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In recent years, China's textile exports have a good development trend, and the export volume has increased year by year, and now accounts for 1/4 of the world's total textile exports. According to statistics, from 2001 to 2018, my country's textile industry's foreign trade grew rapidly in the traditional market and the'Belt and Road' market, with an increase of 179 percent. China's important position in the textile and apparel supply chain in Asia and the world has been further consolidated." A few days ago, Alibaba International Station released the "Alibaba International Station Fabric Industry Cross-border E-commerce Development Report".

Based on the latest data on Alibaba International Station, the report provides a detailed interpretation of the data performance of the fabric industry on Alibaba International Station, hot search keywords of products, and the distribution of popular export countries and merchants, providing reference for the vast number of fabric enterprises to expand the global fabric market through cross-border e-commerce platforms.

　　Fabric industry foreign trade opportunities highlighted

It is understood that buyers on Alibaba International Station mainly come from the United States, India, Russia and other countries, accounting for 60% of the total traffic. The overall quality and product prices of buyers in these countries are relatively high quality, which is good for fabric export enterprises. It is worth noting that from the perspective of growth trends, the order volume of countries along the "Belt and Road" such as India, Thailand, and Malaysia has grown rapidly, occupying the forefront of the list of potential countries.

"Vietnam is still the largest export market for our textiles, accounting for 9% of our total textile exports and 10% of the total export value. Southeast Asia has become the main export market for our printed and dyed fabrics." According to Wang Mingzhou, an operation expert at Alibaba International Station, although garment processing plants in Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia in Southeast Asia, as well as India and Bangladesh in South Asia, have sprung up everywhere, their fabric self-sufficiency rate is seriously insufficient and they need to rely heavily on imports. China's fabric production is not only the world's first in terms of scale output, but also the world's top product quality level. It is the first choice for fabric imports from Southeast Asian countries, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Therefore, the foreign trade opportunities of the fabric market appear.

Wang Mingzhou pointed out: "From the perspective of the industry characteristics of the fabric industry on Alibaba International Station, at present, fabrics and related products perform well on the platform, the market scale is large and maintains rapid growth, and buyers re-purchase is common, but the platform provides fabrics The number of product suppliers is insufficient, showing a huge market demand, this will also bring new opportunities for Chinese fabric enterprises to expand the global market through cross-border e-commerce."

Data for the past 12 months show that the number of buyers per customer and the number of inquiries per customer in the fabric industry are on the rise. Thanks to the further introduction of overseas traffic at Alibaba International Station's March New Trade Festival, the average customer inquiry volume in the platform fabric industry has risen rapidly since March 2019 and has remained quite hot since then.

　　Environmentally friendly functional fabrics are favored

What products are most popular with foreign investors? The search volume is the largest? I believe this is the most fabric foreign trade practitioners are most concerned about the problem. The report shows that polyester products and cotton products are the most concentrated in the sub-categories of the fabric industry, accounting for 43% and 27% respectively. Hemp products are increasingly favored by buyers due to environmental protection and sustainability, with the first growth rate in the sub-categories. Carbon fiber, mainly used in backpacks, followed closely behind.

In terms of platform hot search words, cotton fabrics (plain cloth, sweat cloth, printed batik) and polyester products (lace fabric, peach skin velvet, sports knitted fabric, etc.) accounted for 55% of the search volume. However, lace fabric, African batik and foam dyeing have the highest search popularity on the platform, with 157, 110 and 87% respectively.

According to the buyer's portrait and behavior analysis of Alibaba International Station, fabrics will pay more and more attention to the two themes of renewable environmental protection and functionality. The variety of fabrics will continue to be subdivided, and there will be more and more types of fabrics in specific scenarios, such as yoga pants fabrics, beach pants fabrics, etc., rather than simply staying in the traditional sense of weaving and knitting.

"Today, orders from foreign companies in China will have clear requirements on the content of renewable resources in raw materials. What companies need to do is not only to meet the current market demand, but also to reserve new technologies so that they can launch their own 'secret weapons' in a timely manner in the future based on market developments. Chinese fabric companies should make full use of the international platform to seize the dividends of fabrics going to sea." Wang Mingzhou said.

　　Grasp the real data and do a good job in market prediction.

Although the current situation of my country's fabric market is stable and improving, global trade growth is still weak, domestic labor costs continue to be high, and trade protectionism in some countries has become more prominent. Unprecedented pressures and difficulties continue to increase. Foreign relief measures and trade barriers for China's textile and garment trade are increasing day by day, and the external situation of textile and garment trade is becoming more and more serious. The international market is more weak, textile and clothing exports are blocked, the market pessimism is strong, the international textile market is still cold.

"Enterprises need to grasp the real data situation of the market in order to have a certain advance judgment on their own operations." Wang Mingzhou said that because of the high cost of on-site investigation, many fabric enterprises do not know enough about the export market, and the information of enterprises is asymmetric, so it is easy to be in a hurry to choose goods and regions for export. Due to the poor ability to take risks, small and medium-sized fabric enterprises should be more cautious.

In this regard, he gave his own suggestions. At present, the main flow of fabrics is obviously polarized: for example, emerging markets such as Bangladesh and Vietnam have a large amount of products, but the added value of products is relatively low, mainly clothing fabrics; while Western Europe, the United States The market demand in other countries is mainly based on high-end fabrics such as wool blends, silk, and functional fabrics, with high added value and high unit prices.

Regarding the future of the fabric industry, Wang Mingzhou said that in the face of the huge business opportunities in fabric exports, Chinese companies must practice their internal skills, maintain a sense of crisis, and have the courage to open up new markets. They can go to Bangladesh, Vietnam, and even Africa to find new opportunities. Reduce the risks brought by trade frictions with Europe and the United States. At the same time, enterprises should pay attention to product research and development and after-sales service, and continuously improve the added value of products through product upgrading and research and development.

(Source: China Textile News)