As the world’s fifth-largest exporter of textiles spanning apparel, home and technical products, India is a key player in the global textile landscape contributing about 8 percent of the world’s trillion-dollar business-to-business (B2B) market.
However, China is miles ahead of India in terms of exports, with a 31 percent share in global exports, while India has just 4 percent share.
India’s exports have shrunk by about 3 percent over the past five years. Importers have been moving toward cheaper sources of textiles including Vietnam, Indonesia and Ethiopia.
Five moves can help India’s textile companies win a bigger share of the world market
Build agile supply chains
India can play its hand at building flexible processes based on shortened lead times and asset-light business models. The former will require a manufacturing process redesign, inventory planning and platforming, geographical clustering of suppliers, and upskilling labour.
Create the right product–geography mix
Indian players should target the right product mix for each geography by evaluating local consumption markets. For example, India can focus on exporting knitwear to Western Europe and woven wear to the United States and United Kingdom.
Reset costs
Indian players will need to build a significant cost advantage over China by “variabilising” costs by restructuring manpower and maintenance contracts and exploring shared fixed asset resources across organisations.
Embrace digitalisation and automation, from planning to sales
Sales and customer engagement should explore AI-based predictive lead scoring, smart B2B sales management tools for generating and managing leads and digital showrooms, virtual 3D sampling, and participation on digital B2B platforms for customer engagement and transactions.
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To differentiate from China and attract global retailers and customers as they look to diversify away from China, Indian players should pivot their sales and marketing campaigns around sustainability. With product authenticity and traceability becoming key differentiators.
The focus on such market segments will help India regain its share of the global textile market, propelling the country to become the second-largest exporter behind China over the next four to five years.
