Is There A Third Way To Integrate Different Channels Of Clothing Distribution?

Coincidentally, they all used Ma Yun's sentence: the strategy of a small company is to survive and earn money.

They all say, "good companies always have big opportunities", so small companies must do well first.

Although they are in the same field of clothing channel, they take two distinct paths: Carris's whole thunder says they will not intervene in the physical stores; Ding Hui, the only shop in the shop, says that there is no way to use e-commerce.

But will it be the two parallel lines?

Mcglaughlin CEO Gu Bei Chun said, why does the Land 's End' made by shirts do not make the fortune five hundred, while J.Crew and French PPR can?

"The difference is that the latter is multi-channel and multi brand".

From Mcglaughlin's "aggravation" to the "lightweight" of Shanshan and the bird of the Phoenix (002154, stock bar), is there a third way?

Internet sales: lack of experience?

In the past 8 years, he believes that it is right to make steady and steady shops. "Clothing is a thing that needs to be experienced".

They want to be the Gome of the clothing industry, not just the "classic money" that the Internet sale focuses on.

Internet sales seek absolute standards, not too fashionable.

"For example, Tibetan T-shirts, such as white shirts, which can be handed down all the time."

Ding Hui has been a store for the past 8 years, "we don't touch the Internet."

But apparently many people think that it has missed the huge market of online shopping.

According to the Research Report of AI consulting, the total amount of online shopping in China in 2007 was 51 billion yuan, of which clothing accounted for 16%, and online shopping kept 65% compound growth every year.

In the United States, according to Shop.org, the largest online retailer Association in the US, sales of apparel online in the US reached $18 billion 300 million in 2006, exceeding the sales of computer products by US $17 billion 200 million.

E-commerce accounts for 7% of US retail sales, while in 2007 China's online shopping accounted for 0.8% of total national consumption, even though it was 3 times stronger than 0.25% in 2006.

"Network sales is the easiest way to build a customer database."

Quan Lei said.

In light assets companies, the core assets of their marketing are customer information. After selling clothing, they can sell more products to this potential consumer group.

For example, Carris plans to proxy foreign brands in the future.

Whether the database is large enough to rely on stores, can it be updated at any time?

But he did not see this as a problem.

More than 90% of its single stores rely on "repeat customers".

"Compared with the traditional way of selling, the cost of online sales is the lowest."

Traditional stores need to pay fixed costs such as rent, labor and decoration.

Although this theory has been questioned, many companies doing chain stores have pointed out that these costs are not high compared with the advertising costs of online sales. "Maybe in the short term, but if we look at the 3 years' difference, the marginal cost of online sales is getting smaller and smaller."

But Ding Hui believes that the depth of the Chinese market is not enough to accommodate its 3200 planned stores.

The "Lightening" of assets in the clothing industry will also encounter problems.

PPGCEO Li Liang said in an interview earlier that "heavy companies" often fail to achieve "lighter" but become "heavier" after entering the field of "Light Companies".

Ai Rui consulted CEO Yang Weiqing that although Internet sales look beautiful and the threshold is very low, it is very difficult to do well.

He himself invested in a EUP website for making shirts, and announced the liquidation after burning about 4000000 a year.

And the Internet sales PPG is also deeply trapped in the "will burn money to advertise" questioned.

Insiders say, "they do not understand the clothing industry". One of the proofs is that the quality control procedures used by PPG are not acceptable to all Chinese clothing manufacturers (000902).

"The requirement for ERP system and execution is very high."

Shop defects: ZARA mode can not be copied?

Quan Lei said that an important reason why Carris did not touch traditional stores was that "as the front line is getting longer and longer, the problem of diminished control of each shop will emerge", which will require more and more coordination, logistics and ERP systems.

According to his observation, many domestic brands are open to forty or fifty such "big or small" scale, it is no longer able to develop.

"Some brands also want to abandon their traditional platforms."

The industry's doubts about ITAT may be a warning to others.

The way it bundles commercial real estate and producers is advanced, but the industry believes that its location in every shopping mall is arbitrary.

ITAT does not require high quality products to its suppliers.

As the number of stores increases, "assets will become heavier and heavier."

Only one item of inventory can drag down an enterprise: as long as there are 10 models that can not be sold, "inventory of all sizes will be a huge number".

With the expansion of store coverage, sales in different regions are quite different, and the requirements for inventory management will be higher and higher.

Insiders pointed out that it is impossible for traditional stores to achieve zero inventory. Only one TOYOTA can do so in the world.

"It can only be maintained at a risk controllable level on the basis of basic inventory," the industry said.

But sales in the market are not predictable.

Quan Lei also believes that the ZARA model of parity and trend can not be achieved by any domestic enterprise.

The most obvious is, "which company in China has a team of more than 2000 designers like ZARA?"

But the clothing association pointed out that compared with overseas designers, the Chinese clothing design is still dominated by designers.

The more important reason is that domestic enterprises do not learn the supply chain system of ZARA. "Their products have basically been developed 1 years ago", and ZARA has the power to make rules in comparison with domestic retailers.

Compared with the stubbornness of Quan Lei, Ding Hui began to accept the temptation of reality.

He said that in the future, he will consider introducing a three-dimensional marketing model, "considering the adoption of e-commerce."

But Ding Hui has repeatedly stressed that in any case, traditional stores will be the main marketing platform of the regional network, "the network will only be a supplement".

Some other "Light Companies", which only started with warehouses and call centers, are gaining weight on the basis of maintaining the existing mode of operation.

For example, COLZON constantly carries out the construction of offline logistics centers, and red children have been implementing the strategy of branch development.

Another typical example of "weight gain" is Mcglaughlin. Clothes and shoes that consumers can see in the wheat net or mail order catalogue can be directly tested on Mcglaughlin's physical store Euromoda to pick out the most suitable size.

"This year's plan is to build 100 stores by the end of the year, but it has already completed this plan."

Mcglaughlin marketing department said.

For Mcglaughlin, these three channels complement each other.

Its CEO Gu Beichun said, at that time, the entry to the store was because some of the customers began to have a good understanding of the main products of Mcglaughlin's clothing, "in style and quality," perhaps accustomed to fitting.

Like Mcglaughlin, the store will record every purchase information or purchase information, and enter the company's database directly.

This information will also be shared with Mcglaughlin's network department and telemarketing department. They will also receive Mcglaughlin's DM magazine.

In the current Mcglaughlin sales system, traditional directory sales still account for half.

But according to Mcglaughlin's judgment, the development of Internet sales is growing at a rate of 100% every year, and the proportion of store sales in the next few years will also increase.

Most of Mcglaughlin's stores are located in shopping malls, and the rent is fixed, so the cost is relatively fixed.

"Our store revenue is certainly much faster than the cost growth."

Although no specific proportion has been revealed, insiders say that Mcglaughlin now has the first place in every store's sales area.

With the increase of stores, the quantity control of a single batch of products will be a big problem.

"If control is not good, it will form an indigestible inventory."

In this regard, Mcglaughlin's practice is to issue a catalogue for each batch of products "first in a group of selected customers, and do a small scale test".

This will be done 1 months before the official mail list of all members. If sales are too small, Mcglaughlin will choose to give up the product that expands the sales volume.