A county-level city with 43,000 textile and apparel market entities, 1 million cross-border e-commerce daily shipments, and one in every three households engaged in the garment industry—the data released by Tianmen at the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) Circulation Branch meeting in late June gave attendees a visceral sense of the explosive potential of traditional industries riding the dual dividends of coastal industrial transfer and the 'returnee economy.' But what deserves more industry attention is the transformation signal released at this meeting: professional markets are at a critical juncture, shifting from 'selling products and competing on price' to 'creating scenes, content, and experiences.'
The 'Tianmen Sample' of Industrial Clustering
Tianmen is not a traditional textile powerhouse, but by leveraging its overseas Chinese resources and coastal industrial transfer, it has turned textile and apparel into a seed player for a 100-billion-yuan industrial cluster in just a few years. Public data shows that the city now has 43,000 textile and apparel market entities, directly driving 160,000 local jobs, with daily cross-border e-commerce shipments reaching 1 million units. Behind this 'Tianmen phenomenon' is the local government's systematic layout for industrial承接—from land, labor, to logistics channels—creating a strong pull for returning enterprises and entrepreneurs.
For buyers, the Tianmen model means the supply chain is dispersing from traditional high-cost coastal clusters to new inland clusters, offering new options for cost control and capacity flexibility. Meanwhile, the daily 1 million cross-border shipment volume also reflects Tianmen's potential in a flexible and rapid-response supply chain—a signal worth noting for brands focused on delivery time and style updates.
Five Paths Reshaping Circulation Logic
In his work report, CNTAC Circulation Branch President Xu Jianhua analyzed the profound changes facing the industry from three dimensions: demand, supply, and circulation. He pointed out that professional markets must undergo a mindset shift and outlined transformation paths in five directions: strategic height, industrial depth, operational precision, resource breadth, and ecological temperature. Among these, the proposal of six core operational mindsets—user thinking, holistic thinking, data thinking, leverage thinking, process thinking, and refined thinking—provides market managers with concrete tools to transform from 'landlords' to 'operators.'
This means the traditional market model relying solely on rental income is rapidly becoming obsolete. In the future, the core competitiveness of professional markets will depend on their ability to provide value-added services like data empowerment, content creation, and traffic operations. For merchants, when choosing a market, they should evaluate its digital tools and operational organization capabilities in addition to location and rent.
AI Empowerment and Market Practice: From Concept to Implementation
During the themed sharing session, three industry pioneers provided concrete practical directions. The 'dual-wheel drive' model proposed by Shiliuli Particles Intelligent Technology suggests using lightweight AI tools to lower the barrier for merchants in content production, giving management leverage, merchants tools, and the market vibrancy. Changshu Garment City shared its transformation journey from a street market to a 100-billion-yuan professional market. Its 'professional market + live-streaming e-commerce' dual-wheel drive model, along with systematic deployments in offline entities, supporting services, digital platforms, business environment, and cross-border trade, offers a replicable template.
Luokou Garment City's sharing emphasized the importance of deep实体 operations and industry collaboration. Its call for markets to shift from competition to cooperation is practically significant in the current context of overcapacity and intensified homogeneous competition. These three practices point to a common trend: digital technology is no longer a decorative addition but a key infrastructure driving market operational efficiency and merchant survival capabilities.
Four Directions Under Industry Resilience
CNTAC Secretary-General Xia Minfeng provided a macro assessment: total industry exports exceeded $300 billion in 2025, revenue of above-scale enterprises surpassed 4.5 trillion yuan, and domestic market consumption hit a record high. These figures show that despite a complex external environment, the textile and apparel industry's fundamentals remain solid and resilient. However, he emphasized that the dual drivers of technological progress and consumption upgrades are forcing the entire industry to accelerate transformation.
Looking toward the '15th Five-Year Plan,' Xia put forward four requirements for professional markets: comprehensive application of digital technology must be practical and avoid conceptualization; accelerate the shift from leasing management to operational services; strengthen talent team building and attract young people; and promote collaborative development with an open mindset. These four requirements essentially point out the competitive focus for all enterprises in the industrial chain over the next five years—digital capabilities, service-oriented transformation, talent reserves, and ecological collaboration will determine who takes the lead in the upcoming reshuffle.
New Members and Industry Consensus
The meeting also voted to add Guangdong Yimin Garment City, Shantou Intimate Apparel Trading Market, and Baoding Men's Wear Office Building as council members, and welcomed new member units including Tianjin Jinrui, Changchun Changkelong, Harbin Gongxin Technology, and Linhai Transportation Investment Group. The expansion of new members reflects the growing coverage of the Circulation Branch and means more regional markets are being integrated into the industry collaboration framework.
Representatives generally agreed that the meeting systematically presented a panoramic view of the transformation and upgrading of professional markets. From 'questions of the era' to 'market exploration' and 'path mapping,' consensus is forming: the old model relying solely on stall rental has reached its end. Future professional markets must evolve into a circulation ecological platform integrating wholesale and retail, online and offline, domestic and foreign trade, and supply chain coordination.