Martha Maso: "Sell The Product" To Solve The Problem Of Large Cycle Supply

More than 12 purchases a year, for Popular Forecast trends and sales, control upstream fabric suppliers, and achieve personalized inventory management. These problems are difficult to solve for traditional clothing enterprises, but for clothing e-commerce brand, this is a task that must be completed.

As the biggest menswear brand on the Internet, whether it is sales scale and brand influence, Marceau has completed three years' achievements of traditional enterprises in 10 years. Because it has played the biggest advantage of Internet brand -- reverse the supply chain through user demand, making the whole supply chain system the most efficient and the lowest cost.

1. break the "big order" mode.

The average of masa Marceau Purchase The frequency is more than 12 times a year. In fact, it may be more than that. Basically, it is placing orders at any time and producing. "

The most troublesome thing for traditional clothing enterprises is inventory. The root of inventory is the slow response of the stretched supply chain. In the traditional clothing industry, the supply chain has long process and many links. The summer is not over yet, and the winter order has already started. The designers of garment enterprises predict the next season's fashion trend, design the next season's clothing according to their experience, and then sell them to the store or dealer's shelves by playing board, production and delivery. From clothing production to user purchase, the time span is as long as 3 months or even half a year.

Sun Hong, general manager of masa Marceau, was once a man's clothing. brand Victor's deputy general manager is deeply impressed by the inventory problems faced by traditional clothing enterprises. He said that in traditional clothing enterprises, there are two modes of sales: one is Victor, who set up a direct store in the country, and the sales data are reflected from the store to the headquarters time relatively fast; another is the dealer mode, which is ordered by the dealer or franchisee, and the factory orders the production.

The two mode is to achieve the goal of "selling products" and only in this way can we reduce inventories. The former mode of communication with users is faster, so the production and sales ratio of Victor men's clothing has reached the best level in the industry - 65%. And the second form seems to be based on the dealer's order to "sell orders", brand enterprises will not generate inventory. But in fact, this kind of "fixed sale" is not sold to the users at all, but sold to the distributors. The impact of the dealer's capital turnover, in turn, affects the sales of brand clothing.

"In the traditional clothing industry, achieving 65% production and sales ratio has been a very good achievement," said Marceau, vice president of masa. Because the production and marketing ratio is too low, the stock accounts for the capital and raises the cost, so the gross profit margin of the garment industry has to run at a high level, and some even achieve gross margin of 80%. But inventory costs a lot of money and the net interest rate is very low. And consumers have to pay for the gross profits of enterprises which are high in the market.

Sun Hong is well aware of the pitfalls of inventory. The advantage of e-commerce is to maximize. Shorten The distance between users and production, and the fastest time to grasp the needs of users.

Based on this, Masa Marceau tried to achieve a small number of production on the basis of systematic and artificial prediction. For example, in traditional clothing industry, there is at least 5000 pieces of minimum production line. This is like a batch of orders that take up a lot of money in gambling. If it doesn't sell well, it will become a stock. If it sells well, it will be too late to regenerate. But the production cost of traditional mass production is relatively low.

The average production cost of a single order is slightly higher than that of small orders. But the capital occupation rate is low, and the inventory will be greatly reduced.

"The average purchasing frequency of masa Marceau is more than 12 times a year. In fact, it may be more than that. Basically, it is placing orders at any time and producing." Ji Bin pointed out that the order size of Massa Marceau is only 1/10 of the traditional enterprise, and the order quantity is from hundreds to 1000 pieces. Although it is a small order, the reaction speed is faster.

There are statistics for all products in the system. Calculate the sales cycle of each product according to the daily sales situation. If the sale time of this product is greater than the production cycle, it is the safe time cycle. For example, a pair of shoes, the production time is usually a month, if this shoe stock can also sell for a month, then no matter how good these shoes sell, can be timely production guarantee supply. Any product, the system will issue order instructions at any time according to its sales schedule and its production cycle. The purchasing and sales department can see the sales of each product in due course. Products that sell well will be sold in a timely fashion according to the replenishment orders under the production cycle.

The system will also analyze all user data to give production suggestions. For example, a group of shirts of different colors, a large shirt sold well, and a small code sold better. The system will calculate each data and give more precise order instructions, for example, how much more will be added to a certain type of shirt. Every day, the system analyzes the data of users' browsing, collecting, purchasing, evaluating and so on to guide the production of each product, whether the order is added or the discount treatment is carried out around the user data. As a result, the ratio of production and marketing has been greatly improved. At present, the sales and sales ratio of Marceau is 85%. Ji Bin believes that with the accumulation of data, production and sales ratio still has room for improvement. {page_break}

Inventory reduction and capital use efficiency can greatly reduce the cost of enterprises. And this part of the profits can be released to the user. This is also the reason why the sale price of Marceau is only 1/3 of that of traditional channels.

2. Sun Hong is a traditional clothing industry and knows every key node in the traditional clothing industry. "A good dress depends on three factors: fabric, design and workmanship." Sun Hong pointed out that the world famous clothing brand has become a big brand, and it will win in these three links.

At present, many Internet clothing brands still stay in the stage of selling styles, but they only send orders to factories, and then sell them online. But if the clothing brand wants to truly become a brand, the supply chain must extend to the upper reaches of the upstream, and the upstream is fabric supplier.

"Fabric traders usually hold the most popular international trends. trend " Sun Hong pointed out that some newly developed fabrics are usually first adopted by international brands. The trend of popularity from international to Chinese consumers generally has a time lag. As a new Internet brand such as Masa Marceau, if too popular application of popular elements, user acceptance is limited, will affect sales. But if it falls behind fashion trends, it is also a taboo of clothing brands. Sun Hong's way is to lead the trend, but it doesn't depend on the trend.

Sun Hong opened the computer and pointed to a rather handsome male T-shirt, telling reporters that this fabric is a newly developed flower color made by a well-known fabric manufacturer internationally. This summer, Hongkong's newly listed D&G products have products of the same color. But this T-shirt did not sell well in Masa Marceau. Because Marceau is a small batch of orders, it will not generate too much inventory, but also gives the Internet brand more trial opportunities.

The products that are not selling well this year will suddenly become better as the fashion trend changes next year. Because of the cumulative analysis of this year's data, we can quickly turn over the list. Sun Hong opened a gray T-shirt to tell reporters that this is some of the most popular international colors last year. This year, Marceau sold very well in Masa.

Due to the timely feedback of user data, the cost of trial and error in pushing some new fabric products is reduced, and the speed of error correction is very fast.

Last year, Masa Marceau pushed metal wire products (including metal wire in the fabric to make the clothes look broad and bony), but soon after the launch, consumer feedback was not good. There are many complaints, such as easy cracking, uncomfortable contact with skin and so on. Soon, these information affected the production side: the company improved the location of necklines, cuffs and other parts with more skin friction. Through sales data, wire products have shrunk by half this year.

Sun Hong's original aim was aimed at the international first-line brand foundry. But many large foundries can not meet the needs of their small orders. As a result, some medium-sized factories with part of the international brands have also become the target of their choice. To better manage the factory, this year, Marceau has contracted the number of foundries and ordered the orders to be concentrated in several factories. Marceau orders for Masa accounted for more than 60% of factory hours. Closer cooperation with factories.

With closer cooperation with factories, Marceau will push factories to participate in research and development. For example, modal is a very soft material, comfortable but no shape, and cotton has a relatively wide sense. Massa Marceau plans to push a product that combines two material advantages. The fabric supplier takes out two kinds of materials in the fabric of different proportions of fabric products, and tests the fabric by the factory to make the best effect fabric.

"Through user clicking, browsing, collecting, purchasing and other data analysis, we can determine whether any product needs to catch up. Due to the lack of time in the fashion design, maybe the product that sells badly this year will suddenly sell well, and because of the cumulative data analysis this year, the company can quickly turn over the list.

Although many traditional clothing companies are trying to use the Internet for marketing, they often end up in failure, because the supply chain of the electricity supplier is totally different from the traditional supply chain.

Orders are not two seasons or three seasons a year. How to place orders according to the needs of consumers? How to control the upstream fabric suppliers? Since the number of SKU is not large, how about its inventory management? Achieve The lowest cost and the highest efficiency?

Extending upstream fabric

Masa Marceau is a brand product, though its brand covers all men's clothing products. But the number of SKU (minimum inventory unit) is much lower than that of Amazon. Because clothing brand products, their inventory management reflects the characteristics different from retailers.

In Masa Marceau's warehouse, it is divided into whole storage area and zero storage area. Reporters saw that in the entire storage area, a large number of cardboard boxes were put together. Marceau, director of logistics at Martha, Zhu Qinghua, said that after the goods sent to the warehouse were sent to the warehouse, the "code plate" should first be used. The so-called "code disk" is to carry out preliminary inspection of goods, counting the number of shelves. The completion of the code disk means that users can place orders online. Usually new goods can be completed within 48 hours.

Unlike Amazon, Marceau's products are classified. In the zero storage area, the reporter saw that the shelves of 3 meters high were divided into small squares. A bar code is placed underneath each grid. Zhu Qinghua told reporters that for clothing, it is important to maintain the perfect shape when goods arrive in the hands of users. Therefore, the size of the lattice is calculated, whether it is T-shirt or shirt, the height of the grid is not enough to crumple the bottom. And every commodity in the grid corresponds to a unique SKU. That is to say, in a lattice, the same dress is put in only one size.

Once the volume of a lattice is reduced to less than 30%, the system will automatically remind the replenishment and tell the replenishment clerk to replenish the quantity. Every space in the system is documented. For example, a small lattice, the system may make the replenishment clerk fill 50 pairs of socks, but will not ask him to make up 50 down coats.

The replenishment clerk will replenish the goods in the whole storage area to the grid in the zero storage area, and the products placed on the shelves are relatively fixed. Once the related products are sold out, or the season changes, the lattice will be able to place other products, and the new products will be associated with the cargo location.

However, the reporters saw that some shoes were placed in the zero storage area, and some were directly placed on the floor. Zhu Qinghua pointed to the bar code posted on the floor, told reporters that because of the difference between the physical space occupied by the footwear merchandise and the zero storage, sometimes it was directly placed on the ground, and the bar code was associated with all products to become a temporary cargo location. Sometimes, some single products are promoted or hot, and there are too many user orders. It is too late to remove the products from the entire storage area to the zero storage area. A temporary barcode is placed directly in a certain location, and the goods directly placed in the entire storage area become a temporary cargo location.

There are several relatively concentrated small peaks in the daily subscription time, which is around ten a.m., about 2:00 p.m., and after work in the evening. When the order volume is relatively concentrated, the system will associate the product closer to the order and form a picking list. Because the product is relatively close to the corresponding location will be relatively close. In this way, the picking efficiency will be greatly improved.

According to the regulations, the picking clerk walks in the same direction in the same direction and takes the S route. In this process, if the goods on the shelves are not careful enough to fall down. Picking workers are not allowed to pick up shelves or handle them on their own. For this detail, Zhu Qinghua emphasized: "in the digital management storage system, the system only identifies barcode digital information. If the product is put in the wrong place, the goods are displayed in stock, but the original cargo location can not pick up the goods, and the goods have not been misplaced, so that the goods will disappear forever and will not be picked out".

Zhu Qinghua told reporters that a picking list usually has ten orders. After picking up the pickup order, the picker is not a fruit picking picking order. Instead, the ten orders are aggregated and the goods are picked up in the cart. For every pick of goods, the picking clerk needs to scan the corresponding location with a scanning gun, due to the timely correlation between inventory and web pages. One size of a product will be reduced in the system to prevent users from placing orders, but there is no inventory. Because this will happen. reduce User's consumption experience.

There are special points for the goods to be picked out. The reporters saw that ten plastic baskets were placed on the table, 1 from ten to 10, and ten orders. The 10 codes corresponded to 10 orders. Then the printed courier orders and product orders are placed in the corresponding basket according to the number of sub numbers. The packers only need to pack the products in each basket and paste them on the courier order.

Zhu Qinghua introduces that the storage management of masa Marceau is centered around users. For example, during the rush hour, the picking order of the picking clerk will be less than 10 orders, because "it is impossible to raise the picking efficiency and let the user wait". Whether it is replenishment or temporary storage is followed by this principle.

3. "picking orders usually have ten orders. After picking up the pickup order, the picker is not a fruit picking picking order. Instead, the ten orders will be aggregated and the goods will be picked up in the cart. "

Supply chain management itself has time lag. The more nodes involved in the transaction of trade flow, the stronger the time lag. This means that the risk of supply chain management is bigger, especially in garment industry. The seasonal characteristics of apparel consumption and the fast changing market trend make the supply chain "elongated". Therefore, the supply chain of garment industry is essential to control the time and fashion.

In fact, the network sale operated by E-business is to make up for the shortcoming of logistics, information integration and data mining accuracy in the entity business environment.

The ability of data collection in e-commerce is unmatched by traditional sales. While shopping online, customers will provide their information, preferences and interactive information to enterprises. Apart from customer's personal information, comprehensive and timely sales and browsing data, quickly analyze the real market results reflected by each commodity, and the electronic business mode also makes up for the hard work in the sales process of the entity store. Based on the background analysis system, enterprises can guide manufacturers to flexibly change marketing strategies according to market characteristics.

It is precisely because of the high efficiency of data mining that it accelerates the turnover effect of capital and inventory, and ensures that the consumption trend is consistent with the fashion trend. Reflected in logistics management, it is possible to accurately implement the basic operation procedures such as picking and tally, which can be guaranteed to synchronize with the fashion trend in the sales terminals.

From this case, we can see that due to the understanding of the peak period of customer orders, the information system can play its overall advantages when unified orders and centralized tally. However, in this case, there is still room for shortening the period of management of commodity shelves.