Fashion brands eye bigger global footprint

Chinese retailer Fashion Momentum Group's Urban Revivo brand officially made its debut in the United States last month by opening its first flagship store in New York's SoHo district, marking the continuation of its global expansion.

The 2,855-square-meter store is situated alongside established fast-fashion brands like Zara, BM (Brandy Melville) and North American athletic brand Alo Yoga.

Urban Revivo launched its overseas expansion plan a decade ago. Since opening its first overseas store in Singapore in 2016, the brand has continuously expanded its international presence. At the end of 2024, the brand opened its largest store in the Southeast Asian market in the core commercial area of Bangkok, Thailand, with an area of nearly 3,000 square meters.

Currently, FMG operates over 400 stores globally, including nearly 20 overseas stores.

According to FMG, it plans to open flagship stores in London and Tokyo this year and is expected to open more than 200 overseas stores during the next five years, with revenue generated from the overseas market exceeding 30 percent.

Overseas expansion is not just about opening stores. Knowing how to adapt in the long term is crucial for Chinese fashion brands as many that had opened stores in Europe and American markets withdrew quietly.

Bosideng International Holdings, China's largest maker of down jackets, has been expanding overseas since 1992. It reopened its flagship store in London in 2022 after having struggled for years to attract local customers.

After opening stores, the next key challenge for fashion brands such as Urban Revivo is how to establish long-term, deep connections with local consumers.

The brand has built its own website and is planning to gradually develop an integrated online-offline business model to cover and serve global consumers.

Urban Revivo's unique flexible supply chain is a powerful weapon in its overseas market conquest.

The "small-batch, quick-response" model can quickly respond within 7-15 days, achieving a high-frequency product update rate of twice a week. Its self-developed supply chain collaboration platform uses "intelligent scheduling" to help allocate global production capacity and even forecast market trends, according to the company.

Meanwhile, international fast-fashion brands have also sped up their global operations.

Inditex Group, the fashion company that owns brands including Zara and Massimo Dutti, has seen sales grow 7.5 percent to reach 38.6 billion euros ($41.96 billion) in 2024, showing strong development both in stores and online. Gross profit increased 7.6 percent to 22.3 billion euros and net income increased 9 percent to 5.9 billion euros.

Inditex operates in 214 markets. The company said it enjoys a low market share in a sector that remains highly fragmented. Optimization of stores is ongoing to drive further gains in store productivity.

In China, Zara is launching a new store in Xinjiekou in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, later this month.