Guiping Mule Garments Achieves High Quality Development Through E-Commerce

A corner of Xinwang Market express transfer station. (Photographed by Guo Tai)

As one of the main battlefields for high-quality development of Guigang textile and clothing industry cluster, Mule Town of Guiping City is accelerating the transformation and upgrading of textile and clothing industry at full speed with the help of e-commerce. Its delivery volume and e-commerce sales volume have become a barometer of the rapid development of the industry. At present, the average daily delivery volume of the town is 30000 tickets, the average annual sales volume of e-commerce is more than 50 million sets, and the number of e-commerce sales personnel is more than 3000.

   Daily average delivery volume 30000 tickets

In Mule Town Garment Industrial Park, Xinwang Market Express Transfer Station is still brightly lit at night. There is an endless stream of e-commerce companies coming to send goods. "Diddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddiddid.

The textile and clothing industry of Mule Town originated in the 1980s. Mule entrepreneurs started from leather products and gradually developed the clothing manufacturing industry into a pillar industry of Mule. With hundreds of independent brands and a relatively complete industrial system, Mule Town has attracted a large number of foreign businessmen and local people from Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other provinces to invest and set up factories here. The delivery industry came into being at the historic moment.

"I decided to come back and have a try, and receive and deliver the goods from the origin," said Gan Yu, the head of Zhongtong Express Logistics at the transfer station. Before 2018, he had been running express delivery in Guangzhou. At that time, Mule only had four express outlets, namely, Post, Zhongtong, Yuantong and Shentong, and the monthly delivery volume was only several hundred pieces. In 2020, affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 and the fierce competition in the express industry in Guangzhou, he and his brother started to drive a van between Mule and Guangzhou in turn to deliver express goods; After running for one month, the daily volume of goods increased from 70 votes to thousands of votes.

However, this cross regional express volume is generated by Guangzhou's Mule E-commerce, which buys express face orders from local express companies and uses local express's road mail lines to receive and deliver goods. This is a typical "express scalper" that relies on the advantage of low prices to attract goods across regions. It is not conducive to the development of the local formal express industry, and there are also great security risks in delivery.

At the beginning of 2021, the Municipal Postal Administration, together with public security, market supervision and other departments, will jointly enforce the law and further standardize the order of the express market through routine inspection, interviews, orders for rectification and other means. After renovation, Mule Express outlets have grown from 4 to 12. Permit Yu has also changed from "scalper party" to "regular army" and become a first-class franchisee of Mule Zhongtong Express.

"The tariff has been lowered, and the departure time can be postponed to 4:00 a.m. every day, ensuring timeliness." Xu Keyu introduced that clothing express is lightweight and very popular in the express distribution center. After the express chain is opened, the charge of e-commerce from Mule to inside and outside Guangxi will be reduced to 2.5 to 3 yuan per piece. E-commerce delivery costs are reduced, and more young people from Mule are attracted to return to their hometown to start businesses. Now he works from 8 o'clock to 11 o'clock every night, even at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning.

"In 2022, the delivery volume of Mule clothing will reach 8.86 million pieces, accounting for 56.5% of the new express business volume." Zhou Ren, director of the municipal postal administration, told reporters that in March this year, the autonomous region postal administration, together with the autonomous region's Department of Industry and Information Technology, issued the "implementation plan", which clearly defined the need to create a differentiated service model and promote the integrated development of the postal industry and manufacturing industry. Mule has initially built a relatively complete e-commerce industry chain, and the number of express delivery orders has soared.

"Now Mule parcels are prioritized in each distribution center for transportation, processing and distribution on the same day." Zhou Ren introduced that, after many active coordination, the provincial distribution centers of various express brands have greatly met the timeliness needs of Mule clothing e-commerce by delaying work, opening Mule Guangdong special line, and delaying departure at transit stations. In 2022, Mule Town's sports apparel industry chain will generate an average daily package volume of 30000 tickets, which is expected to reach 50000 tickets throughout the year.

   The annual sales volume of e-commerce exceeds 50 million sets

Behind the growth of logistics flow of Mule Express is the rapid development of clothing e-commerce industry in Mule Town.

Walking through the streets and alleys of Mule Town, you can see the busy figure of e-commerce people everywhere. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 200 e-commerce stores in the streets and alleys of Mule Town, with more than 3000 e-commerce sales personnel. Since 2021, the average annual sales of clothing e-commerce has exceeded 50 million sets.

In 2021, affected by the epidemic and globalization of economic development, Guangzhou's "Mule Army" will gradually return to its hometown to develop e-commerce, from traditional wholesale to wholesale for e-commerce and live broadcast customers. Li Decheng is one of the "returning tide".

In Li Decheng's studio, the reporter saw that he was designing clothes samples on the computer, switching chat windows from time to time to confirm order information with customers; Several workers are carrying the bundled sample clothes and preparing for offset printing. All work is in order.

"Going back to do e-commerce not only saves a lot of warehouse rent, but also makes it easy to get goods," said Li Decheng. In 2018, he saw the development of Mule clothing industry in full swing, and gradually shifted the focus from Guangzhou to Mule; Later, the number of shipments in Mule exceeded that in Guangzhou, so he simply developed in Mule.

"From receiving orders, designing to receiving goods, offset printing, and shipping, it is a one-stop service." Li Decheng said that now the daily delivery of express goods can be maintained at more than 100 tickets, supported by industry. Whether it is express delivery, receiving goods, or e-commerce development, Mule and Guangzhou are basically the same in terms of timeliness, and the cost is also reduced, so it is natural to develop in Mule.

Unlike Li Decheng, Li firmly believes that the office is not located in Mule, but in Guangzhou, more than 400 kilometers away.

Li, 23, firmly believes that his major in college is international e-commerce. In 2021, he went to Guiping Duiker Sports and Leisure Clothing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Duiker) for internship; After graduation, he joined the company to participate in the operation and management of e-commerce business just like Mule's "second generation".

"Now, by expanding cross-border e-commerce platforms, we have successfully linked to larger overseas markets and received orders from many European and American countries." Li firmly told reporters that Zoomlion will focus on e-commerce since 2020. At present, there are agents all over the country except Tibet, and the company's clothing e-commerce sales have accounted for 40% of the overall sales.

"With the gradual deepening of e-commerce, the company's development pattern is also changing." Li Linhui, the chairman of Zoomlion, said that the company has been operating in the "front store and back factory" mode. After expanding e-commerce sales channels, the company's online and offline sales have increased year by year. At present, in addition to the logistics pieces sent to Guangzhou and agents, the company has 500 to 600 express orders sent from Mule every day, which is inseparable from the company's personalized customization.

Mule drives offline store sales through online shopping through the "online+offline" sales model. At present, Mule clothing industry has four wholesale sales centers in Guangzhou, more than 700 offices and sales outlets, more than 2000 online sales outlets, and more than 4000 Mule people are resident in Guangzhou, mainly engaged in design, research and development and product sales.

   Annual production of more than 300 million sets of clothing

The development of Mule Express and e-commerce is so prosperous, thanks to the development idea of the municipal party committee and the municipal government focusing on "strengthening the leading role, supplementing the chain and gathering the group", and focusing on cultivating and developing textile and clothing as the strategic deployment of a hundred billion yuan industry.

In the production workshop of Guangxi Zhongjian Sports Leisure Garments Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zhongjian Company), workers were busy on the assembly line, cutting, sewing, inspection... One by one, leisure sports clothes were packed and put into storage waiting for delivery.

As a local enterprise, Zhongjian Company, founded in 2010 (formerly Huimei Garment Factory), is one of the enterprises above the designated size in Guiping City. It has a team integrating knitting, printing and dyeing, research and development, design, production and sales. At first, the company only did simple OEM, OEM and other businesses. Taking advantage of the efforts of the municipal party committee and the municipal government to build an industrial cluster worth 100 billion yuan, Zhongjian welcomes new development opportunities. The company's size has grown from more than 20 people at the beginning to more than 300 people, with more than 400 agents nationwide.

"In China (Guigang) Textile Fashion New Area, the company is building an intelligent factory for sports and leisure clothing covering an area of about 100 mu." Yang Hao, assistant general manager of Zhongjian Company, told reporters that the factory is expected to introduce intelligent hanging assembly lines to improve product quality and efficiency. At present, the company has completed the preliminary layout of the clothing industry chain, including weaving, printing and dyeing. The annual production of clothing is about 3 million pieces (sets), with an annual output value of more than 100 million yuan.

"It's very convenient to buy all the ingredients of clothing without going out of Mule now." Like Zhongjian, Li Linhui, the chairman of Duke, is also rubbing his hands. He introduced to the reporter that after the new factory building is completed and put into production, it is expected to introduce automatic computer knitting machines, 4 sets of 1000 type texturing machines and other clothing front spinning supporting equipment, so as to form a production capacity of about 3000 tons of texturing polyester yarn and fabric, and about 4 million pieces (sets) of sports and leisure clothing annually, to fill the gap in Mule's lack of front spinning industry, and to achieve the one-stop production of enterprises.

"With new sites and new equipment, the work efficiency is improved, the cost is reduced, and the company has more competitive advantages." Li Linhui said confidently that after the completion of the project, the estimated annual output value is 150 million yuan, which can provide more than 500 jobs.

In recent years, Guigang City has successively launched policies such as "double hundred double new", incentives for the entry of the upper regulation into the system, technical transformation of thousands of enterprises, and support for power trading, to promote high-quality development of the textile and clothing industry. The high-quality development of textile and clothing also promotes the high-quality development of express delivery. Today, Mule Town has developed into the largest production base of leisure and sports clothing in Guangxi. In 2022, it will produce more than 300 million sets of clothing, with a total industrial output value of about 7 billion yuan. The brand of "Good Clothing Guigang Show" is gradually becoming popular. (Reporter Guo Tai)

(Source: Guigang Daily)