The merchant structure of Keqiao's China Textile City is quietly shifting. A group of shops that started with school uniform fabrics years ago are now pushing product prices into the 100-600 RMB range, building new competitive barriers with plant dyeing, natural fibers, and digital tools. Haoli Textile in the Dongsheng Road outdoor fabric district is a typical example of this upgrade.
Transformation Path
Haoli's transformation began in 2013, when the Qiting brand started at the East Market, focusing on basic school uniform fabrics and accumulating customers through quality control. By 2018, intensifying competition and shrinking profits in conventional fabrics forced a strategic pivot. Qiting launched a dual-track approach: developing functional outdoor fabrics and creating Haoli Textile to target high-end menswear. This shift from mass market to niche premium reflects how Keqiao merchants respond to changing profit structures—price wars in conventional fabrics could no longer sustain growth.
The two brands also mirror each other physically. Qiting was among the first tenants in Phase I of the Dongsheng Road outdoor functional fabric zone, while Haoli opened an independent booth in Phase II. The Dongsheng area attracts brand owners, e-commerce sellers, and designers who demand finer fabrics and offer better order conversion. For Haoli, this means a higher density of target customers than traditional markets, making location a core driver of customer acquisition efficiency.
Product and Supply Chain Barriers
Haoli's product strategy deliberately distances itself from the mass market. The entire line uses natural fibers such as wool, silk, and lyocell, with colors derived from plant extraction rather than chemical dyes. This caters to the environmental demands of high-end menswear and light luxury, while raising the barrier to imitation—plant dyeing requires a level of stability control that cannot be replicated overnight. The 100-600 RMB price range avoids price competition in low-end fabrics, instead serving designer orders that demand strict attention to shape and texture.
On the supply chain side, Haoli shares a 15,000 square meter warehouse with Qiting and operates both stock and custom-order models. Stock items handle small urgent orders; custom orders take 3-10 days; with complete inventory, delivery can be as fast as one hour. This speed is rare in the premium fabric segment. It means buyers can drastically shorten their lead times, shifting inventory pressure upstream. For designer brands, this directly affects launch rhythms and cash flow efficiency.
Digital Tools in Practice
Haoli's digital experiment deserves attention. Core fabrics—such as waffle knit, health knit, double-faced jersey, mesh, air layer, and pique—have been digitized and archived in the AI Fabric mini-program. In practice, designers often carry swatches seeking similar fabrics. Previously, manual searching and color card comparison were inefficient, and remote communication with overseas clients was time-consuming. Now the system can match identical or similar fabrics with one click, significantly improving both speed and accuracy.
The value lies in converting non-standard fabric expertise into searchable data assets. For high-end clients, faster matching means shorter sampling cycles; for merchants, it reduces reliance on manual labor and extends service reach to remote export scenarios. The AI Fabric experience hall at Dongsheng Road is about to start trial operation, featuring smart body measurement, 3D virtual fitting, fabric visualization, and garment simulation. This suggests fabric trading is moving from simple sample mailing toward a combination of immersive digital experiences and offline physical verification.
Synergy of Dual Brands
Haoli does not operate in isolation. It shares Qiting's industrial chain support, including Italian imported napping machines, export channels to Europe and the US (with fabrics meeting EU standard fluorine-free environmental requirements), and long-term clients like Qiaodun, Xiaobeibei, Yingqi, Macedonia, and Xiaozhubanna. The two brands cross-refer customers: Qiting's outdoor functional fabric clients may extend to high-end menswear needs, while Haoli's premium clients may also source outdoor functional fabrics. This synergy lets each brand stay focused while sharing scale advantages in pricing power and production speed.
In terms of results, two years after the strategic adjustment, Qiting's overall performance has improved significantly, and this year's order growth remains positive. This proves that differentiation still works in a mature industrial cluster like Keqiao, provided you identify a sufficiently niche and solvent customer base and defend your position with supply chain and digital tools.