Statista research shows that the global fast fashion market will exceed US$106 billion in 2022 and is expected to achieve significant growth in the next few years, reaching a market size of US$185 billion in sales in 2027.

Driven by the trend, countless overseas brands are rushing to this track, with SHEIN The apprentices tried to replicate the same fast fashion myth. But Rome was not built in a day. SHEIN has been cultivating supply chain barriers for more than ten years to build its huge fast fashion empire. For SHEIN apprentices, mechanical imitation cannot build a high wall for the brand.

The industry has witnessed too many brands collapse midway due to blind imitation. Therefore, in the grand fast fashion overseas show, striving to be the next SHEIN does not mean becoming its shadow. Only by following its successful trajectory and opening up a differentiated path can you remain standing after all the waves have passed.

From 2020 to 2021, the fast fashion industry has seen unprecedented financing boom. With the collective bet of capital, countless new and cutting-edge dark horses have emerged in this track, and the clothing brand Commense is a wave in this fast fashion overseas wave.

Founded in April 2021, Commense is a women's DTC fast fashion brand under Xinchao Wuxian. At first glance, both the brand name and the company it belongs to are relatively unfamiliar faces to many people going overseas.

But in fact, Commense's background is not simple. Opening the Xinchao Wuxian official website, we can see the following self-introduction: "The company members come from leading Internet companies such as ByteDance, the apparel industry chain and cross-border e-commerce professional fields. It is a team with sales + brand + Internet experience, familiar with China and the United States + global vision + internationalization."

According to iQiyicha, the legal representative of Xinchao Wuxian is Zhou Jingjin. After checking relevant information, it was found that Zhou Jingjin was the fourth employee of ByteDance and was the CTO of Starlink, a cross-border e-commerce company founded by Zhang Yiming.

ByteDance’s dream of going global has also been to cross the river by feeling the stones of SHEIN. It has launched several DTC independent websites that are comparable to SHEIN and invested in overseas brands. Commense, which belongs to the fast fashion track, has also been favored by ByteDance. Shortly after its establishment, it received a $100 million Series A financing from ByteDance and Sequoia Capital.

Although it was born with a silver spoon in its mouth, Commense's starting environment was inevitably fraught with dangers as it was in an industry as fast-growing and fast-dying as fast fashion. Especially at the time of the fast fashion financing boom, many DTC brands squeezed into the overseas market and followed SHEIN's successful trajectory with the support of capital.

Going overseas for fast fashion is bound to be a journey of ups and downs. So what is the secret of going overseas for Commense, which has successfully stood out from countless waves?

Cost-effectiveness is the best pass for many fast fashion brands to come and go among consumers. Take SHEIN as an example. In addition to the affordable pricing strategy, a variety of discount activities are also an important means for it to promote its high cost-effectiveness. On its independent website, various discounts and promotion areas are integrated with the products, which is a unique landscape.

But unlike most fast fashion independent websites that have a homepage layout of "discounts before products are sold", Commense's website does not focus on attracting attention with a wide range of x% off and fancy promotions. When you enter its official website, simplicity and monotony will be your first impression, which is exactly the brand attitude that Commense shows.

From the perspective of positioning, Commense mainly deals in women's clothing. In such a fiercely competitive market, it chooses to dig deep into the subdivided fields and locks in a precise target consumer group for its products - young working women with certain purchasing power.

As an industry giant, SHEIN's model has been emulated by many brands: covering all scenarios and styles of target users. This model is conducive to reaching consumers widely and occupying the market through economies of scale. But correspondingly, for new brands that lack first-mover advantages, it is also easy to blur the brand personality - "selling everything is equivalent to selling nothing."

Therefore, in comparison, Commense chose a narrower route and made a single breakthrough in the segmented track.

From the layout of the independent website, we can see that its product line is relatively simple, mainly covering categories such as tops, bottoms, dresses and coats. Based on the clothing needs of working women, Commense is divided into four categories according to the scene: work fashion, casual atmosphere, weekend gatherings and night out.

The overall visual effect of the Commense website is simple yet design-conscious. The product images also look fashionable, elegant, and high-end, highlighting the brand’s personality through concise and clear visual expressions.

However, Commense did not implement the same minimalism in product design. In order to create its own unique brand characteristics and use them as a bargaining chip to attract consumers, it accurately anchored the needs of its target customer groups and focused on the segmentation and scenario-based creation of products.

For example, in the dress category, in addition to the stratification based on style, appearance, fabric, etc., Commense also provides differentiated options for different scenarios, such as party dresses, holiday casual dresses, and work clothes.

In order to cater to consumer preferences, in addition to a rich and diverse product strategy, Commense also has a very clear direction in product positioning: high-end. Therefore, high quality and strong design sense are the core logic of its product creation. While following the fashion trend, it also provides working women with fashionable and textured wearing experience that fits different scenarios.

More importantly, compared with similar big brands, Commense also has its own advantages - high cost performance. Its product prices are generally concentrated in the range of US$20 to US$100. The combination of excellent quality and affordable pricing also makes it more competitive.

In a nutshell, the reason why Commense can stand out in the fiercely competitive fast fashion industry is its three interlocking strategies: precise market positioning, unique product design and differentiated brand policy.

Currently, Commense's main sales channel is its own DTC independent website, and it has not yet expanded its sales channels such as third-party platforms. According to Similarweb data, its average monthly visits are generally over 700,000, and it has accumulated a considerable number of loyal customers in less than three years.

In terms of regions, 63.41% of Commense's traffic share comes from the United States, while Canada and Italy account for 19.70% and 6.29% of the market share respectively. It can be seen that North America is Commense's core sales market.

The biggest advantage of concentrating sales on independent websites is that it is free from the constraints of the public rules of third-party platforms, directly reaches consumers and has first-hand customer data, and creates a brand-exclusive private domain traffic ecosystem. However, it also inevitably faces the accompanying dilemma of attracting traffic and acquiring customers.

Therefore, effective marketing strategies are the foundation for the long-term development of DTC independent websites. Commense has captured a large number of loyal customers in just three years by relying on its unique traffic marketing method.

Specifically, Commense's traffic mainly comes from direct traffic, paid search, social traffic and natural search. Obviously, social media platforms are one of its most important channels for traffic. So far, its social media matrix covers mainstream platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

Like most fast fashion brands, Commense actively launches marketing activities through social media and cooperates with various KOLs to attract traffic. The content it publishes mainly focuses on recommendations, product displays, brand dynamics, and fashion trends.

However, in terms of strategic segmentation, Commense firmly focuses on the consumption preferences and differentiated demands of its target consumers, namely, working women, and attaches great importance to user interaction and participation.

On the one hand, Commense's marketing content focuses on providing working women with the latest fashion trends and diversified outfits suitable for different scenarios. Its marketing expression is also more committed to highlighting the brand image of being fashionable, high-end, professional and reliable, while encouraging users to share outfit photos on social media.

Through active interaction with consumers, Commense is able to increase its exposure while also being able to quickly respond to user feedback and demands, and continuously optimize its products and services.

On the other hand, in order to gain consumers’ trust and cultivate loyal fans to increase brand stickiness and repurchase rate, Commense focuses on establishing a deeper emotional connection with them.

On major social media platforms, Commense actively triggers spiritual resonance with consumers by emphasizing product quality and brand characteristics, such as sharing images of successful women wearing Commense clothing, conveying the values ​​of confidence, fashion, and generosity.

In addition, Commense is also keen on spreading inspirational messages on social media, by posting short emotional texts and linking brand products to resonate with consumers and strengthen emotional connections. Taking Instagram as an example, the data of such content posted on it is generally much higher than general product content, and it has received active interaction from a large number of consumers.

Independent sites are separated from the native traffic pool of third-party platforms. Brands need to build a private traffic ecosystem from scratch to accumulate their own loyal customer base. Commense's traffic marketing strategy is to do a good job in user operations, from product interaction to brand awareness to emotional connection, and provide personalized products and services based on in-depth understanding and effective connection.

OneSight In the "2023Q3 TOP30 E-commerce Overseas Brand Social Media Influence List" released by the China Business Network, Commense was newly ranked 19th, together with overseas giants and well-known brands such as SHEIN and Temu.

Although Commense has not yet disclosed specific revenue data to the public, judging from its website traffic and social media influence, the still young Commense has successfully established a foothold in the fiercely competitive fast fashion industry.

Looking back on its journey, standing on the shoulders of giants and being itself is perhaps the best interpretation.

SHEIN, which gradually unveiled its mystery after lying dormant for several years, has shown Chinese brands the myth of how fast fashion can make you rich overseas. In 2020, countless capitals have poured into the market to chase the dividends of the times and try to replicate the next SHEIN.

SHEIN's core competitiveness lies in the advantages of China's developed industrial belts, the practice of small orders and quick response based on the digital supply chain, and the leading edge of the industry by keeping abreast of fashion trends and providing a large number of items. However, the domestic supply chain is not exclusive to SHEIN, so Chinese brands also have the possibility of replicating the SHEIN model.

However, this does not mean blindly following suit in all aspects.

It has been more than two years since the fast fashion financing boom. Among the many SHEIN apprentices, the ones who finally survived successfully are often brands such as Cider and Halara that broke through the segmented track by relying on differentiated competitive barriers, while those brands that copied SHEIN at pixel level were silently annihilated in the fierce fast fashion red ocean.

The reason why Commense stands out is that it has created a unique development path based on the success code of SHEIN.

There is also a slow process in fast fashion. Instead of blindly imitating SHEIN and competing with competitors, Commense is more focused on following its own pace of development. While following the trend and responding to demand quickly, it is also committed to the fine polishing of products and the long-term development of the brand.

Commense's success is not accidental, but a necessity due to the combination of fast and slow development.