Riding the Wave: Go Global and Beyond

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has imposed unprecedented challenges for governments, companies and individuals across the globe. Navigating through the critical times, Deloitte and Google have jointly released the China Fashion E-commerce Global Growth Report 2020, which focuses on the global expansion of fashion e-commerce companies amid uncertainties, with a deep dive into the preferred models and best practices at different stages, to help companies emerge from unexpected risks stronger and more resilient.

China's e-commerce, which started from next to nothing more than 20 years ago, has grown rapidly into a mature industry. With increasingly optimized industrial chain, more e-commerce companies are well positioned to go overseas. DTC (direct to consumer) model is a typical way for e-commerce to go global by directing to consumers through self-built online sales platforms. "As one of the world's largest e-commerce markets, the US is a preferred choice for domestic DTC companies seeking overseas expansion," says Deloitte China TMT Industry Leader Taylor Lam, "This paper delivers a multi-dimensional approach for Chinese fashion companies to understand the US market, by analyzing the categories, styles, target clients, and pricing of over 200 popular US fashion DTC platforms, while shedding light upon typical behaviors of US fashion consumers."

The report also examines the overseas journey of Chinese fashion DTC brands from various perspectives. "It has been over a decade since China's fashion DTC companies started the journey of going global. As these companies entered the tenth year of overseas trip, Google and Deloitte visited a dozen of them to explore their decision-making and evolution at different stages of development with diverse sizes and resources available," says Google China Industry Head of Retail Dawei Liu. "We have summarized three models adopted by companies going overseas: traffic-oriented, product-oriented and brand-oriented models. Companies at different stages with distinct features are facing unique confusions and challenges."

"In exploration of how Chinese fashion DTC companies should address these confusions and challenges, we have dived into several leading overseas fashion DTC brands, and analyzed best practices around product, channel, user, supply chain, organizational structure, information system and brand building, to provide thought-provoking insights for Chinese companies," says Deloitte China Commercial Strategy and Research Partner Qinglu Pu.

In referring to the purpose of this report, Google China Head of Retail Tommy Zhuang explains: "Google has been committed to driving value for clients. We always stand alongside our clients and partners to address challenges together. This report co-authored with Deloitte is aimed to help fashion e-commerce companies enhance capabilities and set sail into the global marketplace."

Looking ahead, challenges and opportunities will co-exist amid uncertainties of the ever-evolving global market. While China's fashion e-commerce companies have gained extensive experience in the past two decades, the pandemic in 2020 is presenting an opportunity to slow down and prepare for the future. We hope this report would help companies thrive through unprecedented changes with enhanced risk response and control capabilities, thereby striding steadily toward a prosperous journey overseas.