With no production facilities of its own, PPG takes orders from customers online or through telephone, does the design and outsources the manufacturing to garment plants that have good quality control in nearby provinces. It then delivers them directly to buyers, thus also cutting warehousing costs.

PPG runs most of its operations at its three-story headquarters in suburban Shanghai, where it has 500 employees, including about 200 working in its call center, its largest department.

The second largest division would be its IT department, which handles its information interface that integrates sourcing, production, warehousing, logistics and distribution.

To build up its brand, the company invested heavily on advertising that constitutes a large part of its costs. More than 10 million yuan of advertisements are spent in the media, mostly TV, newspapers and magazines every month, and it plans to increase spending on new media like Internet and mobile short messages.

In the first half, it has spent nearly 90 million yuan on ads in newspapers and magazines alone, a jump of 34 times over the year-ago period, according to Beijing-based CTR Market Research.

The ad blitz helped it gain quick recognition. "It seems that they almost came out of nowhere," said Yann Lombard-Platet, president of Nurun Asia. "The wonder of it all is their marketing, for the most part, seems to be predominantly word-of-mouth."

PPG also offers a good policy of return at up to 90 days for a refund or exchange, a rare practice in China's clothing retail industry but which marketing experts attribute is key to its success.

"PPG has been successful because they have built up trust with the consumers without relying on physical retail stores," said Shaun Rein, managing director of Shanghai-based China Market Research Group which helps overseas firms do business in the country.