Offline success relies not only on traffic marketing but more on achieving a premium through brand value rather than mere price competition.

In the tide of the digital age, the rise of e-commerce has opened the door to the market for countless brands.

SIINSIIN, a brand known for its shark pants, is a rapidly rising star in this blue ocean. It has become a pioneer in the new fashion race with its "viral" advertisements ubiquitous on short video platforms, selling 25 million pairs in three years and becoming the category leader.

However, as online traffic growth slows down, brands like SIINSIIN and other Dou brands or purely online clothing brands have started to look offline. Recently, SIINSIIN opened two physical stores in Hangzhou Hubin Intime in77 and Hangzhou Wulin Intime A Pavilion, officially announcing Yang Zi as the brand spokesperson.

Similarly, Youlan (allblu), a children's clothing brand that once focused on online sales, is now also moving offline, expanding its product categories from a single children's clothing market to clothing for the whole family.

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Such cases are not isolated; top online brands are moving offline in unison. Behind this trend is the brand's desire for in-depth market exploration and a comprehensive upgrade of consumer experience.

However, this transformation also comes with significant challenges. The operational costs of offline stores, the intensity of market competition, and the maintenance of brand consistency are all issues that brands need to face.

Shining brightly online,SIINSIIN and Youlan (allblu) are two brands that originated online and have achieved significant sales on e-commerce platforms. SIINSIIN's product pricing is within the mass market range, with most products priced between 100 and 200 yuan, offering a certain brand premium but more affordable compared to high-end brands like lululemon.

Within three years after its establishment in 2021, SIINSIIN sold 25 million shark pants. In 2022, the brand's total online sales exceeded 350 million yuan, and in 2023, sales surpassed 1.65 billion yuan. According to its 2023 Double 11 battle report, the brand sold 2.65 million shark pants in half a month, with sales reaching 320 million yuan, almost approaching the annual sales volume of 2022.

At that time, SIINSIIN's supply chain was facing the challenge of overloading. SIINSIIN brand co-founder Lin Yalin stated that although the team had anticipated a surge in sales, the actual explosion exceeded their expectations.

In the past three months, the brand has undergone a significant rebranding, changing its name from "SINSIN" to "SIINSIIN" and updating its brand logo and colors.

"We have observed through online data that the 'shark pants' category is growing very quickly, and consumers have a subconscious familiarity and acceptance of this term," said SIINSIIN founder Wu Dongqing in an exclusive interview with Tian Xia Wang Shang. The success of SIINSIIN lies in capturing three market opportunities.

The first wave was in 2022, driven by content, leveraging the rise of CID (Click ID) cross-platform advertising, and the visual expression of product technology selling points, which won the favor of the first batch of consumers. The second wave was through short videos by influencers and live-streaming sales, bringing shark pants into the view of more female consumers. The third wave was through celebrity endorsements, conveying the brand's product and attitude propositions.

Since its establishment in 2017, Youlan has achieved rapid growth through online channels, with a brand GMV of 42 million yuan in 2019 and an increase to 90 million yuan in 2020. Currently, Youlan's online annual growth rate is about 50%, and sales are expected to be between 400 million and 500 million yuan by 2024.

Tianyancha APP shows that Youlan disclosed three rounds of financing from 2018 to 2021, with the most recent being an A round from Guo Zhong Capital, amounting to nearly 100 million yuan.

Facing greater challenges offline.In order to establish a presence offline, Wu Dongqing conducted extensive research on competitors and engaged in discussions with brand managers and agents. "To succeed offline, I believe the foremost factors are brand strength and product quality, followed by operational capabilities, which include site selection and efficiency per square meter," said Wu Dongqing.

Wu Dongqing also revealed that SIINSIIN currently has two factories in Jiangxi and one in Dongyang, Zhejiang. Their own fabric factory in Shantou is about to be completed, with an investment of thirty to fifty million yuan already made. "This year, we will start with three stores in Hangzhou. We plan to establish ten stores in the core business districts of key cities, and we hope to finalize the offline store business model this year."

From the perspective of Youlan, the brand emphasizes the importance of private traffic in its operations. In 2021, Youlan had already established a product development group consisting of nearly 4,000 core users. These users participate in internal product testing, providing feedback and ideas to the R&D team. Additionally, Youlan actively organizes offline community activities targeting mothers and selects hosts for the brand's live broadcast rooms from these groups.

In fact, many new consumer brands attract customers by meticulously managing their products, target customers, and marketing. However, as brands expand into broader markets, they often face a challenge: consumers may value the product itself more than the brand story and may feel that excessive marketing has inflated the price. This situation could reduce user affinity for the brand, especially when they perceive no significant improvement in the product itself. Currently, some consumers have raised such doubts about Youlan on social media.

In response, Cheng Weixiong, an independent analyst in the fashion industry and founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., told Blue Whale News reporters that the online market, especially platforms like Douyin, has become a "concentration point" for traffic. "Brands can use these platforms for marketing to build their brand and products. However, if a brand only exists online, it can at best be considered a product brand and will struggle to win deep user trust. Ultimately, such brands may have to rely on low-price competition to attract consumers."

"To build a real brand, it is essential to gain user trust, achieve repeat purchases, and thus realize long-term sustainable value. Therefore, the trend for online brands to move offline and establish a full-channel closed loop is an inevitable trend in brand development and a necessary path to building a brand ecosystem closed loop. This is not just an expansion of channels but also an extension of the brand's depth and breadth," said Cheng Weixiong.

For brands focused on a single product or category, opening physical stores presents significant challenges. Physical stores require brands to provide complementary products and effectively display and stock them. If the display is repetitive, it fails to reflect the brand value. Therefore, online brands expanding offline need to refine their brand style and product system, which is undoubtedly an even greater challenge.

It is worth noting that offline success relies not only on traffic marketing but more on achieving a premium through brand value rather than mere price competition.

Shifting from online price competition to offline brand value construction requires brands to engage in integrated marketing, establish a complete brand operation system, and match organizational operational capabilities. Cheng Weixiong believes this is the key for brands to move from online to offline and achieve long-term development.