CICC: Consumers' willingness to actively search has increased, and high-end domestic clothing brands have ushered in a dividend period for online development

The Zhitong Finance App learned that CICC released a research report saying that the data showed that consumers' willingness to actively search for a number of domestic high-end clothing brands with distinctive product characteristics has increased markedly. At the same time, online sales and gross profit of 1H26 high-end apparel listed companies are also growing rapidly. The bank is optimistic that leading domestic high-end apparel companies will continue to gain market share online. The bank is optimistic about the trend of increasing the online brand power of domestic apparel. It is recommended to focus on brands with clear product positioning, continuous product innovation, and a strong base for member repurchase.

CICC's main views are as follows:

The brand search popularity index is a leading indicator, showing increased awareness of domestic high-end clothing brands

Third-party asphalt public data measures the popularity of Tmall brand searches using “brand term search volume/category term search volume”. From January to July 2026, the search popularity of the 15 domestic high-end clothing brands according to its statistics was generally higher than the average of the top 10 brands with sales in the corresponding categories, and gradually approached international luxury brand standards. Among them, Yamashita Arimatsu and Zhihe reached 70% and 51% respectively, which is only 3ppt and 4ppt lower than the average value of corresponding luxury brands. The bank believes that the active search, repurchase and new product sales of these brands have improved, and that the popularity of brand searches is high, indicating that the growth of some brands reflects an increase in brand awareness.

Active consumer searches reflect consumers' intellectual recognition of the brand. The share of online sales and gross margin of leading domestic apparel brands has bucked the trend over the past 25 years

The bank believes that the increase in search intent on the Tmall platform shows that the brand continues to occupy consumers' minds and receive organic traffic. Driven by this, the bank has seen high-quality mid-range and high-end men's and women's clothing companies represented by Biyin Lefen, Jiangnan Cloth, Langzi Co., Ltd., and Digisu Fashion, as well as leading functional sportswear companies including Bosideng and Anta Group. Online sales revenue growth rates have been higher than offline for 25 years. More notably, the gross margin of online channels for high-end men's and women's clothing brands has continued to rise in recent years, approaching or even surpassing offline channels, showing that the motivation for consumers to actively search is not due to higher discounts but from the product itself.

Domestic high-end brands still have a lot of room for development

After years of accumulation, domestic high-end brands have gradually gained consumer recognition in terms of product design, brand story, and aesthetic expression, and brand mentality is being formed. At the same time, the bank believes that on the one hand, the platform still supports high-quality brands, and on the other hand, consumers also pay more attention to the product itself rather than the brand nationality. The bank has full confidence in the long-term healthy growth of online channels for local high-end clothing brands.

risk

Consumer demand fell short of expectations; inventory and discount pressure increased; platform traffic policies changed.