Edited by Zhao Xinhua

From January to March in 2022, the total turnover of 46 textile and appar—el specialized markets (including market groups) monitored by the China Com—mercial Circulation Association of Textile and Apparel (CATA) reached 301.795 billion yuan, down 5.18 percent year—on—year. Among them, the turnover of 5 markets rose year—on—year, accounting for 55.08 percent of the total turnover, with an average increase of 5.52 percent; the turnover of 41 specialized mar—kets decreased year—on—year, accounting for 44.92 percent of the total turn—over, with an average decline of 15.66 percent.

General operation of specialized market from January to March 2022

Analysis of market operation efficiency

From the perspective of market efficiency, the average operating efficiency of the 46 major textile and apparel specialized markets moni—tored from January to March in 2022 was 13,555.09 yuan/square meter, down 5.18 percent year—on—year. The average efficiency of shops was 1.0362 million yuan/shop, down 5.15 percent year—on—year.

Analysis of market regional structure

From the perspective of regional structure, among the 46 key moni—toring markets from January to March, the turnover of specialized market in the eastern region was 261.281 billion yuan, down 2.53 percent year—on—year, accounting for 86.57 percent of the total turnover of specialized market. The turnover of the specialized market in the central region was 30.862 billion yuan, down 19.15 percent year—on—year, accounting for 10.23 percent of the total turnover of the specialized market. The turn—over of the specialized market in western region was 9.652 billion yuan, down 19.77 percent year—on—year, accounting for 3.20 percent of the total turnover of the specialized market.

Table 1 Analysis of turnover in 46 key monitored market in different regions

Analysis of circulation hierarchy structure

In terms of circulation, the 46 key monitoring mar—kets include 27 production—based specialized markets and 19 sale—based specialized markets. From January to March 2022, the turnover of 27 production—based special—ized markets reached 274.444 billion yuan, accounting for 90.94 percent of the total turnover, a year—on—year decrease of 3.33 percent; the turnover of 19 sale—based specialized markets was 27.351 billion yuan, accounting for 9.06 percent of the total turnover, a year—on—year de—crease of 20.46 percent.

Data analysis for the first quart er

Market operations have been severely affected by the pandemic

In the first quarter of 2022, China’s textile and ap—parel market was affected by the pandemic, with some markets suspending operations and a significant decrease in turnover. First, markets in areas severely affected by the pandemic are directly closed. Specialized markets in Shanghai and Guangzhou, for example, are severely af—fected by the pandemic and remain closed for a long time, which directly affects market sales. Second, the upstream and downstream of the circulation is seriously affected, with people not coming in and goods not being shipped out. For example, the major customers of the specialized market in Shenyang are from the three northeastern prov—inces, which are severely affected by the pandemic in Jilin, resulting in a decline in market turnover. Third, the business of merchants in the market has been affected. Due to the comprehensive upgrading of control measures, offline pro—motional activities and autumn and winter clothing order—ing fairs in most markets of the country cannot be held as scheduled, which directly affects the operation arrange—ment of merchants in the next stage.

The product market is facing greater test

According to the performance of the specialized market in the first quarter, the upstream market of the industrial chain, such as yarn, fabrics and accessories, is more stable and less impacted by the external envi—ronment, while the product market facing consumers is facing a greater test. The apparel specialized market not only needs to accept the increasingly personalized, fragmented and high—quality consumer demand of end consumers, but also faces the profit squeeze from vari—ous channels such as shopping malls, supermarkets, traditional e—commerce, live commerce and other chan—nels, and faces the double test of product upgrading and channel competition. On the other hand, the supply chain of merchants in apparel specialized markets is mostly small and medium—sized production enterprises, which are greatly affected by external environment and skilled workers’ flow. As a result, enterprises’ production costs continue to increase, recruitment difficulties and uneven quality of employees lead to unstable product quality and timely delivery, which affects merchants’ operation.

Matthew effect is prominent

In the first quarter, of the 46 national key monitoring textile and apparel specialized markets (including market groups), only 5 markets realized a year—on—year increase in turnover, and the turnover of these 5 markets accounted for 55.08 percent of the total turnover of 46 markets, most of which were textile and apparel markets (groups) worth hundreds of billions. In recent years, the trend of intensive development of China’s specialized market has become increasingly obvious. High—quality production capacity, high—quality merchants and high—quality customers in the textile and apparel industry gather in the powerful leading markets, which promote the integration of more resources and create higher value. Judging from the future trend, intensive development will still be the focus of structural adjustment of textile and apparel specialized market. With the condition of stable market turnover, the total market volume may continue to be streamlined.

Conclusion

Based on the current situation, the national textile and apparel specialized market should actively promote mer—chants to improve the level of original design, pay attention to product quality, create personalized labels, stimulate consumers’ enthusiasm to go shopping through product innovation and upgrading, and expand the domestic mar—ket; specialized markets should actively promote digital construction, open up online and offline markets, create intelligent logistics network, and improve the market’s ability to resist risks in the complex external environment; specialized market should strengthen the connection and cooperation with the upstream and downstream markets and the production and marketing markets, expand market channels, promote complementary advantages, seek ac—curate matching and create market synergy; specialized market should also promote the aggregation and mutual penetration of different elements with high correlation with channels and industries, break the traditional business model, create more consumption scenes and circulation modes, build new circulation links and jointly build a new industrial circulation ecology.