overseas market is still in an era of traffic growth dividends. The company wants to seize this opportunity of global consumption upgrade;

Fourth, Semir has strong design, production and sales capabilities and a strong desire to "go global";

5. Building an international brand and providing high-quality products and services to global customers is also in line with Semir E-commerce’s purpose of praising life with fashion.

Single-day GMV on Double 12 reached over 10,000 USD, Semir continues to expand in Southeast Asia

However, although the market dividends are there, Semir and many overseas brands face the same problem: insufficient brand awareness.

Domestic brands will face challenges in terms of brand awareness when entering the international market. Domestic brands are generally not well-known overseas. This means that the "kingdom" they have established in China , the fans they have accumulated, and the brand identity they have cultivated among consumers no longer exist overseas, and everything has to start from scratch.

Under such circumstances, Semir integrated industry resources and optimized the supply chain on the one hand, and made full use of Lazada's support policies on the other hand , gradually gaining popularity in Southeast Asia.

"When brands go overseas, the main problems faced by merchants are unclear market demand. Lazada has provided Semir with a lot of help in terms of market trend transparency , product demand , marketing and advertising methods , private domains and various resources, which enables Semir to quickly and well serve Southeast Asian customers. " A relevant person in charge of Semir said that Lazada provides strong support for domestic brands to go overseas and conducts active brand promotion in Southeast Asia, which is also one of the important reasons why Semir chose this platform.

In addition, Semir's positioning and vertical style are also the key to its success in Southeast Asia. Whether in China or Southeast Asia, Semir has always focused on the vertical style of goods operation, with an overall casual and comfortable style. This is exactly in line with the consumption characteristics of Southeast Asian consumers. In a previous interview, Semir expressed the following views on the demand for clothing by Southeast Asian consumers:

1. The body shape of people in Southeast Asia is similar to that of Chinese people, and is suitable for the style of Semir clothing. We can use a batch of domestic goods and select and sell them in combination with the needs of Southeast Asian consumers;

Second, the weather in Southeast Asia is relatively warm, so there is great demand potential for thin and light models;

3. Southeast Asian clothing is diverse and people’s consumption level is in line with Semir Clothing’s market positioning.

Since Semir entered the Southeast Asian market, it has been advancing all the way. In the just-concluded Double 12 promotion, its single- day GMV exceeded 10,000 US dollars.

On the single day of Double 12, Semir created nearly 10,000 GMV on a single site on the Lazada platform

After Semir entered Lazada , it conducted further market research in six Southeast Asian countries and found that the consumer market demand in Vietnam was more compatible with Semir than in other countries . It decided to make Vietnam the core of its market entry into Southeast Asia . After gaining an in-depth understanding of the Vietnamese market demand , it matched local product demand to Lazada . This is one of the reasons why Semir clothing is so popular in Vietnam.

Currently, Semir's output on Lazada Vietnam accounts for 50% of all sites . In the Double 12 shopping festival, Vietnam was also the best performing site . Not only that, the performance in the first 12 hours exceeded that of Double 11 by 800%, and the number of orders increased by more than 7 times.

In addition, Semir believes that insight into market trends is very important. 2021 is not over yet , but Semir has already had very good market insights into the Vietnamese clothing market in 2022 , and has also clarified the direction of product selection for the new year . Its relevant person in charge said that as the impact of the epidemic decreases, the suppressed consumer desire of the crowd will be greatly released, and the replacement of clothing and the explosive demand for travel will drive a higher growth in clothing demand.

In response to these trends, combined with Southeast Asian market research, Semir has also made corresponding arrangements, including :

1. Increasing investment in the Vietnamese market and setting up local offline stores will be an important direction for Semir. Through the Online To Offline model and combined with online Lazada, Semir will accelerate its development;

Second, in terms of products, Semir will adhere to the vertical e- commerce route, optimize SKUs, and gain differentiated competitive advantages in terms of product strength, channel strength, and brand strength;

3. In the private domain, comprehensively improve the brand’s user retention and new customer acquisition capabilities, reduce operating costs, and improve operating efficiency.

Vietnam is one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in the Asia-Pacific region. According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, in 2020, Vietnam's e-commerce attracted about 53% of the country's population to participate in online shopping, with e-commerce transaction volume increasing by 18% and a market size of US$11.8 billion. It is the only country in Southeast Asia with double-digit growth in e-commerce transaction volume.

According to this development trend, whoever can successfully take root in the Vietnamese e-commerce market will control the wallets of the Vietnamese people.

In addition to clothing, from the category point of view, the editor also learned that the following categories have great development potential in the Vietnamese market :

Fashion category: Pay attention to the fresh Korean style in spring and autumn, and there is a market for spicy, sweet and cool styles for girls.

Maternal and infant product category: Children’s clothing changes with the seasons, heavy and light cross-border goods have great advantages, and the category is growing rapidly.

Beauty and Health Care: Beauty and skin care is the category with the largest sales in Vietnam and the fastest growing cross-border category in 2020.

Household goods: Vietnam has a large number of young people and young families, so there is a strong demand for household goods. Currently, there is a shortage of kitchenware products.

Semir , which uses Vietnam as a breakthrough point in Southeast Asia , will continue to deepen its layout in other Southeast Asian countries so that consumers in Southeast Asia can fall in love with the Semir brand.

It is understood that Lazada 's brand mall LazMall is currently the largest brand mall in Southeast Asia , with more than 32,000 local and international brands and a high -quality consumer population in Southeast Asia . Lazada has also been helping Chinese brands to expand into Southeast Asia, helping Chinese local brands to achieve the transformation of international brands , and making Southeast Asian consumers fall in love with more Chinese brands.

Lazada

Double 12