When talking about e-commerce, Chen Zhongwei, general manager of Hengyuanxiang, said: “E-Commerce has indeed subverted our understanding of the entire business model.” He felt that a new era is here, and it came very quickly. 

Heng Yuan Xiang (HYX), a time-honored brand of China, was set up in 1927. HYX has grown itself from a small wool store of less than 80 square meters in Shanghai into a corporate enterprise specialized in knitting, clothing, home textile, and wool.

In 2017, Ali Research Institute released the “China Top 100 E-commerce” and HYX was ranked first.

HYX has initially been a shop selling imported wool in Xingsheng Street, Shanghai. The founder was Shen Laizhou, who was later known as the “King of the Wool”. It is now the largest wool producer in China and the world with the annual wool consumption of over 10,000 tons.

In 2012, Hengyuanxiang began to develop e-commerce. After nearly seven years of development, e-commerce sales have now accounted for about half of Hengyuanxiang’s total sales.

In 2013, HYX e-commerce participated in “Double 11” for the first time, with sales exceeding 80 million. In 2014, “Double 11” sales reached 170 million on the same day; in 2015, “Double 11” Tmall platform sales is more than 280 million…

Tmall played n vital role in the digital transformation of HYX from the beginning. Tmall platform accounts for more than 95% of the HYX e-commerce sales.

A Tmall plan was launched in September 2017 by Tmall for brands such as HYX. Many domestic brands have begun to go global through the “Tmall World” program, and have achieved significant growth in sales.

On the list of “Tmall Overseas Brands with the Largest Number of Regions Covered by Tmall Overseas Transactions in 2017”, Heng Yuanxiang ranked first.

In 2017, Hengyuanxiang began a global strategy, such as producing latex pillows in Thailand, producing wool quilts in Australia, producing coats in the UK, producing silk scarves and stockings in Italy… At the same time, Hengyuanxiang joined Tmall’s plan to achieve “global production”, “global selling”. HYX sold products to 188 countries and regions…

Read the complete article from CIW eBook “The digital transformation of China’slargest wool and textile enterprise” which gives an overview of Hengyuanxiang’s digital transformation and how Tmall played a critical role.