Domestic apparel brands want to transform fast fashion

In recent years, with the ZARA of Spain, H&M of Sweden, UNIQLO of Sweden, GAP of the United States, and GAP of the United States, etc., the fashion retail giants have rapidly seized up the Chinese market, “fast fashion” has been stirred up. Today, more and more domestic brands are also eyeing the huge market capacity of “fast fashion”. Metersbonwe, Benny Road, Giordano, and Li Ning have all tried to transform themselves.

However, in the actual operation process, these domestic "fast fashion" brands have encountered a series of problems, such as not being able to continue to lead the fashion, update speed is not fast enough, the transformation of product positioning and O2O immature. Industry experts pointed out that domestic apparel brands are still in the process of “learning from fast fashion”. Enhancing supply chain efficiency and strengthening development capabilities are their top priorities.

Found that fast fashion became popular in the domestic clothing brand In recent years, Spain's ZARA, Sweden's H & M, Japan's UNIQLO and the United States GAP and other international fashion retail giants have seized the Chinese market, all the way to advancing. Right now, these international fast fashion brands have become "popular magnets" in major shopping malls in China.

Recently, reporters found that in Xidan, Wangfujing, Sanlitun and other business districts, each of these fast-fashion brand stores is overcrowded, and cashiers wait for the money to grow. In contrast, in the capital shopping malls and the famous business district, domestic clothing brand stores are relatively deserted.

In a ZARA shop, Ms. Zhao told reporters that she could buy everything from clothes to handbags and accessories to shoes and socks. “A tens of dollars in short sleeves, a pair of pants in 200, and a suit and coat. Only three or four hundred, the style is also the latest popular, such a brand who does not love?" Ms. Zhao said.

“The unique characteristics of the fast fashion brand make it attractive to a large number of people and help to make the mall popular in a low-street market environment. This is an important reason why shopping malls favor fast fashion brands,” said a person in charge of a shopping mall.

In the face of fierce market competition and high inventory pressure, a group of local apparel companies have begun to “replicate” the rapid fashion brand's rapid R&D, rapid shipment cycle, and zero inventory model, accelerating access to the fast fashion field.

Reporters visited and found that many local clothing brands, including Metersbonwe, Giordano, and Baleno, have all played in the name of “fast fashion” in recent years.

In addition, Li Ning, China's sports brand “boss”, also turned his attention to sports fast fashion, took out 10% of the products to test the “fast fashion” supply chain, and reduced the speed of product renewal to 60 days.

A brand clothing salesperson said that fast-fashion consumer groups are very wide, not easily affected by the macro economy, the market has a large capacity, so local brands want to quickly occupy the market with fast fashion products.

Weapons focus on differentiation to improve the efficiency of the supply chain Industry experts pointed out that the biggest incentive for local apparel brands to follow suit is the impressive performance of foreign fast fashion brands in China in just a few short years.

Since ZARA opened its first domestic store in Shanghai in 2006, H&M, GAP and other international fast fashion giants have continued to open new stores throughout China, and sales have maintained double-digit growth for many years. And perhaps more attractive than the performance, perhaps the fast fashion brand inspired the domestic brands in the entire supply chain management.

One of the advantages of fast fashion is the strong supply chain support and the rapid flow of goods brought about by rapid market response. Such as ZARA from the design version, customization, shipment to the cycle of the shelves to achieve an astonishing 15 days, but to do this lies in its strong design force.

“Designers are not necessarily top-notch, but they can accurately capture fashion trends, and the team of designers is very helpful. This is something that many domestic companies cannot imitate.” The above-mentioned sources said. At the same time, the international "fast fashion" brand stores are large in scale, often involving thousands of companies, and they have mastered the pricing power in the dialogue with the upstream suppliers. They can get goods at a low price and speed, which is also not achievable by local brands. At present, the domestic "fast fashion" brand is still in the process of learning. Enhancing supply chain efficiency and strengthening development capability are the top priorities.

“Low prices or quick responses are all ways that fast fashion can control costs and reduce inventory. Many domestic brands are transforming fast fashion to solve the high inventory pressure now facing the industry as a whole. Without this burden, There is no need for frequent discount promotions to clear stocks. It is also a virtuous circle for brand image and consumer loyalty,” said a person in charge of a clothing company.

Although most of the domestic apparel brands are impacted by “fast fashion” and the development is under pressure, “fast fashion” is not the only “rescue” for the traditional garment enterprises to get out of difficulties. This part of the company should learn from the international big names about its efficient product planning system, production and distribution model, and strategies that are close to the market, and aim at the shortcomings of international brands in the domestic market and come up with a differentiated approach that meets their own conditions.

Analysis of the five major issues plagued domestic clothing brand break through difficult "is not any brand is suitable for transitional fast fashion, to make a real fast fashion brand is very difficult." Industry insiders frankly, for the vast majority of local companies, to want to and international It is not easy for giants to compete and win on the same stage. It needs to meet three core requirements: products follow fashion trends, fast supply and mass prices.

The person analyzed that there are five major problems in the development of domestic fashion apparel brands.

1. Domestic fashion apparel brands have been constantly improving and promoting themselves, but it is difficult to continue to lead fashion. In the past few years, Vanke was very popular, but it wanted to build a platform without restrictions, gradually lost its brand attributes, and the platform was not built in a timely and effective manner, resulting in today's guest is very tangled.

In the past, Metersbonwe performed well, and later it involved brand extension. It extended the five or six brands, coupled with factors such as channel transformation and changes in the industry environment. In the anxious state, there were phenomena such as strategic confusion and poor management.

2. The low price is only one of the advantages of the “fast fashion” brand. The “quick” in the entire process is their winning trick. However, in some domestic independent brand management and management models, it is very difficult for consumers to be able to buy the latest fashion apparel for the first time. Because their products have to be heavily approved before they can actually go on sale, this process has hindered the fast fashion process.

The domestic traditional apparel industry chain can be divided into seven links, namely, manufacturing, design, raw material procurement, warehousing and transportation, order processing, wholesale management and terminal retail. In general, the traditional clothing manufacturing enterprises have to go through these three steps, the average cycle is 180 days, while the world-renowned brands are generally 120 days, ZARA is only 15 days.

This speed, so that consumers who love fast fashion brands must be "paved" once a month, or miss some of the new. A certain brand salesman who has studied the fast fashion brand, said, "For these traditional clothing manufacturers, the speed must be accelerated, otherwise it will be difficult to compete in the next few years."

3, positioning the product transformation is not allowed "product positioning is a common flaw in the transformation of local clothing brands." Industry experts believe that with more and more "fast fashion" invasion, domestic brands in the clothing style seems a bit behind.

For example, the target population of Metersbonwe is 16 to 25-year-olds, but in reality it is a target group with a large span. From immature to maturity, the style of clothing will be greatly changed. Therefore, their clothing may not be able to go up.

In contrast, ZARA takes the fashion young white-collar style, UNIQLO walking casual style, we want to buy what kind of clothes when you first think of these brands.

4, the industry believes that the cycle of production updates and design style, directly determines the consumer acceptance of international fast fashion brands. In addition, another advantage of fast fashion is the strong supply chain support, and the rapid flow of goods brought about by the rapid market reaction speed.

“Taking ZARA as an example, it launched more than 20,000 pieces of new clothes a year, and the rapid response of the market has already formed a culture.” The source said that at the same time of high-speed development, fast fashion brands will also produce small quantities, artificially Create a scarcity to stimulate consumers' desire to buy.

The above-mentioned sources stated that H&M and other brands catered to the consumer psychology of “high quality and low price”. It is a low price based on the added value of the brand and fashion, which is difficult for local apparel brands to replicate.

5. Since last year, domestic fast fashion brands have also begun to seek transformation. For example, Metersbonwe enhanced the experiential services in the store in the form of “one shop, one story”. Giordano and Gloria also started to focus on the opening of O2O shopping. And application. Although the domestic fast-moving brands have realized that they want to operate O2O and reduce the size of their suppliers, people in the industry still believe that the gap between them and international fast fashion brands is still large.

Take the Metersbonwe O2O experience shop as an example. A two-dimensional code identifies a door on the floor. The fitting room's mirror is marked with “sweeping and surprise”, and a swipe code is placed in front of the checkout counter. Become a member's billboard. Although O2O elements are everywhere, the in-store sales model is still not much different from traditional clothing stores.

"Almost all brands are talking about O2O, but they haven't seen a successful model." The industry believes that traditional brand transformation to do O2O, the channel conflict will be more intense, because to consider the interests of franchisees, "O2O needs a development The process requires a lot of thinking and observation."