Introduction

Beginning its journey as a knitwear specialist 50 years ago, Shinsung Tongsang has since grown into a global supplier and house of brands, operating 10 domestic brands under the Shinsung Group. 

Jini Kong, Shinsung Tongsang’s Director of Sales and Market Planning, leads the Sales Planning & Digital Innovation team within the export division. Their focus is analyzing major retailers’ products and markets to drive strategic planning and develop competitive products across their customer base. 

With EDITED, they have the power to efficiently monitor the market, ensuring they meet consumer demands and seize the most lucrative whitespace opportunities.  

Life Before EDITED 

When COVID hit in 2019, the entire retail market came to a standstill, and market visibility was severely limited. The continuous volatility made it clear to Shinsung Tongsang that it needed a reliable retail intelligence platform for comprehensive visibility. 

Prior to the pandemic, Jini explained that they would manually gather insights from various trend reports, events, and catwalks, while conducting numerous in-market surveys across global markets to generate new product ideas. This process was time-consuming and limiting.  

“We needed a real-time tool to track trends and make data-driven decisions, and EDITED quickly became our core solution to navigate these challenges,” said Jini. “Before EDITED, we tried other platforms for about 1–2 years, but none provided the breadth of brand and retailer information with the same level of retail sensibility.” 

Identifying Whitespace Opportunities 

Part of Shinsung Tongsang’s role with its retail customers is providing market analysis to compare its customers’ offerings with their customers’ and competitors’ products. Shinsung Tongsang helps the retailers make informed decisions around product assortment updates and identify whitespace opportunities. 

As customers have become more segmented, Shinsung’s customers – the retailers – are asking more in-depth questions, requiring Shinsung Tongsang to provide more detailed, data-backed insights to guide their production decisions. 

“Throughout the pandemic and after, consumers’ needs changed. We had to be fast enough not just to follow, but to suggest options to help our retailers advance. EDITED provided us the real-time insights we needed to differentiate ourselves in the market and continue to grow.” 

-Jini Kong 

Improving Assortment Freshness: The Comfort-Driven Shirt   

For example, Jini highlights how Shinsung Tongsang used EDITED to identify whitespace for a new product category, recommending comfort-driven knit shirts to their customer, a U.S.-based mass-market retailer. 

By analyzing historical data and competitors’ assortments with EDITED, Shinsung Tongsang noticed they were underrepresented in men’s shirts compared to the market.

While most retailers continued to invest in traditional woven fabrics for this category, Shinsung Tongsang sought to differentiate by introducing a comfort-focused knit option that responded to the growing demand for relaxed styles during the pandemic.

EDITED supported the team in validating a strong interest in comfort-driven clothing, and their customer became the first to offer this style. 

The knit shirt category has continued to drive impressive volumes and become a key segment within its partner’s product line, evolving into a core style that underscores the success of this strategic move.

This innovation filled a crucial whitespace, refreshing the assortment and establishing a durable, high-performing core item.  

Strategic Forecasting: Unlocking the Future With Historical Insights

One of the most significant impacts of the Shinsung Tongsang and EDITED partnership has been the improvement in forecasting accuracy, which has directly contributed to sales growth.  

Previously, the team was manually scraping competitor websites, which took away valuable time from strategically advising their clients and didn’t encompass historical data. 

With EDITED, however, they have the power to compare what competitors are currently doing with the historical insights they didn’t have access to before.  

“Without making comparisons from historical data, you can’t forecast for the next feature, season, or year.” 

Jini continues to explain, “Before EDITED, it was challenging to forecast market trends and respond to the segmented demands of the market and our customers, especially during periods of retail stagnation. The pandemic accelerated consumers’ shift to digital, making planning more complex and nuanced.”

Where the team once planned seasonally, they now have to adapt to market-reactive planning, considering factors like product-specific demand, store-level considerations, and even weather impacts on merchandising.

Jini adds, “With EDITED, we’ve gained experience in leveraging historical data, so we’re prepared for this new era of market change and equipped with the insights we need to meet the evolving demands of both the market and our customers.”  

Today, Shinsung Tongsang uses myEDITED to visualize dashboards with key KPIs and macro- and micro-level market insights in one view. EDITED’s real-time and historical market data enable them to analyze competitors’ product assortments and pricing strategies, and EDITED’s research articles provide valuable market trend reports to help them stay informed and ahead.   

Conclusion

EDITED has played a crucial role in giving Shinsung Tongsang a competitive edge when it comes to market trends, helping it enhance both growth and efficiency.

Jini concludes, “Since implementing EDITED in 2020, the most significant change has been our ability to maintain growth even as the retail market faced significant challenges. EDITED has enabled us to optimize product offerings using real-time data, improving sales performance across key categories.” 

Learn more about how EDITED’s True Retail Intelligence brings clarity to retail businesses for more informed, clear decision-making here.