On the same list as SHEIN, the dark horse in the sub-category is quietly making a fortune!

Although most sellers reported that their business conditions were weakening and their sales targets were not met, there were still some leading companies sweeping overseas and delivering outstanding results.

In the "2023Q3 TOP30 E-commerce Overseas Brand Social Media Influence List" released by OneSight, not only well-known leaders such as SHEIN and Anker are leading the way, but also nearly ten brands in the clothing category have entered the list.

They are either the new darlings of capital, or have become Top+, or hold up half of the sky in the subdivided clothing category. They frequently create popular brands, their popularity overseas remains high, and foreigners are crazy about them. A group of brand merchants who simply sell goods are making a fortune in silence .

The overseas market is changing rapidly. Some brands are being eliminated, while many are emerging . How do these leading brands stand out in the overseas market? How do the new and rising brands break through the siege?

This article starts with the 7 niche clothing brands on the list and analyzes the secrets to success of the best ones.

SHEIN leads the way, and a group of fast fashion brands are rising overseas

The characteristics of the clothing market, such as high profits, large market, and low barriers to entry, once attracted a large number of sellers to enter the cross-border market. With SHEIN as a role model, many domestic clothing brands are also trying to replicate its success. Today, the popularity of this category has not faded as the market cools down. After years of intensive cultivation, some clothing brands have become more and more stable in their overseas markets.

In the " 2023Q3 TOP30 E-commerce Overseas Brands Social Media Influence List", SHEIN still leads all sellers with the first place. After SHEIN, fast fashion brands including Cider, ZAFUL, Commense, etc. are also on the rise.

Cider : A unicorn with a value of over $1 billion, a competitor to SHEIN

A fast fashion women's clothing brand favored by capital (ranked 16th on the list), affiliated to Beijing Lizhi and Mango Technology Co., Ltd.

Founded in 2020, Cider may seem young, but it is actually a strong dark horse. Within one year of its establishment, it completed four rounds of financing, with investors mostly from top investment companies such as IDG Capital and A16Z. Its current valuation has exceeded US$1 billion, making it one of the fastest companies in the world to join the ranks of unicorns.

Cider's founder is not just a nobody , as it has strong investor backgrounds . Its founder, Wang Chen, has many years of VC experience in investment banks and served as COO of clothing rental platforms. He is very familiar with industry market strategies, supply chain systems, and Internet gameplay. This may be one of the reasons why Cider has the highest reputation among all fast fashion brands going global.

Although it is competing with SHEIN, Cider 's approach is not exactly the same as SHEIN's. The website does not have a large discount promotion section, and the product pictures and model pictures are mostly carefully designed. Cider aims to make affordable and popular fashion women's clothing, mainly in the Instagram style, but the price (mostly between US$20-50) is slightly higher than SHEIN (US$10-20).

With a customer spending price far lower than that of the leading brands in the American fashion industry , bold retro designs, and a product line differentiated by "inspiration" , Cider has quickly captured the wardrobes of Generation Z women in Europe and the United States .

"A top costs $10, a skirt costs $20..." On overseas social media such as TikTok, Cider has become a favorite of many bloggers who frequently promote it. The videos they share their experience of trying on Cider have received extremely high click-through rates, which has sparked a " Cider " craze in Europe and the United States.

In order to satisfy the younger generation's sense of brand identity, Cider has also established an open community , Cidergang, to encourage consumers to post their own outfits, chat and exchange ideas, and make suggestions on product design. Currently, Cidergang has an average daily pageview of more than 1.8 million times.

Cider, known as the successor of SHEIN, has many similarities with its supply chain production model. In other words, the real-time retail model created by SHEIN has become the standard for overseas companies. The two companies have similarities in aspects such as "fashion buyers + algorithms" product selection, deep binding with factories, designers using platform sales and feedback to create hot products, and an average cycle of only 7 days from design to production of new products.

However, Cider has also made further progress in integrating the digital supply chain, becoming more sophisticated. It has established a digital supply chain to provide feedback on styles to factories; it has adopted a pre-sale method on the sales side, striving to achieve zero inventory. At the same time, it will also monitor community interactions and store sales to create guidelines for selection and preferential prices.

Although Cider is far inferior to SHEIN in terms of size and market sedimentation, its future possibilities are also being watched by more people.

ZAFUL : On par with SHEIN, the dark horse in the fast fashion industry

This fast fashion brand, which started out as a swimwear brand (ranked 21st on the list), is affiliated to Shenzhen SAFU Commercial Co., Ltd.

When talking about ZAFUL, many people will think of Cross-border E-commerce. Among all its subsidiaries, ZAFUL is a rare one that has maintained profitability. It is also one of the few subsidiaries that can replace Global Easy Shopping and become the new pillar of Cross-border E-commerce. With a good starting point + high potential + backed by Global Easy Shopping, ZAFUL has developed rapidly, and its position in its heyday was even better than SHEIN.

Data from March 2018 showed that ZAFUL's monthly traffic (28.70M) and monthly page views (16.43M) were better than SHEIN's, and it was also listed together with SHEIN in the "BrandZ Top 50 Chinese Overseas Brands".

Even after the decline and divestiture of Global Easybuy, ZAFUL has never been absent from the "Annual BrandZ Top 50 Chinese Global Brands" and is generally regarded by industry insiders as a strong opponent that can compete with SHEIN, which is enough to show ZAFUL's status in the cross-border circle.

In 2014, ZAFUL entered the European and American markets with swimwear as its breakthrough point. With the supply chain advantages of Huludao and original designs accounting for more than 80%, and the frequency of launching new products nearly 100 pieces per day, ZAFUL has combined various advantages to penetrate the European and American youth market with swimwear, a fast-moving consumable product with a short update cycle, large profit margins, and suitable for social media marketing.

ZAFUL, with its strong Instagram style, is good at launching products that are cost-effective, good-looking, in line with trends and consumer preferences. After more than a year of its independent website being online, ZAFUL has accumulated millions of fans on various social media platforms.

After years of accumulation and sedimentation, ZAFUL has transformed into an independent brand focusing on fast fashion women's clothing, and has also established a solid brand moat.

With a pool of nearly 100,000 online celebrities, incubating its own live broadcasts by amateurs, and the coordinated development of the contract model, ZAFUL has created private domain traffic for it while also allowing its brand to be spread to the extreme. Offline, ZAFUL will also cultivate potential audiences by participating in a series of university activities and fashion weeks, strengthen brand tone, and enhance premium capabilities.

As of the end of 2020, ZAFUL has more than 50 million registered users worldwide and more than 10 million monthly active users. However, after being separated from Global Easy Shopping, ZAFUL's traffic has been in a state of gradual decline. As of the first half of this year, ZAFUL's average monthly active users were only 4.82 million, and the number of online SKUs was 106,800. Its revenue data is also disappointing. From the previous cross-border export business, to the revenue of 249 million yuan in the first half of this year, it suffered a loss of 15.61 million yuan.

It is an indisputable fact that ZAFUL is not making good profits at present , but this does not prevent sellers from having high expectations for it. After a series of integrations and reorganizations, ZAFUL may have a more prosperous future after getting rid of its burdens.

Cupshe: Becomes the No.1 swimwear sales in North America

The swimwear brand that is extremely popular in North America and sells well all over the world (ranked 22nd on the list) is affiliated to Nanjing Capesi Network Technology Co., Ltd.

From obscurity to a blockbuster in the North American market, Cupshe, founded in 2017, has become the No. 1 swimwear sales brand in the North American market and is sold well in many countries around the world, breaking the situation where there are no Chinese brands among the world's top swimwear brands.

Many people regard Cupshe as the SHEIN of the swimming track. However, Cupshe initially targeted not the swimwear category, but a fast fashion website that sells all kinds of women's clothing. However, the grocery store model did not have much effect. After a year of exploration, Cupshe set its sights on the swimwear market segment with greater potential. Through precise brand positioning and unique product design, Cupshe, which focuses on high cost-effectiveness (the average price of swimwear is 20-30 US dollars), became a hit.

However, it is well known that the competition in the swimwear market segment is fierce. In order to expand its market share and increase brand awareness, Cupshe has once again explored the market segment and focused its attention on plus-size swimwear, directly addressing consumers' pain points and making Cupshe the leader in the plus-size swimwear market.

In the following years, Cupshe expanded at a rate of 200%, using swimwear as a spear to successfully break into the fast fashion market, and the categories of its independent site gradually covered various categories of women's clothing such as handbags and hats.

On the road to going global, Cupshe did not take a single-plank bridge, but adopted a parallel model of independent websites (70%) and Amazon (30%). On Amazon, Cupshe has won the Amazon swimwear category Bestseller many times and has become a first-tier brand in the swimwear category on Amazon. However, in comparison, it is obvious that Cupshe pays more attention to the independent website, and the product price is basically about $5 lower than Amazon. Amazon is more of a channel for its product clearance, and the price of old models is lower.

Like many fast fashion brands, Cupshe has also fully utilized its inherent advantages in social media promotion, and has deployed channels such as Facebook and YouTube, achieving brand exposure and secondary dissemination through KOL marketing and UGC. The brand concept promoted by Cupshe has been recognized by more consumers.

With a clear brand positioning and a diversified social media matrix, Cupshe is advancing faster and faster overseas.

In 2019, Cupshe became one of the top 100 Chinese import and export cross-border brands; in 2020, it was named one of the top 15 most promising global brands in China by Google Brand Z; in 2021, it received over 100 million yuan in financing from Jiayu Fund, and its net sales exceeded 170 million US dollars in 2022; to date, Cupshe has grown into a globally-renowned comprehensive fast fashion brand.

Never standing still, and taking the initiative to attack new categories, it is worth looking forward to whether Cupshe will become the SHEIN of the swimwear industry in the future.

Commense : A fast fashion brand that doesn’t pursue novelty or speed

A unique women's DTC fast fashion brand (ranked 19th on the list), it is affiliated to Beijing Xinchao Unlimited Technology Co., Ltd.

At a time when fast fashion is reaching new heights overseas, Commense, founded in 2021, still broke through the siege and made the list for the first time. Many people may not know much about Commense , but its affiliated company Xinchao Wuxian is quite well-known. Most of its members come from leading Internet companies such as ByteDance, and the company's first round of financing was also led by ByteDance and Sequoia Capital.

Unlike some of the small-order quick-reply models that copy SHEIN, the Commense website does not have many promotional activities and product categories. Its product categories are very brief, with only tops, summer clothes, dresses and other products listed separately. Under the clothing category, evening dresses and holiday dresses are also listed specifically, with special trial scenes attached.

It can be seen that Commense 's target users are professional women with certain purchasing power, who have a stronger sense of fashion and scene requirements. Perhaps to cater to this class, Commense 's website product images mostly use solid color backgrounds, using concise visual expressions to highlight the higher positioning of the products, and to emphasize the brand's voice and product quality.

In terms of product promotion, Commense pays more attention to the spiritual communication with consumers. Its most frequently published and popular posts are mostly plain backgrounds and clear text. This quality and emotional approach has also promoted the success of its brand and made it stand out in the fiercely competitive market.

Although Commense does not display much data in public information, it does not prevent Commense from being known to the public. Entering the list is the best proof of its strength.

Dark horses are rising, and these brands are seizing the opportunity

In the cross-border track, clothing is a red ocean field where competition is fierce, but there are always some sellers who can seize opportunities in the segmented track, such as home clothing. Clothing brands including Avidlove and Lilysilk under Savi are well-known overseas, and they can even often be seen in the top positions of Amazon BSR segmented categories.

Avidlove : An underwear brand that dominates the BSR list and has sales exceeding 1.5 billion

A popular underwear brand (newly listed at No. 14), affiliated to Savi Times.

When talking about Savi Times, more people describe it as a brand incubator that has a strong supply chain and frequently creates popular brands. The collaboration of dozens of brands with revenue exceeding 100 million yuan is also helping Savi Times to carve out more market share on Amazon.

Avidlove is one of the more successful brands under Savitime, and its main products are sexy lingerie. On Amazon, many of Avidlove's sexy lingerie products are listed on the homepage, and many of these products have multiple BSR links. If you pick out any listing, the number of reviews is over 10,000, which is enough to show the strength of the product in the category.

On the official website, Avidlove uses sexy and hot pictures to directly show users, and emphasizes consumers' self-expression through hashtags such as #babydoll and #girlpower. Knowing that consumers prefer underwear brands to convey a kind of size inclusiveness, Avidlove has launched many underwear products that can still make plus-size girls look beautiful.

Not only that, Avidlove also publishes attractive copywriting + beautiful product photos on social platforms, and inserts product purchase links to increase traffic and sales conversion. In the social matrix, Avidlove sets up groups, divided into public and private groups, to attract consumers who are in the wait-and-see stage and the core circle.

Looking at the sexy lingerie market, not only Savi Times is staying, but also SHEIN and other big brands are pouring in. What attracts them is nothing more than the high gross profit margin. In traditional channels, the gross profit margin of adult products from the factory to the final delivery to the customer is maintained at 100%, while in e-commerce channels, even if there is fierce bidding between sellers, the gross profit margin can be maintained at more than 50%.

With its own research and the promotion of social media, Avidlove may have more possibilities in the future.

Lilysilk: A billion-dollar brand that supports half of the apparel category

It ranks first among DTC silk brands (ranked 18th on the list ) and is affiliated to Nanjing Best Network Technology Co., Ltd.

Lilysilk has carved out a path for itself by avoiding the red ocean dominated by fashion giants such as SHEIN and looking for opportunities in niche categories.

Relying on the supply chain of Chinese silk, Lilysilk created a mid-to-high-end silk brand exported overseas in 2010, focusing on silk shirts, silk dresses, silk pajamas, etc. It uses the DTC model to directly link domestic manufacturers and overseas consumers, eliminating middlemen.

As we all know, silk is expensive. Consumers who can afford such products are usually middle- and high-income earners with certain financial strength and are willing to pay a higher price for high-quality silk. Lilysilk has set its target group at female consumers aged 35-54, and the average price of its products is set at US$50-200.

In order to better serve this class of consumers, Lilysilk built its own factories, improved fabrics, and even developed ERP and other systems to optimize the flexible supply chain.

While improving its product line, Lilysilk has also reaped great rewards. In 2020, it was named one of the top 15 most promising global brands in China by BrandZ; in 2022, it completed a round of A+ financing of tens of millions of RMB led by Nut Capital and followed by Jiacheng Capital . With silk products, Lilysilk's annual gross profit margin can increase by 131%.

Social media marketing is a problem that almost all brands will encounter when going overseas, and Lilysilk is no exception.

Different marketing contents are divided according to different channels. On Facebook and Instagram, two platforms most loved by silk lovers, Lilysilk focuses on releasing new products and event promotions with strong timeliness; on TikTok , Lilysilk tends to release general entertainment and general knowledge content about silk product maintenance and other popular science content; on YouTube, it cooperates deeply with bloggers in related fields to do word-of-mouth marketing.

By taking a different path and avoiding the red ocean market, sellers may be able to find new opportunities of their own.

E kouaer: A leader in plus-size brands

A billion-level homewear brand focusing on large sizes (newly listed 25), affiliated to Savi Times.

Different from Avidlove, Ekouaer is positioned as home wear, and uses videos to show the comfortable wearing experience of home wear. Models of different races and skin colors will be shown in its product pictures. In the trial of some post topic tags, Ekouaer emphasizes the brand word #ekouaer to guide consumers' loyalty and recognition of the brand.

The United States is the world's largest underwear consumption market. It is not difficult to see the potential of this market as Savi Era has created two major brands to target this market.

However, there are bound to be problems with acclimatization on the way to overseas markets. Europeans and Americans are tall and strong, and their sizes are larger than those of Asians; Indonesia needs to sell clothing that conforms to the local Muslim culture, while hot Thailand needs to pay attention to the breathability and sweat absorption of clothing fabrics; Japan needs to consider the style, design and fabric preferences of home clothes.

At this time, it is very important to develop and upgrade products based on market feedback and to quickly realize product updates and iterations. Savi Times is able to understand the habits of many countries, which shows that it has put in a lot of effort.

While the overseas market is booming, it also contains many opportunities. Although the clothing category is a red ocean market, there are still opportunities.

If sellers want to pry open the door to the clothing category in the European and American markets, they need to find opportunities in the segmented markets, learn from the experience of their predecessors, think about it, develop a strategy suitable for their own products, build their own moat, and achieve a gorgeous transformation!

SHEIN

Cider

Overseas Brands