A forecast by market researcher Euromonitor claims that despite falling Yuan, rising raw material and labour costs, China will still be able to pass the US and become the world’s largest apparel market by 2019. Annual apparel sales in China would surpass US $ 300 million in 2019, up 25 per cent from 2014. With the growth of just 3 per cent higher over last year’s US $ 260 million, apparel sales in the US were estimated to reach US $ 267 million in three years.
The study says that the China market is more competitive than the US as no apparel brand in the mainland was able to achieve a market share greater than 1 per cent in 2014 against a 2 per cent market share of several leading brands in the US. It is also found that domestic brands overall outperformed international brands in the Chinese market.
Many Chinese apparel companies, serving the domestic market would help them upgrade from low-value added manufacturing to higher-value added functions such as design, branding and distribution to boost exports.