Intima Asia’s Favourite Award Goes to CHUWEN

11 October 2019

During the prestigious awards ceremony organised during the SIUF trade Show in Shenzhen, Intima Media Group’s co-owner Francesca Spinetta Awarded Yang Yu Jie with the magazine’s exclusive prize.

Once a year, the Chinese intimate apparel industry gathers in Shenzhen and takes part in the awards evening to recognize companies’ professional achievements, be it in terms of product development or sales performances. Given the size and the atomization of the Chinese market, each award is given to several companies at the same time; the only single recognition is the Intima Asia’s Favourite Award, given to one of more than 800 brands exhibiting at SIUF. “Each edition I’m so thrilled to walk around the show to find “the” brand that really catches my eye” says Francesca Spinetta “I don’t have one single criterion in mind; I let my curiosity lead the way, and the experience does the rest. I force myself to “reset” my western mind and only keep the expertise of years of viewing different products. Sometimes it is hard, sometimes it’s easy; with Chuwen, it was the latter. Chuwen totally stood out, firstly for the huge crowd it attracted, and then for its very distinctive approach. I’m really happy to introduce you to Yang Yu Jie and her brand Chuwen – “First Kiss” in Chinese.”

How and when did you decide to start your brand?
Ten years ago, the company was founded. At that time, the Internet was booming and consumers' shopping methods were changing. Self-created brands were mainly aimed at ecommerce channels such as Taobao, Tianmao, Alibaba and other stores. The First Kiss brand was founded on 20th May 2018. Thanks to the convenience brought by smartphones, the Internet, and logistics, consumers' consumption needs and habits needed to be more efficient and convenient. At this stage, international shipping can be completed just using a mobile phone.

What had you been doing before the brand launch?
I have been in the knitting underwear industry for 20 years now. Since 1998, I have been acting as a brand agent for underwear in Henan Province. The role follows the traditional multi-brand underwear agent business model and is active in Henan Province. With the rise of the new Internet consumer and the resulting change in shopping behaviour, I saw that this was also change that would bring new business opportunities. In 2008, the company began to add an ecommerce sector, through Taobao, Tianmao, and Alibaba they start their own brand operation and to build online stores that serve the national consumer through e-commerce channels.With the popularity of smartphones and the arrival of the Internet, in 2012 the company began to use Wechat to serve customers in multiple ways. Going into the new social retail, it was able to bring 20 years of experience in the underwear industry and 10 years of ecommerce experience when establishing the brand Chuwen in 2018, allowing it to successfully build a brand that enjoys global sales.

From the very beginning, you started with a micro merchant concept, can you tell us more?
When it comes to business knowledge, I want, first of all, to thank my brother. When I was very young, my brother would buy interesting toys for me to exchange for the equivalent in money or goods. I was probably less than ten years old, and I experienced the joy of sharing. I then had my first brief experience in entrepreneurship. In 1995, when I was studying, because I was constantly seeking self-improvement I wanted to go to an off-campus training institute to study more, but did not want to increase the burden of my family. I would sell calligraphy and paintings after class to earn back the cost of studying. From entrepreneurship people gain great growth, selfconfidence, enthusiasm, commitment, altruism, gratitude, self-confidence, and more. They not only experience the fun of it, but also understand the satisfaction of actively striving to bring to life all possibilities. In 1998, my husband and I began to enter the underwear industry. He is an excellent Chaoshan man with strength, character, and courage. He is not only my lifelong companion, but also my life mentor. He sets very high standards for everything he does and for others, but he is not a great talker. He gave me all the opportunities possible. He took me into business and helped teach me the meaning of empowering others. The “First Kiss” brand is like our love for each other. In our lifetime, we hope it will grow to touch more people. It is like the first kiss, passing love from one to another. This is Chuwen’s brand mission: delivering happiness and beauty, creating comfort and a sense of community, creating opportunities for success and adding value to life.

Almost 2 years after launching, how has the brand developed?
Through both the community and new retail sales both online and offline, the brand has been able not only to grow in terms of entrepreneurship, but also to help some special groups. We have a group of partners who are hearing and verbally impaired; they work very hard, for Chuwen, not only to become entrepreneurs, but also be more optimistic, confident, and to love life. This is one of Chuwen’ proudest achievements!

Offline, do you now have many direct or franchised stores?
If so, why and in which areas? At present, there are more than 300 “experience stores” in various cities in China. I call them this because our stores mainly focus on product experience, communication and service. Some of them are dealers who do well online and then open experience stores with us in order to provide a better service. The other group is made up of traditional apparel businesses as well as beauty specialists who saw the opportunity to open a Chuwen experience store and decided to integrate it with their existing resources.
Your booth at SIUF was literally full of fans… how do you manage to create such a success online?
I want to be inseparable from the brand values of Chuwen, because only shared values can attract like-minded partners.

How many distributors do you have now? And end-consumers?
At present, there are more than 3,000 distributors, not only throughout the country, but also beginning to move into other countries, such as Korea, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, etc. We hope Chuwen products will be able to enter tens of millions of families and make them healthy and happy!

What is your brand’s turnover today? Is it all online?
At present, the turnover is over 100 million RMB (about 13 million €), and the proportion it is around 60% online, compared to 40% from physical stores.
You use a technical fibre from Eurojersey as well Lenzing. How important is product innovation?
If the product quality is the baseline of the First Kiss brand, product innovation is its core requirement. We’re now in the era of product surplus. Product research and development must be based on consumer thinking, as well as the mind-set of sellers, and must constantly optimize in order to be competitive in the market.

What’s next?
We hope that the First Kiss brand will continue to provide consumers with cost-effective, high quality products and become the leader of the global underwear industry. We hope equally that the First Kiss brand will become the largest platform for national entrepreneurship, so that everyone can start a business easily. Finally, it is hoped that the First Kiss brand will develop under the concept of sharing love and health and become a centuryold brand full of happiness.

This is the First Kiss vision: Be a leader in the global underwear industry Create the largest national entrepreneurship platform Become the first kiss of a century full of happiness

Intima Asia’s Favourite Award Goes to CHUWEN

During the prestigious awards ceremony organised during the SIUF trade Show in Shenzhen, Intima Media Group’s co-owner Francesca Spinetta Awarded Yang Yu Jie with the magazine’s exclusive prize.

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