China clothing brands complain that e-commerce is like a scourge, making its offline stores scarce; At the same time, there was a long queue in front of the fitting room of Zara Xidan Store.
During the collective downturn of China clothing brands, the founder of Zara once surpassed Bill Gates to become the richest man in the world.
The richest man in the clothing industry
From 20 12 to now, it has been a "bad" cycle for domestic traditional clothing brands: the slow growth or even retrogression of revenue and the huge backlog of inventory have always shrouded the whole industry.
During this period, almost all famous brands exposed bad news to some extent. 20 13 Zhou, known as the richest man in clothing, and his Metersbonwe Bang Wei are caught in an inventory crisis. In the following years, the profit of this enterprise declined year by year, with a loss of 400 million yuan in 20 15 years.
The clothing industry complained that e-commerce came too hard and stole a lot of profits from physical stores. Business owners make a sincere gesture of learning the Internet and O2O, while closing offline stores.
When the whole industry is talking about the Internet, Zara, H&; M, Uniqlo and other foreign brand stores are opening more and more. Zara plans to open more than 60 stores in Chinese mainland in 20 16, and at the same time, carry out large-scale renovation of the original stores. Zara of Joy City in Xidan, Beijing has changed from two floors to three floors, with an area of 1.800 square meters.
This scale is still not comparable to the enthusiasm of consumers. At the weekend, this shop is jostling with each other. Before the fitting room, female customers lined up while playing with their mobile phones.
The flow of people has brought enviable profits to this Spanish enterprise. In 20 15, Zara's parent company, InidtexSA Group, achieved a revenue of 20.9 billion euros and a net profit of 2.875 billion euros, both hitting new highs in the past few years. In the first half of 20 16, the revenue of InidtexSA continued its rapid momentum, rising by 1 1. 1%, and continued to sit firmly at the top of the world's largest clothing company.
In the capital market, the share price of this enterprise has gone red all the way. Thanks to this, amancio ortega, the founder of the group, once surpassed Bill Gates to become the world's richest man with a net asset of $79.5 billion in September.
China market is one of the fastest growing markets in Zara field. By the end of 20 15, Zara had nearly 600 stores in China, second only to its Spanish headquarters. At the press conference of the annual financial report, the CEO of the group talked about the China market in particular. Although no definite figures were released, he said, "China people have a growing appetite for fashion, and we are very optimistic about the China market."
Amancio's competitors are also frequent visitors to the wealth list. Liu, the founder of Uniqlo, has been the richest man in Japan for eight years in a row, pushing Sun Zhengyi of Softbank Group. And control h &；; M's Per-son family, synonymous with Sweden's richest man, sits next to another business giant, kamprad, the founder of IKEA.
On the one hand, it is a domestic brand that has been blown up by the Internet, and on the other hand, it is a "foreign monk" who has made a lot of money through physical stores. Between ice and fire, has the Internet changed the pattern of the industry, or has the competitiveness of China brands failed to match the needs of consumers? The answer is self-evident.
Backward clothing industry
At present, the brand of China is rising in an all-round way, and the development speed of local enterprises in the domestic market is amazing.
In the field of consumer electronics, Huawei and Xiaomi have sprung up everywhere; In the Internet field, giants headed by Tencent and Ali have squeezed out Yi Bei, MSN and Amazon; In the home appliance industry, Hisense acquired part of Sharp's TV business, Changhong took over Sanyo TV, and Midea acquired all Toshiba's white electricity business; In the daily chemical industry, Yunnan Baiyao, Zirantang and Hengan are sharing the profits of Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson.
Under such a big situation, why is the clothing industry going downhill? To analyze the reasons, we should first look at the collective family history of China clothing brands.
China's brand and marketing development has gone through several stages, and almost all famous brands in the clothing field have come from the first stage.
At first, most of these enterprises were international brand foundries, and later they turned to their own products. In the early years, the domestic consumption level was low, consumers didn't have much demand for clothing, and the products didn't have inventory problems, so there was almost a market for production.
At that time, most of the clothing bosses did not have the concept of brand. With the help of demographic dividend, enterprises can grow rapidly without brand and design. After the demand is no longer in short supply, enterprises are facing transformation, enterprises without popularity and brand image are gradually eliminated by the market, and the clothing industry has ushered in the first reshuffle.
During the reshuffle period, a group of enterprises stood out through advertising and creative marketing, becoming bigger and bigger. At that time, there were few domestic clothing brands, and foreign brands had not yet entered. Almost all enterprises that gain popularity through advertising are successful.
As consumers become more and more mature, the brand war centered on advertising is no longer effective. In the clothing industry, where consumption is very accidental, consumers pay more and more attention to design (products look good), personalization and freshness, and the appeal of fashion and sports brands is gradually weakening.
At the same time, brands that emphasize the differentiation of market segments will be successful. This situation is not limited to the clothing industry. For example, Wang Laoji specializes in herbal tea, and Li Lang holds high the "business casual men's wear", which has maintained a high-speed development momentum.
After the brand and market are gradually saturated, a large number of clothing brands are committed to exploring new target customers. In the field of pan-fashion, Jeanswest, Pure, Metersbonwe, Bang Wei, Bang Wei and other brands started from student consumers earlier, and the space in this part of the market is limited. If enterprises want to expand further, they must go up and expand to adult consumers and middle-and high-income people. In this new battlefield, many enterprises have suffered a great defeat.
Core difference
Many domestic brands not only failed to expand new consumer groups, but also lost customers on a large scale and switched to the arms of international brands. Facing these foreign rivals, the competitiveness of domestic brands is quite weak.
Consumers' evaluation criteria for clothing include design, quality, price and other factors. Traditionally, China's clothing brands are not competitive in these aspects, but this is not the case.
In terms of price, the pricing of most domestic pan-fashion brands is slightly lower than that of H&; The prices of M, Uniqlo and Zara are higher standards.
Different people have different views on quality issues, but consumers who have experienced different brands have a clear account in their hearts. In a word, compared with local brands, international brands have absolutely no advantage in quality. Even if you simply look for the best quality shirts at the same price, the answer may be that you are close to silence.
So, is design a magic weapon for international brands? This point needs to be interpreted layer by layer.
As far as design is concerned, none of the above brands are superb. In foreign countries, Zara is synonymous with "shanzhai", and most of its explosive designs come from first-line clothing brands. They get "inspiration" from major luxury brand launches, Milan and Paris Fashion Week to cater to the current trend. Zara needs to pay huge fines to major brands every year because of suspected plagiarism.
The same is true of domestic brand routines. The department director of a well-known brand once revealed to Chinese businessmen: "They (Zara, H & amp；; M) Copy Fashion Week, so do we. Sometimes I may go to the zoo to find inspiration (the clothing market opposite the Beijing Zoo is one of the places where big brands imitate), and the actual design source is no different. "
Similarly, it is also "plagiarism". Generally speaking, China people have the ability to copy things far beyond their peers. No matter how complicated the objects and systems are, China people can easily copy them. But in the clothing field, why can't they "copy" Europeans?
In fact, the core reason why consumers feel that brands such as Zara have a strong sense of design lies not in the design itself, but in the rapid innovation of their products. Zara and H & ampm are not short of products different from universal aesthetics, but these "local" products will be taken off the shelves soon after they get cold, and the same products may be displayed in domestic brand stores for a long time.
Zara and H & Uniqlo belong to the field of fast fashion. This word comes from Europe and is called FastFashion or McFashion. The prefix of Mc is taken from McDonald's, which means selling fashion like McDonald's selling fast food. Fast fashion is characterized by many styles, low price and small quantity, which meets the needs of consumers to the maximum extent.
How fast are these brands? Zara claims that there are more than 12000 styles on the market every year (unofficially confirmed, another way of saying it is 25,000 new styles every year), and it takes an average of 20 minutes to design a dress, which is more than the sum of all domestic brands.
With the support of this speed, Zara can regularly update products twice a week (Monday and Friday) and change the display area in the store.
Brand fans are familiar with this update time. Every Monday or Friday, no matter whether they buy or not, many people will check the new products regularly. According to a survey report in Europe, the rate of customers coming to the general fashion brand stores is 3.5 times a year, while Zara is as high as 18 times.
The difference brought by numbers is obvious. When customers arrive at Zara, they can see new products every time, while when they go to other brands, they are all the same styles as before. The rich product line has established a special brand identity for Zara: many products and good design.
The complex system behind "Kuai"
Simplicity is faster than speed, and China people also have an advantage. To put it bluntly, China people are more diligent; To tell the truth, many factories of fast fashion brands are located in China, and the logistics speed is unique.
However, China's clothing brands are still not "fast". In his early years, Zhou founded Me &；, a sub-brand of Metersbonwe Bang Wei; When I was in CITY, I wanted to emulate Zara's supply chain and even go deep into its foundry to do research, but the brand failed to grow to the extent I wanted. Other brands that do fast fashion have failed to stand out.
The reason is that "fast" is just a manifestation. Behind this word is a very complicated system.
Zara's clothing takes only two weeks on average from design to shelf, which is called "lead time miracle" in the clothing industry. General clothing brands generally need 6-9 months lead time and stocking period.
At the press conferences of major brands, when the models put on the new catwalk, Zara staff can send the drawings to the headquarters for proofing, and the designers will immediately discuss and modify them. PDA (PDA stores will give feedback after receiving the samples.
After the style was established, the group's powerful supply chain system began to operate rapidly. Founder amancio spent a lot of money on supply chain and information technology. He not only built a large-scale production base against the industry, but also cooperated with many workshop-style family factories in Europe.
These small factories provide considerable convenience and flexibility for order testing. Zara put the new model in the store to test the sales feedback and quickly make the next plan according to the consumption situation. If the forecast quantity is not large, it will be contracted by the cooperative factory, and if the demand is large, it will be replenished at its own production base.
In order to perfect this system, Zara has designed an extremely flat organizational structure. Managers of most other brand stores need to report their suggestions layer by layer, and it takes a long time to get to the headquarters. In Zara, the store manager can issue replenishment instructions to the company at any time according to the sales situation. Even, they will have frequent meetings with the Spanish headquarters to discuss product design and early removal.
In Zara's supply chain system, stores are placed at the core, because only stores can really contact consumers and understand their needs. Through the information system, the headquarters can know the sales situation of each store in real time, immediately cut orders or even directly remove unpopular styles; Explosions are extrapolated quickly, and more finished products with different materials and colors are designed according to styles.
Zara's own production base is located around the headquarters, and the finished products are stored in its super logistics warehouse (9 times that of Amazon). There are countless trucks in front of the warehouse to transport products to all parts of Europe. In order to ensure the logistics speed, Zara hollowed out 200 miles underground for underground transportation belt system, and also built two air transport bases. Through this system, they can send the clothes on the drawings to the United States and China within seven days.
It can be said that in the supply chain system, China clothing brands and even most international brands are several levels behind Zara. According to its CEO, Zara's fast-moving supply chain is the core of its value.
Ultimate "province"
The extreme speed created the extreme profit for Zara.
The industrial chain of brand clothing industry is very long, and there are many links that consume costs. It is generally said in the industry that the cost and processing fee of garment accessories generally account for one-seventh of the tag price, while others such as price reduction cost (discounted sales), brand promotion and loss account for a large share.
The supply system plays a decisive role in the profit of the brand. Zhou once took Smith Barney and H &；; M for comparison: "Some products H & ampm are the same as American prices, and the United States has no money to earn, H&; M still has profits, which is his supply chain doing well. "
In Zara's system, the expenditure of these links has been reduced to a very small proportion. For example, this enterprise almost never advertises, and its advertising budget is surprisingly low.
The internal staff once asked amancio: Why don't we try to do some advertising? The boss replied: because advertising benefits not customers, but the enterprise itself. We spend money on reducing costs and improving quality. If you are a guest, do you want the store to spend money on advertisements or clothes you wear?
For the clothing industry, such savings are even secondary. In the past few years, almost all the crises of domestic brands originated from their high inventory.
Thanks to the flexible mechanism, Zara's inventory rate is always around 15%, and all the clothes in its headquarters warehouse will not stay for more than 3 days. On average, only 65,438+05% clothes need to be sold at a discount every quarter, while other brands have 50%.
At the same time, domestic brands, because the lead cycle is too long, mostly need to bet on the explosion. In order to meet the possible demand, they need to place large orders in advance, and once these products are overstocked, they will become a huge burden. According to an industry insider, the production and sales rate of domestic brands is generally around 65%, and some brands in "difficult times" are even as low as 35%.
These unsalable products have become the key to the plight of domestic brands.
It's hard to have Zara.
Zara is so strong that bosses who are fast and fashionable have become the richest people at the national level. So, is it possible for China to create a brand similar to Zara?
Judging from the current development situation, it is very difficult.
Nowadays, domestic well-known brands mostly adopt direct sales and franchise stores to help these brands quickly occupy the market in the early stage. However, this model is doomed to have no quick and flexible contingency mechanism, and it is even more unrealistic to "cut" franchise stores.
In addition, a strong supply chain system requires the accumulation of time and funds. However, the current Internet wave has triggered a relatively impetuous overall business environment. Public opinion and capital are keen on the story of "1 year start-up, with a valuation of XX billion and three-year IPO", and it is difficult to join the hard-fitting industry.
In addition, the supply of talents is not good news for the industry. In China, the clothing industry is still a marginal industry in the eyes of universal values, and "being a tailor" is not a career that parents want to see. In the field of clothing, from design and management to positioning and display, highly professional talents are needed. In many well-known enterprises in the clothing industry, the key positions are still laymen making decisions.
In the upsurge of fast fashion, a number of emerging enterprises interested in this field have emerged in China, such as Handu Yishe, La Chapelle, UR and so on. But the scale of these enterprises is still small. At present, traditional and established clothing enterprises should think about a series of problems such as brand value, positioning and supply chain, and make preparations for rehabilitation.
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