“Homemade” clothing enters China’s e-commerce market

Japanese Onward Holdings and Laox announced on the 22nd that they will jointly invest in the establishment of a new company to design and sell clothing, mainly selling “Made in Japan” products to Chinese consumers. Onward uses Laox’s domestic duty-free stores in Japan and online stores in China as sales channels, and taking into account the strong market demand of the Chinese middle class, it is expected to achieve sales of 20 billion yen within three years.
It is reported that the new company has a total capital of 400 million yen, of which Onward holds 51% of the shares and Laox contributes 49%. The company is headquartered in Tokyo. It mainly studies the preferences of Chinese people to jointly develop products and begins discussions to create new brands.
The products will be sold first in China’s online mall in September, and will also be sold in Laox stores in Japan later. Because there is a high demand for high-quality clothing in Japan, we are now considering selling it in other Asian countries.
Laox began participating in the production and sales of Japanese clothing brands in June this year, and will acquire some women’s shoe manufacturing companies in July to further strengthen its ties with the fashion industry. Clothing currently only accounts for a few percentage points of total sales, but Laox’s president Luo Yiwen said the goal will be more than 10%. Laox’s original resources, coupled with Onward’s product planning, raw material deployment, and the cooperation of domestic sewing factories, the products will continue to be enriched.
For Onward, the development of the Chinese market is a major operational problem. At the same time, the depreciation of the yen and rising personnel costs in China have also led to an increase in manufacturing costs. Although physical stores of “District 23” and other youth-oriented brands have been opened in China before, most of them were forced to close due to losses. In addition, affected by China’s “thrift order”, store sales in department stores were once struggling. . Although the “23 District” flagship store in Ginza, Tokyo, was crowded with Chinese tourists during the Spring Festival, it can hardly be said that the group as a whole successfully attracted customers. Therefore, this cooperation also hopes to use Laox to attract customers among Chinese tourists. High visibility opens sales channels.
Onward’s cooperation with Laox this time can be considered as a formal participation in e-commerce in the Chinese market. Onward Holdings’ President Michio Hoshimoto pointed out: “In the future, it is possible for Onward’s existing business units in China to cooperate with new companies.” Taking this cooperation as an opportunity, Onward plans to quickly expand into the rapidly expanding Chinese e-commerce market.