Shaping magic

A model poses in Turn back time from the Magic Violet line of Dong's shapewear. Photo provided to Shanghai Star

"Nothing will fail if you stay calm and patient. I always set a small target for myself to reach every year and have never thought of giving up, that's how I gradually expanded my small team to become a company," Dong says.

During the past three years, Dong's products have become some of the best sellers in the shapewear section of taobao.com and are now distributed in brick and mortar retail outlets.

Switching from low-price products to expensive, customized shapewear has been part of Dong's business strategy since 2012 when she registered the brand Magic Violet. It was a brave move for Dong who used to be very conservative in her business goals. She had to make several changes to the product and raise the price by a large margin to attract a different group of customers.

Shapewear from the Ziyanlier line is about 300 yuan, but one piece of shapewear branded under Magic Violet costs more than 3,000 yuan, 10 times higher. Magic Violet also allows clients to order and customize unique pieces of shapewear costing up to 10,000 yuan.

To ensure the high quality of those products targeted at wealthier customers, Dong's design team uses high technology fabrics imported from Taiwan and Italian suppliers to produce more comfortable, beautiful and effective shapewear for women to regain confidence in their bodies.

"Wearing shapewear is a woman's way to regain confidence and elegance. It will become an essential item for those middle-aged wives and mothers from middle- and upper-class families," Dong says.

In the past two years, Dong has achieved a 200 percent growth in revenue. She aims to become the leading brand of shapewear in China in next five years and to extend Magic Violet worldwide.

"I plan to move 50 percent of my focus to promote Magic Violet within five years and cooperate with high-end chain beauty salons to raise the reputation among consumers," Dong says.

Fact sheet of Magic Violet

Business model:

Women's shapewear brand

Staff: about 30 people

Start-up capital: 500,000 yuan

Turnaround time: within three years

Online shop: ziyanlier.tmall.com

Telephone: 400-800-0808*811311