The Top 100 List of Chinese Cross-border E-commerce Brand Influence for the First Half of 2025 has been released. The Halara brand jumped from 20th place in last year's Q4 ranking to 11th place, still the second most influential apparel cross-border e-commerce brand after SHEIN.

 

Report Source: Daily Economic NewsX Shenzhen Yishi Technology

Behind this achievement is its brilliant performance onTuke: In 2024, Halara's four Tuke stores in the US market achieved total sales of over $113 million, ranking first in Tuke-related categories for four consecutive months.

How did this Chinese brand, established only four years ago, rise rapidly in the US market? What kind of entrepreneurial story and operational strategy does it offer as a reference sample for Chinese companies going Tuke?

 

Image source: Internet

Entering with a Tech Background, Reshaping the Apparel Supply Chain

Behind Halara's success is a founder with a technical background who rethought the traditional apparel industry.

Brand founder Zhang Xiaopei graduated from Tsinghua University with a degree in Computer Science and Technology, and was formerly Chief R&D Director of Microsoft's online advertising team and Global VP ofHulu, an American online video company.

After returning to China, she served as CTO of CreditEase and CTO of Guazi Used Cars.

After the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, Zhang Xiaopei resigned from Chehaoduo and founded Halara (parent company: Quanliang Quansu).

Zhang Xiaopei entered the apparel sector based on her unique logic for track selection. She believes that apparel and automotive industries share significant similarities: both are huge non-standard product industries with very long industrial chains. This characteristic provides a rare opportunity to use technology to reshape the traditional supply chain.

 

Image source: AiQiCha

Seizing Market Opportunities, Creating North American Bestsellers

The word Halara comes from the Greek "Take it easy", advocating a relaxed and comfortable lifestyle. The brand is precisely positioned in the athleisure apparel niche, focusing on the North American market.

From a market perspective, when the Halara brand was born, it coincided with the explosive growth window of e-commerce demand in Europe and America. In the past, offline was the main retail scenario in the US, but the pandemic broke this model, providing opportunities for online brands.

Meanwhile, the athleisure apparel market itself is also growing rapidly. According to industry data, by2030, the global sportswear market is expected to reach $646.01 billion.

 

Image source:grand view research

In this environment, the Halara brand cleverly found a market gap. Its product price range is $17-40, less than half of Lululemon's lowest price.

This high cost-performance positioning quickly earned them the reputation of "Lululemon alternative" in overseas media.

 

Image source:Halara

Omni-channel Marketing Strategy,Tuke as the Main Growth Engine

Halara's channel layout adopts the dual-engine model of "independent site+Tuke", and builds a complete marketing ecosystem around this core.

OnTuke, Halara has adopted a proven operational approach.

Instead of opening just one official account, the brand has established multiple accounts, each with different content features. According to incomplete statistics, the brand currently has more than 20 Tuke accounts.

 

Some brand account information Image source:Tuke

By analyzing the content and posting habits of these accounts, they can be roughly divided into two categories: "soft promotion" and "hard promotion".

For example, as shown in the accounts above, the first two are typical "soft promotion" accounts, mainly focusing on user outfit sharing. By collecting feedback videos from different consumers, they naturally showcase the product's wearing effect in real life.

This approach more easily gains consumer trust and makes the content appear more authentic and credible.

 

Image source:Tuke

The latter is more targeted, being a "hard push" for Halara apparel, mainly showcasing apparel details, discounts, live streaming benefits, etc. This straightforward approach quickly attracts consumers with clear purchase intentions and effectively promotes sales conversion.

For example, Halara's live streaming account @halara.workleisure.live (319,600 followers) posts content that are clips from the day's live stream. While showcasing products in the live room, the account also posts the current hot-selling apparel to attract traffic to the live stream.

 

Image source:Tuke

From the data, this content model is quite effective.

In the past 30 days, this account's live stream views reached 824,400, with sales from live streaming totaling $334,700, showing a relatively stable trend in traffic and conversion.

 

Image source:kalodata

In addition to building an account matrix, influencer promotion is also a key part of Halara's conversion on Tuke.

Take the brand's US Tuke shop Halara US as an example: in the past 30 days, the store has cooperated with 5,800 influencers, with sales reaching $7.5722 million, accounting for 92.89% of the store's monthly revenue.

 

Image source:kalodata

Among them, the Tuke influencer @juliewiththebeauty is a great example. On September 11 this year, she posted a Halara leggings recommendation video, simply trying on and explaining the product. The video received over 34.8 million views and generated $248,000 in sales, demonstrating the impact of influencer collaboration.

 

Image source:Echotik

AsTuke traffic accumulates, Halara has strengthened its independent site construction,using advertising to attach independent site links and convert social media traffic into direct visits to the independent site.

According to data, Halara's independent site had a total of 5.635 million visits in September this year, with 29.49% of the traffic coming from social media referrals.

This data shows that content and advertising on social media platforms can effectively serve as "traffic drivers" for independent sites, guiding platform users to the brand's own domain to place orders, achieving the key leap from public to private domain.

 

Image source:similarweb

Once users are attracted to the independent site, Halara'sbrandindependent site operation logic shifts to "user experience optimization" and "brand loyalty cultivation".

Theyoptimized the interaction logic of the independent site pages, using designs such as "full-screen pop-up lottery" and "25% discount pop-up" to improve user retention rates.

In addition, they developed an intelligent shopping guide robot that recommends outfits based on users' browsing history, which plays a big role in retaining customers and shortening the user decision path.

 

Image source:Halara

Making Good Use of Platform Leverage, Building a Long-term Base

In the current rapidly changing cross-border e-commerce environment, the traffic dividend of social platforms such asTuke and the brand autonomy of independent sites are forming complementary advantages.

This "platform traffic acquisition+independent site conversion" model not only leverages the communication power of social media to quickly open up the market, but also establishes direct contact with consumers through independent sites, achieving long-term brand development.

In practice, many companies may encounter difficulties, such as not knowing how to do independent site advertising, or not being familiar with Tuke operations. At this time, finding a professional service provider to cooperate with is a good choice. They can provide one-stop services from website building to promotion, helping companies avoid detours.

Now is a great time for Chinese brands to go Tuke,andthe global e-commerce market is still growing. As long as you find the right method, every brand has the opportunity to find its place in the international market.