On Dongsheng Road in Keqiao China Textile City, the outdoor fabric specialty zone is becoming a window into the industry's upgrade. A striking contrast: while conventional fabrics face shrinking margins, premium fabrics maintain unit prices between 100-600 RMB with growing orders. Behind this polarization are merchants like Haoli Textile, using dual-brand strategy and digital tools to carve out differentiation in a red ocean.
Background
Haoli's trajectory began with Qiting, launched in 2013 and registered in 2014, initially operating in the East Market with a focus on school uniform base fabrics. Solid quality control built a stable customer base. But in 2018, intensifying competition squeezed profits in conventional fabrics, prompting a strategic pivot: one track toward functional outdoor fabrics, another creating Haoli Textile to target high-end business menswear, forming a dual-brand structure.
This is not simple diversification. Qiting, as one of the first tenants in Dongsheng Road's Phase I outdoor functional fabric area, retained its existing customer base; Haoli opened an independent stall in Phase II, targeting designers and brand buyers with demanding requirements for patterns and texture. The concentration of quality brands, e-commerce sellers, and designers in the Dongsheng Road area provides an ideal clientele, with notably higher order conversion than the mass market.
Industry Impact
Haoli's product strategy deserves scrutiny. Using pure natural fibers like wool, silk, and lyocell, and coloring exclusively through plant extraction rather than chemical dyes, the brand aligns with environmental trends while anchoring prices in the 100-600 RMB range, deliberately avoiding low-end price wars. For buyers, this signals a shift in fabric selection logic from "low price, high volume" to "material plus craftsmanship premium."
Supply chain flexibility is another pillar. Leveraging an integrated factory and 15,000 square meters of warehousing, Haoli runs dual modes: spot goods for small urgent orders, and custom orders with 3-10 day lead times, with fastest shipment within one hour. This responsiveness is critical for high-end clients who often bring swatches and are extremely time-sensitive. Industry data suggests rapid delivery is becoming an implicit threshold for premium orders, and Haoli's warehousing and digital systems hit this pain point effectively.
Digitalization amplifies synergy. Haoli participates in the AI Cloth mini-program's digital fabric database, archiving core fabrics like waffle, health knit, double-sided plain knit, mesh, air layer, and pique. Previously, manual swatch matching and color comparison were inefficient, and remote communication with overseas clients was time-consuming; now the system matches identical or similar fabrics with one click, greatly improving accuracy. For high-end menswear designers, this reduces sampling costs dramatically; for fabric merchants, it expands service reach and customer stickiness.
Notably, the AI Cloth experience hall adjacent to Dongsheng Road is about to enter trial operation, featuring smart body measurement, 3D virtual try-on, fabric visual creation, and garment simulation. This signals a shift from physical display to a blend of physical and virtual, making the hall a new touchpoint for designers and brand clients seeking intelligent fabric sourcing. For the entire Keqiao industrial cluster, this could mark a turning point from "selling fabric" to "selling solutions."
Dual-brand synergy is already showing results. The outdoor fabric line introduced Italian imported napping machines, expanding capacity and improving supply chain bargaining power; foreign trade focuses on European and American markets, with exports meeting EU-standard fluorine-free environmental requirements. Domestic long-term clients include Qiaodun (8-10 years), Xiaobeibei, and Little Swan, among others, providing channels for Haoli's high-end menswear business. Last year saw a significant performance improvement, and this year's order growth remains strong, indicating sustained demand for high-end differentiated fabrics.