Shein, Temu And Others: Riding On The Wave Of Cross-border E-commerce in Guangzhou, Their Business Performance Soars.

Shein, Temu and others: Riding on the wave of cross-border e-commerce in Guangzhou, their business performance soars.

 

Guangzhou's cross-border e-commerce and clothing industries have demonstrated strong vitality and hold broad prospects for future development. In 2014, Shein, which shifted from wedding dresses to the cross-border women's clothing market, achieved remarkable success with nearly 50 million orders and moved its headquarters from Nanjing to Guangzhou. Leveraging Guangzhou's mature clothing industry chain, Shein transformed into a fast-fashion women's clothing brand, experiencing explosive growth in its business performance.

In the fashion and retail sector of Forbes' "2024 China Rich List", Xu Yangtian, the founder of Shein, retained his position as the industry's richest person with a fortune of $9 billion. This is the third time he has received this honor since 2022.

 

Guangzhou's garment industry has a long history. Today, the textile and garment industry has become a core pillar of the trillion-yuan-level fashion industrial cluster. It has 187 specialized garment wholesale markets, over 400,000 registered enterprises and individual businesses, and has cultivated more than 3,000 active brands.

 

In 2024, the total export value of textile and garment products in Guangzhou reached 46.09 billion yuan, and from January to August this year, the export value was 34.83 billion yuan. Guangzhou is the world's largest clothing wholesale hub. At its peak, about one out of every three pairs of jeans in the world originated from Xintang, Guangzhou.

The Haizhu Zhongda Fabric Market encompasses six major clothing business districts and over 130 specialized wholesale markets, with an annual transaction volume exceeding one trillion yuan. On September 26th, related activities revealed that Guangzhou has established a "rainforest-style" cross-border e-commerce ecosystem.

The garment industry in Guangzhou is highly digitalized, with a responsive supply chain that enables global distribution. It utilizes technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and big data analysis, and is characterized by high levels of collaboration and the ability to quickly respond to small orders.

 

Market analysis shows that Shein topped the global shopping app download chart in 2023. The headquarters of Temu, a cross-border e-commerce platform under Pinduoduo, is also located in Guangzhou.

On April 21st, Ant Group announced that its South China Digital Operations Center and WorldFirst Cross-border Trade Operations Center would be located in Guangzhou. Guangzhou has three comprehensive bonded zones and has built a global transportation network.

 

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is large in scale and has strong transportation capacity. The third-phase expansion project is advancing. It is expected that after the full completion, the annual passenger throughput capacity will reach 140 million and the cargo and mail throughput capacity will reach 6 million tons.

 

The container throughput of Guangzhou Port ranks among the top in the world. In 2024, its import and export volume reached 385.4 billion yuan. The eastern rail and road intermodal hub has established international logistics channels.

 

Guangzhou has strengthened fiscal support, forming a "five-in-one" fiscal incentive matrix. With leading measures from multiple departments, the achievements of enterprise development have been remarkable.

 

The self-operated logistics service coverage of PaiSujie Overseas Warehouse ranks among the top three in the industry. The brand of Guangzhou Shenyi Information Technology Co., Ltd. is favored by over two million consumers. The transaction volume of Guangzhou Zhongda Men has exceeded 10 billion yuan.

 

Shenyi Group moved from Shanghai to Guangzhou due to the city's strong clothing industry chain. Cross-border e-commerce in the clothing sector and other industries has driven the development of Guangzhou's office building market, and the vacancy rate is expected to improve in the third quarter of 2025.

 

Customs data shows that the total value of goods exported from Guangzhou in the first seven months of 2025 increased by 21.9% year-on-year. Guangzhou has always been a fertile ground for the development of cross-border e-commerce. In the future, the combination of cross-border e-commerce and the clothing industry will continue to soar towards prosperity.