While most fabric merchants in Keqiao still compete on price for commodity products, a striking contrast reveals another path: a company that started with school uniform fabrics now sells premium menswear materials at 100-600 RMB per meter, with a stable order pipeline. This is not accidental price hiking but a strategic shift spanning several years.
Transformation Path
The company's origins were unremarkable. Qiting, launched in 2013 and registered in 2014, began with basic school uniform fabrics at the East Market, building a customer base through quality control. The turning point came in 2018 when margins on conventional fabrics thinned. The company decided to split into two tracks: one focusing on functional outdoor fabrics, and the other—Haoli Textile—targeting high-end business menswear. Operating two independent brands meant completely separating customer groups and product systems, not just labeling products differently.
Notably, Haoli did not start from scratch. It shares over a decade of supply chain accumulation from Qiting, including a 15,000-square-meter warehouse and an integrated factory. This combination of an established supply chain with a new positioning allows the premium line to avoid redundant infrastructure investment, focusing resources on fabric R&D and customer service. For buyers, this explains why custom order lead times are controlled within 3-10 days, with fastest dispatch in one hour—not through aggressive promises but supported by an existing efficient system.
Product and Process Barriers
The core barrier in the high-end positioning lies in processes. Haoli exclusively uses natural fibers such as wool, silk, and lyocell, with colors achieved through plant extraction rather than chemical dyeing. This is not just an eco-friendly selling point; it directly defines the competitive boundary. Color fastness and batch consistency in plant dyeing are demanding, making it difficult for ordinary dyeing mills to replicate quickly. The price range of 100-600 RMB per meter precisely avoids the low-end price war, targeting designers and brand buyers who are demanding in terms of fit and texture.
This strategy complements Qiting's outdoor line. Outdoor functional fabrics emphasize performance parameters, while premium menswear focuses on material and touch. The former serves e-commerce sellers and brands, the latter designers and high-end garment makers. Running both lines in parallel diversifies market risk and shares customer resources—for example, the outdoor line's export channels can funnel clients to the menswear line, while the menswear line's brand endorsement enhances overall image.
Digitalization and Channel Synergy
Digitalization is a key recent move. Core fabrics have been cataloged in an AI-enabled mini-program that supports one-click matching of similar fabrics. For high-end clients, this solves the pain point of remote sample viewing—previously, sending swatches and comparing color cards took days; now the system returns results within minutes. For the factory, digital archiving also improves response speed for small urgent orders. The AI experience center in the Dongsheng Road outdoor fabric zone is about to begin trial operations, with features like smart body measurement, 3D virtual try-on, and fabric visualization, further shortening customer decision cycles.
In terms of channels, the company chooses to cluster in the Dongsheng Road outdoor fabric zone rather than scatter across the market. This area attracts quality brands, e-commerce sellers, and designers, offering higher customer precision than comprehensive markets. Meanwhile, export channels target Europe and America, with fabrics meeting EU standards for fluorine-free environmental protection. Domestically, they have cooperated with Qiaodun for over eight years and serve brands like Xiaobeibei and Little Banna. This combination of local clustering and export compliance provides a stable order foundation for the premium line.
Implications and Insights
From school uniform fabrics to light luxury menswear, this company's transformation reflects an industry trend: competition in fabrics is shifting from scale to precision. For the many small and medium merchants in Keqiao, the takeaway is not to copy plant dyeing or digital tools, but to adopt a "differentiation" mindset—competing on process when others compete on price, and building databases when others expand capacity. The dual-brand synergy and shared supply chain model also reduce the cost of trial and error in transformation.
Of course, high-end positioning is not a panacea. Capacity limitations in plant dyeing and the small-batch nature of high-end clients imply a lower ceiling on scale. But at least at this stage, this differentiated approach has helped the company avoid the most brutal price wars, with order growth trending upward. For Keqiao fabric merchants at a crossroads, this might be a path worth evaluating.