With the annual output value of curtain fabrics approaching 70 billion yuan, Shaoxing Keqiao once again became the industry focus. On August 12, the 2026 China Home Textile Association Fabric Branch Annual Meeting was held here, conveying a core signal: the home textile fabric industry is shifting from scale expansion to value growth, and Keqiao, as an industrial belt sample, deserves industry-wide attention.
Data Behind the Industrial Coordinates
Keqiao's industrial data reveals the scale and potential of the fabric industry: the textile city's transaction volume exceeded 440 billion yuan in 2025, with nearly 8,000 curtain fabric enterprises and an annual output value of nearly 70 billion yuan, and cross-border online transactions reaching 800-900 million US dollars. Behind these figures is the support of a complete industrial chain. However, the industry is not without challenges. In the first half of the year, production, sales and exports grew steadily, but weak demand and trade fluctuations persisted. The fabric industry was impacted by the real estate downturn and rising raw material prices, putting pressure on corporate profits, with exports showing a trend of rising volume but falling prices. This means that the model of relying solely on scale expansion has peaked, and the industry must find new value anchors.
Four Engines of Transformation
The meeting outlined transformation paths in four dimensions: design, technology, AI, and going global, each addressing specific industry pain points. In original design, price competition and product homogenization are core challenges. The key to breaking through is returning to users' real home scenarios, such as focusing on the 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 items to establish brand recognition and pricing power. This means design is no longer a pure aesthetic issue but a strategic tool for building long-term core assets.
Technology and AI are changing production logic. University research teams demonstrated digital and intelligent technologies: with massive dye databases, AI can achieve intelligent precise color matching, solving digital printing color difference problems; through fiber polarization image libraries and CNN deep learning, non-destructive rapid identification of fabric components can replace traditional chemical testing. These technologies moving from lab to production line mean that costs and time in sampling and testing will be significantly compressed. Meanwhile, spatial AI technology addresses the high costs of sampling, real shooting, and scene expression in the fabric industry. Through world models, it enables spatial analysis, material replacement, and one-click real-scene generation, saving hundreds of thousands in offline sampling and shooting costs. Commercial soft furnishing is seen as a priority application area, where AI-standardized solutions enhance bidding competitiveness. For enterprises, fabric physical data is becoming a long-term core asset, and those who embrace spatial AI early will reshape the competitive landscape.
Going global opens incremental space for SMEs. Cross-border e-commerce platforms cover over 150 countries with 2 billion monthly active users, and home furnishing categories in Southeast Asia and Latin America are growing fastest globally. Immersive short videos, local influencers, and industrial belt traceability live streams are effective tactics. Cross-border stores need to build a three-layer product matrix: basic, functional, and co-branded. This means globalization is no longer exclusive to leading enterprises; SMEs can enter overseas markets through platform traffic dividends and localized operations.
Transmission Effects on the Industry Chain
These transformation directions are having tangible impacts on upstream and downstream. For upstream fabric suppliers, demand for functional fabrics and intelligent testing solutions will increase, accelerating the industrialization of phase-change temperature control and nano-modification processes. For downstream buyers and brands, AI-driven rapid sampling and spatial visualization will shorten product development cycles and reduce communication costs. More importantly, healthy sleep is transforming from a marketing concept to a fabric function, meaning consumers are willing to pay premiums for functionality, which will force companies to invest more in R&D and quality control.