Established in 1996 in the province of Wenzhou, the Semir Group is a multi-brand garment company focused on casual wear and childrenswear that operates two major labels, Semir and balabala. In this interview, RLI spends some time with Nicole Zhou, Head of International at Semir Group to discuss the expansion of both brands during the past few years and what lies ahead moving forward.
Semir is a lifestyle brand for adults and is committed to developing innovative and affordable products. They create and present comfortable fashion for the fast-paced, diverse lives of the new era of youth, focusing on the latest fashion trends combined with cutting edge performance fabrics for easy wear.
On the other hand, balabala focuses on the dreams, the exploration and playfulness of children and with the brand with the largest market share of children’s apparel in China, balabala provides on trend fashion, shoes and accessories for children aged from 0-14, delivering high-quality products in an exciting shopping environment.
“As we move through 2022, the company will continue to focus on the principle of “consumer-centricity” and continue to promote the construction of core competencies such as brand operation, product innovation, retail experience and supply chain management,” explains Nicole Zhou, Head of International at Semir Group. “The pandemic has set new patterns of consumer behaviour – a preference for online shopping, rational spending in times of crisis and consumption of digital content. Our strategic decision was to quickly adapt to new market conditions and increase online presence.”
Today the Semir business has more than 2,600 stores whilst balabala has more than 4,800 stores in mainland China and by the end of 2021 they had 56 stores in 13 overseas countries and regions.
Recent store openings include a balabala site in Dubai Hills Mall, Dubai by Emaar on 17 February which was launched in collaboration with their newly signed strategy partner BTC Fashion in the Middle East. This opening is a milestone moment for balabala and they are now extremely confident about the upcoming openings in Qatar. Meanwhile, Semir opened the doors of its first store in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu at Civil Mall in early February. This store has already received rave reviews from Nepalese customers and they are looking forward to the opening of the next four stores with their local partner and they are due to launch at the end of May this year.
With such a presence in China, moving forward more attention will be given to the quality of store openings, increasing their presence in first-tier cities with flagship stores and upgrading their omni-channel presence.
“To compete in the international market, seeking global partnerships is essential; therefore it is important to meticulously choose the appropriate partner. At the moment, we are in the process of reaching commercial agreements with retail partners from more regions in Asia, but our global expansion strategy includes all regions of the world,” explains Zhou.
With 26 years of experience in the design, manufacture, distribution and retailing of garments and having a strong infrastructure, Semir Group combines this with the latest fashion trends and unique models designed by their own in-house product department to maintain its position in the upper echelon of the Chinese fashion market.
Zhou explains that they offer customers an amazing experience when buying and wearing clothes. They also do slight localisation when entering different markets. For instance, every year they tailor-make a collection for their Middle Eastern partners for Ramadan and Eid and develop supporting marketing materials in order to meet the needs of special festivals
and cultures.
Utilising the power of social media has always been a focus and a strength for the group in China with them being able to catch the wave and ride the crest of new channels and approaches as they happened, something that was not easy considering how quickly new trends and mediums appeared and continue to arrive.
“Livestreaming was and still is a great success for us in linking social media through to sales and we are now actively working on future trends such as metaverse as a digital marketing and sales opportunity to further develop the brand,” comments Zhou.
Semir Group excels in providing customers with collections that deliver product assortments in connection to their customers’ dynamic shopping lifestyle. Their brand promise is to provide high-quality, performance-enhancing fashion products at affordable prices, resulting in high-quality standards at the right price.
“Our ethos is all about helping to create a better life for customers and employees. At Semir Group we always have a saying that we live together with partners, not only customers but also suppliers and employees, we always move forward together. The people are at the centre of everything we do.”
When looking to the future, Zhou comments that for international expansion, the Semir Group faces the same challenges as most international brands, which is how to adapt to varied local markets while maintaining a core brand identity and its values. She believes this has been achieved so far by creating an international team in their overseas office to ensure they maintain an international perspective in everything they do, developing tools and support packages refined to local markets while ensuring consistency and global standards.
“I see 2022 as an exciting, springboard year as we expect more markets to open up, we are all looking forward to re-kindling those personal interactions with both customers and partners that are so important in any successful retail business,” Zhou concludes.
