Home Textile Conference Unveils Path from Scale to Value Growth

When export volume rises but prices fall, and when home textile enterprises generally feel profit pressure, where is the next growth engine? The 2026 China Home Textile Association Fabric Branch Annual Meeting, held on August 12 in Keqiao, Shaoxing, sent clear signals: design, technology, AI, and going global are replacing pure capacity expansion as the key words for the industry in the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan. Disclosed data show Keqiao has nearly 8,000 curtain fabric enterprises, with annual output value near 70 billion yuan and cross-border online trade of 800-900 million USD—a scale that makes the cluster's transformation a bellwether for the national market.

Event Background

The macro environment is not easy. Liang Pengcheng, Vice President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, noted that production, sales, and exports grew steadily in the first half, but weak demand and trade fluctuations persist. Zhu Xiaohong, President of the China Home Textile Association, reviewed the 14th Five-Year results and admitted that the fabric industry suffered from real estate downturn and rising raw material costs, with profits under pressure and exports showing volume growth with price declines. Behind these judgments lies the ceiling of traditional growth: the old path of scale expansion is increasingly difficult, and new quality productive forces have become a matter of survival.

Keqiao, described as an "economic powerhouse on a piece of cloth," provides a footnote. In 2025, the China Textile City's transaction volume exceeded 440 billion yuan, curtain fabric annual output reached nearly 70 billion yuan, and cross-border online trade hit 800-900 million USD. Yet behind this scale, homogenization and price wars are equally prominent. The core judgment from the meeting: the key to breaking through is to reconstruct industry logic with systematic thinking—from scale expansion to value growth, from manufacturing to brand thinking, from single products to overall soft furnishing solution providers. This shift means enterprises must redefine their core capabilities.

Industry Impact

Original design is placed at the top of the agenda. Lin Shaowu, brand consultant at Tianyu New Materials, pointed out that returning to real home scenarios is the core of breaking homogenization. Focusing on 300 million people with sleep disorders, separate bedding, and home-office needs, combining temperature control and antibacterial functions with healing colors and layered textures, and building a product matrix of image, profit, and traffic models—this tells buyers and factories: the future competitive barrier is no longer "what fabric I have" but "what life problems I can solve." For buyers, this means shifting selection logic from price comparison to solution comparison; for factories, it means establishing a unified design language to build brand recognition and pricing power.

AI and digitalization are moving from concept to production lines. Ji Feng, Associate Professor at Donghua University, demonstrated intelligent color matching and deep learning-based fiber identification, which can replace traditional chemical testing and significantly reduce cost and time. Zhao Lu, Global VP of Collov AI, proposed more concrete landing paths: using world models for spatial analysis and material replacement, saving high costs of physical sampling and photo shoots; commercial soft furnishing as a priority track, where AI-standardized solutions enhance bidding competitiveness; and embodied intelligence scaling in warehousing, sorting, and inspection within three years. These technologies mean that hidden costs—sampling, photography, scene expression—are being compressed, and enterprises that adopt early will gain significant efficiency advantages.

The widening channel of going global opens incremental space for SMEs. Zhang Xiaocun of Modern Media, based on TikTok data, noted the platform covers over 150 countries with 2 billion monthly active users, with Southeast Asia and Latin America leading in home category growth. Tactics like immersive short videos, local influencers, and Keqiao industrial belt traceability livestreams provide replicable cross-border operations plans. For enterprises long reliant on traditional foreign trade, this is not just a channel supplement but potentially a starting point for brand premium—but only if products have differentiation and quality support; otherwise, traffic dividends won't convert into sustained repurchase.

Practical Suggestions

For Buyers - When re-evaluating suppliers, include original design capability and product matrix completeness as core indicators, prioritizing partners who can provide overall soft furnishing solutions rather than simply comparing prices. - Pay attention to suppliers using AI spatial design tools; such enterprises respond and sample faster, significantly shortening development cycles and reducing communication costs. - For segments like sleep health and home office, proactively request functional data (e.g., temperature control, antibacterial) and test reports to ensure product claims are evidence-based.

For Foreign Trade Enterprises - When entering high-growth markets like Southeast Asia and Latin America, prioritize a combination of local influencers and immersive short videos, and consider collaborating with the Keqiao industrial belt for traceability livestreams to enhance trust. - Build a three-tier product matrix: basic models for volume, functional models for reputation, and co-branded models for brand image, avoiding low-price competition. - Start accumulating fabric physical data and building digital asset libraries early to prepare for future AI cross-border content generation and spatial intelligence tools—this will become a long-term core asset.