In June 2026, the national textile and apparel professional market sentiment index posted a modest recovery after months of hovering near the boom-bust line, but the divergence between market-level and merchant-level indicators remains pronounced. The manager sentiment index rose 0.43 points month-on-month to 49.78, while the merchant sentiment index crossed the 50-threshold to 50.07, up 0.34 points. The signal from these data is clear: the overall operating environment is improving, but micro-level profit recovery still has a way to go.
Market Operations: Foot Traffic and Store Openings Recover
From the manager-side sub-indices, the total business volume index held steady at 49.03 in June, indicating no significant expansion in overall transaction scale. However, the logistics shipment volume index and foot traffic index both rose 0.64 points to 49.03, and the store opening rate index edged up 0.32 points to 49.35. These changes suggest that actual in-store traffic and goods turnover are recovering, and the increase in store openings signals that merchants' short-term confidence is strengthening. The rental index also rose 0.33 points to 50.65, confirming the stability of basic market operations.
Notably, the e-commerce sales index at the manager level reached 51.61, up 0.64 points month-on-month and consistently above the boom-bust line. This indicates that offline professional markets are not solely reliant on traditional foot traffic; online channels are becoming an important incremental source, especially for wholesale-oriented merchants who are increasingly leveraging e-commerce penetration.
Merchant Side: Sales Recover but Profitability Remains Under Pressure
Compared with the manager side, merchant-side data presents a more complex picture. The merchant sales volume index rebounded to 50.14 in June, up 1.03 points month-on-month, returning to expansion territory. However, the average selling price index fell 0.22 points to 49.30, and the profitability index, despite rising 0.89 points from the previous month, remained in contraction territory at 49.86. This set of data reveals a key contradiction: sales are growing, but prices and profits are being squeezed.
The deeper reason lies in costs. The comprehensive cost index fell 0.19 points to 50.63, still above the boom-bust line, but the downward trend implies increasing cost pressure on merchants. The inventory index rose 0.21 points to 50.00, indicating slight easing of inventory pressure but still balanced overall. Structurally, 18.18% of merchants reported declining sales, 19.58% saw falling profits, and 18.88% were forced to cut prices—all these proportions increased month-on-month, confirming the reality of intensified competition and narrowing profit margins.
E-commerce Channel: The Certainty of a New Growth Engine
The brightest spot in June's data is e-commerce sales. At the manager level, 22.58% of professional markets reported increased e-commerce sales, up 6.45 percentage points from the previous month; at the merchant level, 9.79% of merchants saw e-commerce sales growth, with the share rising 8.42 percentage points month-on-month. Both e-commerce sales indices are stable above 50, with notable gains.
The industry implication of this trend is that traditional textile and apparel wholesale markets are accelerating the integration of online and offline channels. For buyers, this means more diversified sourcing channels in the future, without full reliance on physical visits. For market managers, e-commerce infrastructure has become a key competitive factor in attracting tenants and maintaining rental levels.
Outlook: Confidence Recovery but Divergence Needs Attention
Forward-looking indicators show that managers' expectation index for July stands at 50.32, down 2.91 points from June, while merchants' expectation index for July is 50.84, up 0.70 points month-on-month. The divergence suggests that managers remain cautious about overall market heat, while frontline merchants are more optimistic about the short term due to improved sales.
Overall, the June 2026 sentiment data paints a picture of 'stabilizing aggregates with structural divergence.' Foot traffic and store openings are recovering, e-commerce is emerging as a key growth driver, but merchant profitability is lagging behind sales growth. For industry participants, the next priority is not scale expansion but refined operations and cost control.