A new story of a national clothing brand going global | Pioneers in the global market wave
In December 2024, Semir's first store in Malaysia officially opened at 1 UTAMA Shopping Centre, a large commercial complex in Kuala Lumpur. The store is located in a prominent area on the first - floor main passage of the mall, adjacent to international brands such as Mango and Timberland. Less than a month later, Semir opened its second store at Sunway Pyramid Mall. Meanwhile, Balabala, Semir's children's brand, also opened its first store in Malaysia at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.
Balabala's overseas store
The successive openings of the three stores are just a small step in Semir's overseas market expansion over the past decade. To some extent, it can also be seen as a microcosm of Chinese fashion brands going global. Over the past 30 years, a group of Chinese fashion brands represented by Semir have experienced the "golden decade" of offline business at the turn of the century and survived the fierce competition in the e - commerce era. Now, facing the sluggish and highly competitive domestic market, they are turning their eyes overseas and considering going global as a necessary option to drive growth.
On this increasingly crowded track, white - label merchants rely on the growth dividends of e - commerce platforms such as the "Four Asian Tigers" to "exchange price for volume", while brand enterprises have a longer - term vision. They hope to participate in the global fashion industry competition and achieve the leap to a "global brand" through this wave of going global.
Relying on the precipitation of the domestic supply chain and industry understanding, Semir adopts a regional strategy of focusing on Southeast Asia, actively expanding in the Middle East, and "breaking into" Europe and the United States, and explores new growth paths suitable for the overseas market through a multi - channel model of "direct - operated full - scale layout + cooperation with agents".
1. Deeply cultivate Southeast Asia and the Middle East, break into Europe and the United States
In April 2023, Semir Clothing officially established its overseas business department and held its first overseas agent customer meeting in September.
In fact, 10 years before that, Semir had been continuously exploring internationalization. It first established cooperation with agents in Europe, the Middle East and other places by participating in exhibitions. In February 2017, Balabala's first overseas store opened in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.
In 2018, Semir set up a company in Hong Kong, China, and began to explore the overseas direct - operation model. In 2020, Semir extended its reach to Southeast Asia. In November of that year, Balabala's first store in Vietnam opened in Hanoi.
The financial report shows that as of the end of 2024, the two major brands, Semir and Balabala, had entered 15 countries and regions around the world, and the number of stores outside the Chinese mainland (including Hong Kong, China and overseas) exceeded 100. Among them, more than 30 new stores were opened in 2024, mainly covering regions such as Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mongolia and Jordan.
Due to the similarity in social and cultural environment and lifestyle, Southeast Asia has always been the preferred destination for Chinese fashion brands to go global. Chen Shu, the person in charge of overseas digital business and market, introduced that Southeast Asia is also Semir's key overseas market at present. "After all, Southeast Asia belongs to Asia. When Chinese high - quality products go global, the cultural barriers, aesthetic barriers and physical barriers are not so high."
In 2023, Semir launched a brand transformation, shifting from being a "Chinese version of ZARA" to focusing on family scenarios, and the target customer group also changed from "post - 95s young people" to "Chinese general families". This brand positioning has also been extended overseas. Semir's first store at Aeon Mall in Hue, Vietnam, features the "Family Concept", providing one - stop shopping solutions for family members of different ages.
Judging from the results, Semir's development in Vietnam has been the most successful so far. Chen Shu believes that "We entered the Vietnamese market relatively early and have accumulated some resources. Vietnamese consumers also have a relatively high acceptance of our products, so we have achieved rapid offline development." At present, Balabala has 9 stores in Vietnam, and Semir has at least 2. In order to better cultivate the local market in Vietnam, in 2024, Semir upgraded the management system in Vietnam to a regional manager system.
In addition to Vietnam, Semir's main operating markets in Asia also include countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. In smaller markets such as Laos, Nepal and Cambodia, it mainly cooperates with agents for product sales and brand marketing.
Most families in the "wealthy countries" in the Middle East have multiple children. The high birth rate has led to a very strong demand for children's products. Therefore, it is also an emerging market where Semir has made key investments, mainly relying on cooperation with large local agents. At present, it has opened offline stores in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
"The English proficiency rate in Middle Eastern countries is not particularly high. The local resources of local agents, including the buying team and the display team, can provide us with a lot of support in return, and they are also better at communicating with local consumers. For us, this market expansion method is more efficient at present and can also avoid detours." Chen Shu explained.
In the highly mature European and American markets with numerous international brands, at present, Semir mainly conducts market tests through online e - commerce platforms and cooperates with e - commerce platforms to expand the market. Compared with international giants such as Nike, Semir's advantage lies in having a professional children's clothing brand like Balabala, with deeper product accumulation in understanding children's users and consumption scenarios.
2. Direct - operated full - scale layout, agents to expand resources
Chen Shu told us that Semir adopts different channel expansion strategies in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe and the United States, mainly based on the characteristics and advantages of different channels.
The advantage of the online channel is that the market expansion cost is lower. It can quickly reach consumers around the world through cross - border e - commerce platforms such as Amazon and SHEIN. In 2024, Semir's two major brands covered more than 130 national markets around the world through the online channel, with annual brand exposure exceeding 2.5 billion times. The online revenue increased by more than 80% year - on - year, and the overall growth rate reached 300%.
For example, in Southeast Asia, Semir has been on cross - border e - commerce platforms such as Lazada since 2017. According to Lazada data, in the 2023 Lazada Mega promotion, Semir ranked among the top in the platform's clothing category. The sales of the children's clothing brand Balabala on Shopee have also increased rapidly.
The brand can also rely on the natural digital capabilities of the online channel to conduct product tests, and the trial - and - error cost is much lower than that of offline stores. "We will quickly collect sales data from e - commerce platforms to understand the dressing tastes of consumers in different markets, test consumers' acceptance of products, and whether the style and size need to be adjusted." Chen Shu said.
However, the drawback of the online channel is that it is difficult to form in - depth brand awareness. That is to say, it takes longer for consumers to form a cognitive and then an approval of the brand's visual style and product quality just through online shopping. Moreover, the cost of online marketing for brands is higher, and the reach efficiency is not as good as offline activities.
Therefore, offline stores are also a key channel for Semir's layout in the overseas market. "If you want to have a clearer perception of the market, you need to have in - depth communication and relationship maintenance with consumers, which can only be achieved through offline channels." Chen Shu introduced that at present, Semir's overseas business department headquarters has more than 50 full - time employees with multi - language abilities, providing operational support such as store design, operation training, purchasing guidance and marketing advice to overseas direct - operated stores.
"We found that products that are relatively popular in China will be more high - end in the Vietnamese or Malaysian markets." Chen Shu explained that Semir mainly chooses to build benchmark stores in top business districts in the Southeast Asian market to build a relatively high - end brand image. And the sufficient passenger flow in top business districts can also help the brand test consumers' preferences in terms of styles and price ranges.
Local agents, including Chinese businessmen who have been deeply involved in the local area for many years, can be an important means for enterprises to understand and adapt to the local market in the early stage of entering the market, helping the brand quickly obtain local resource support and thus achieve rapid expansion. In February 2025, Semir Clothing's overseas business department held an overseas targeted investment promotion negotiation meeting, showing the overseas development strategy, target plan and key elements for the new year, hoping to further expand the international market through investment cooperation.
3. In - depth insight, keep up with changes, differential supply
Over the past decade, the overseas image of Chinese brands has changed from "cheap OEM" to "innovation - driven". The "2024 China Globalization Brand Report" shows that 75% of overseas consumers choose Chinese brands because of factors other than price, such as brand trust, brand awareness, demand satisfaction, trendy fashion and quality.
Under this trend, Semir did not choose to "start from scratch" overseas, but let its domestic original brands go global. "Semir and Balabala are both well - established brands in China for more than 20 years, and the entire value chain from product R & D to brand marketing is already very mature. China has a vast territory, and the complexity of climate conditions, wearing needs and consumption levels in different regions is not lower than that in overseas regions." Chen Shu said.
Original brands going global will inevitably face the implicit barriers of cultural differences. Therefore, Chen Shu believes that the brand needs to timely insight into the changes in local market trends and consumption habits and make targeted adjustments continuously. For this reason, Semir Clothing's overseas business department has established its own merchandise planning and buying team, which regularly conducts research and inspections in overseas markets.
For example, in the Middle Eastern market, in the early years, due to the relatively conservative social culture, female models in advertising posters could not show their faces. However, the Semir team noticed that as the internationalization level of countries such as Saudi Arabia increases, the freedom of business marketing is gradually increasing. By timely capturing the changes in marketing trends, the brand can seize the opportunity and achieve better marketing results without offending local culture.
For Semir, the target populations and population portraits in different overseas markets vary greatly. It is necessary to form in - depth consumer insights through data analysis, consumer interviews or customer feedback, and then select suitable products from the brand's overall product portfolio to build a differential market supply. For example, in the Middle East, for important traditional festivals such as Ramadan, Semir will develop and launch special product series according to local festival customs, from product styles and color schemes to the visual expression of model photos.
Semir's best - selling products in the Middle Eastern market
In terms of wearing scenarios, Semir found that Middle Eastern women mainly wear black robes in public, so family gatherings have become an important scenario to express fashion taste and show themselves, with a high demand for new products.
In order to achieve an efficient match between the overall product portfolio and overseas differential markets, Semir adopts an organizational model of 'headquarters cooperation with regional functional personnel', with the headquarters overall controlling the brand tone and the regional functional personnel implementing it. To prevent risks caused by cultural differences from damaging the brand image, the headquarters also controls overseas marketing content.
"What Semir wants to do is to globalize the brand and achieve a certain influence and market scale." Chen Shu said.