Clothing Management &Nbsp; Need To Pay Attention To China's Clothing Market Opportunities.

Over the past ten years, China The size of the garment industry has increased by two times, reaching nearly 400 billion yuan by the end of 2010. We expect that China's clothing market will grow two times in the next ten years, reaching 1 trillion and 300 billion yuan in 2020. However, this does not mean that all garment enterprises can benefit from this growth trend. In order to gain share in the new round of growth, enterprises need to adjust their strategies according to their own reality and emerging consumption trends. Through interviews with more than 5000 consumers aged 14 to 45 in different regions and tier cities, we found six key trends that will determine the future direction of the clothing market.

A distinctive Chinese clothing market

Not until the late 90s of last century did more Chinese consumers begin to pass. clothing To express individuality. With the increase of consumer wealth and the opening up of society, foreign brands and local brands began to emerge, igniting consumers' fascination with "big cards". Before that, clothing meant only a large brand mark on the chest, and the brand didn't have a great difference.

Consumers look forward to the brand with high popularity. Sports brand not only meets this requirement, but also fully meets the needs of consumers for basic dress. At that time, very few occasions need to wear formal clothes. Local brands such as Lining and Anta also established business and expanded their scale during this period. In view of the above situation and the early start, sports brand can establish a unique hegemony in China. By the time the Beijing Olympics were held in 2008, a typical Chinese consumer's wardrobe was 20% to 25% (in terms of value) for sportswear. Of the consumers who buy sportswear, 30% wear more than three times a week.

Brand Pioneers (above sports brand and Mts. Bang Wei, bestsellers, etc.) Leisure time The franchised business (especially the single brand franchised store) as its main business mode has gained considerable benefits. Franchising represents a standardized and easy to operate retail format, which helps enterprises expand rapidly, market access is broader, and there is no need to invest large amounts of pre capital. For example, Nike's store network grew from 1400 in 2003 to 6000 in 2009. In addition, because not all consumers are demanding the latest styles, and sportswear is not as fast and outdated as casual wear, franchisees can invest and expand at lower inventory risk.

Single brand franchised stores occupy a dominant position at this time, because the number of multi brand retailers in the early days of retail industry development is few. At the same time, single brand franchised stores can make shoppers feel that they are buying directly from Brand Company, thereby reducing consumers' worries about counterfeit products.

So far, department stores have been leading the apparel retail market. In the early 90s of last century, department stores were the main form of trade in clothing retailing industry, providing consumers with opportunities to contact brands, and at the same time they were also places for families to visit on weekends, so that consumers could "entertain themselves in shopping". Department stores define the concept of consumer shopping, and will continue to play an important role in the future, especially in smaller cities.

The early concept of "clothing is a big brand". motion The dominant position of clothing, the surge of franchise mode and the deep-rooted department store format make the Chinese garment market in the past ten years different from any other market in the world.

New changes in the next ten years

For garment enterprises, the next ten years will be an exciting period. The number of middle class and affluent consumers (annual income of more than 74000 yuan) will increase from the current 50 million to 140 million in 2020. In addition, clothing is one of the most popular categories of household consumption. However, enterprises should not take it for granted that the development mode of the next ten years will undergo significant changes just by waiting for the impetus of the new wave of growth. After investigation, we found the following six key development trends.

Trend 1: the clothing consumption of the younger generation will increase. Clothing consumption has just started to increase among people aged twenty or thirty. At present, the consumption of this group is 18% higher than that of the city. This "post-80" group is not as bitter as their parents. Many of them have a better job in a foreign company or a local company. These factors turn into a strong optimism. The momentum of clothing consumption will continue to rise in the post-80s generation, and will be further enhanced through a younger, more proficient fashion group such as the "post-90s".

Trend two: Women's clothing consumption accounts for a large proportion. Over the next ten years clothing Consumption is gradually increasing, and the proportion of consumer groups will further tilt towards women. So far, the consumption expenditure of Chinese men and women on clothing has tended to be close: Men's clothing currently accounts for 46% of the total clothing consumption of urban consumers aged 14 to 45, while women's clothing accounts for 54%. With the increase of women's income, women's clothing consumption level is more significant than that of the same income men. Nevertheless, clothing consumption of small city consumers (four to seven tier cities) is still at the initial stage of development. Men's annual clothing consumption is slightly higher than that of women, and 54% of clothing purchases are contributed by male consumers.

Trend three: more high consumption groups will come from smaller cities. In the next ten years, many high consumption groups will live in inland or smaller cities. In 2010, smaller cities constituted about 50% of the clothing market. By 2020, 2/3's middle class and wealthy consumers will live in four to seven tier cities, and will occupy 60% of the overall growth of the clothing market. For enterprises, this means that the share of interests will be more dispersed. Now, in order to achieve 80% coverage in the middle and high price clothing market, enterprises need to enter 462 cities. By 2020, in order to maintain the same market coverage, enterprises will need to enter 568 cities. More importantly, many of the trends we have found will be different in smaller cities and larger cities. Enterprises must adjust their practices accordingly, with a view to achieving success in smaller markets that have not yet been fully covered.

Trend four: leisure occasions and activities increased. Ten years ago, alternative entertainment and social occasions were limited. People living in provincial capitals may occasionally go out to eat or sing Cara OK, but in most cases, school, work and family constitute the whole life. Today, the experience of the typical consumer has expanded significantly. The choice of clothing for consumers reflects the idea of matching "suitable" clothing for different occasions. To this end, the consumer's wardrobe is expanding. With the increasing number of occasions, people increasingly need clothes suitable for this new way of life. Chinese consumers will continue to try to dress differently for different occasions. All of this Meaning Enterprises will have the opportunity to shape consumers' behaviors and preferences. Leading enterprises will be the winners of the market by promoting and selling products that can meet the needs of specific occasions.

Trend five: consumers defined by emotional space. More than 10 years ago, consumers were strongly attracted by big brands, but few considered that brands could represent personal identities or reflect a person's outlook on life. Young consumers today say more that they get emotional satisfaction through clothing. Enterprises can no longer rely solely on the status of well-known brands. Consumers are looking for brands that can resonate deeper with them. Clothing products must be able to affect consumers' emotional chords.

We observed four major emotional spaces in male and female consumers (see Figure 1 below). Enterprises need to understand these needs to locate their brand products accordingly.

The vertical dimension of emotional space is guided by success: one is career achievement, social status and self perfection, the other is relaxing, relaxing and enjoying life. It is important that 60%. 70% of Chinese consumers are inclined to pursue success. Because of the great upward mobility of Chinese society, people recognize the idea of continuous progress and personal development. It is worth noting that in view of the fact that women spend more on clothing than men, "successful women" will become a particularly important consumer group. This tendency is more significant in big cities. In smaller cities, the pace of life is slower and the cost of living is lower. Consumers can either save more or spend more on leisure and entertainment. They do not feel strongly about their career and social status, so they are more inclined to enjoy life.

The horizontal dimension of emotional space is fashion oriented, one end is "fashionable beauty" and the other is "elegant classic". Our research shows that women prefer to express themselves through dressing, while men prefer to integrate into social groups, and prefer casual and low-key attire.

Enterprises must take into account the emotional needs of consumers and the essence of their brands, and position themselves in the larger emotional space.

Trend six: new distribution channels and retail formats. Enterprise in Determine When we use appropriate distribution channels to enter and expand the market, we must give full consideration to geographical area and city level.

Consumers in small cities are not as diverse as consumers in big cities, and department stores and single brand stores will still be most popular among them. Because smaller cities are often chosen by the oldest department stores, the more mature modern department stores can create a pleasant shopping experience and continue to be a weekend resort for these urban consumers. Even in larger cities, department stores are still strong competitors. At present, more than 35% of clothing sales come from department stores. Besides, the brands entering department stores still have considerable competitiveness. A floor manager told us: "the new brand has only three months to prove itself."

But in general, consumers in big cities are increasingly demanding and looking forward to more positive, innovative shopping experiences and high-quality services. Therefore, they will gradually lose interest in department stores. In the choice of existing channels, the location of shopping centers has made good performance. It has more diversified product choices and keeps up with the latest trend. However, a single brand store or counter will still be the dominant form, because consumers will have a deeper understanding of the brand and are eager to buy a unique brand.

Is it a multi brand retail channel or a single brand retail channel, which is more suitable for a brand, depending on the positioning of the brand in the Chinese apparel market. In the United States and other markets, department stores like Saks Fih Avenue and Bloomingdale, like consumers' wardrobe consultants, help consumers to choose the range of brands among sellers. Chinese multi brand retailers usually do not have similar capabilities, which makes them less attractive to consumers. But there are also many multi brand retailers, such as Hongkong I.T, which have opened up a niche market, bringing new and less well-known niche brands into China's clothing market. For small brands lacking resources to run single brand stores, this distribution pattern is the ideal choice. However, as brands grow, they will want more control. product The right to sell is likely to turn to single brand retailing.

It is worth mentioning that franchising is still crucial for Apparel Retailing in the next ten years, especially in smaller cities. At present, 50% to 90% of the main leisure and sports brands in China come from franchisees. Looking forward to the future, more Brand Company will begin to directly control their retail sales in big cities, but in small cities, they will continue to rely on distributors and franchisees to achieve penetration and expansion.

As the number of consumers from the Internet generation is increasing, the importance of online shopping will increase day by day. We expect that the number of Chinese online shoppers will increase from 145 million in 2010 to 329 million in 2015. In fact, clothing is now the most popular category of online shopping for Chinese consumers. However, few physical retailers can fully develop multi-channel business. For example, at present, franchised stores are hard to deal with the return of items purchased online.

The establishment of truly multi-channel competition has just begun. If an enterprise can first establish a retail and service mode around its target customers and provide a consistent and all-weather online offline experience for the target customers, it will have a greater competitive advantage than its competitors.

Re planning

For garment enterprises, the key to winning in the past is to have a "big" brand and low-cost supply chain, and have the ability to develop retail business rapidly through franchising. However, in order to succeed in the future, enterprises need to adjust their strategies according to the new needs of consumers.

Small town plan

Having the right business strategy is crucial to the success of the Chinese market. Enterprises should identify suitable areas, develop appropriate prices and retail infrastructures for them, and deploy them in a reasonable manner, thereby achieving limited access. Resources Achieve the greatest success.

By 2020, 50% of the middle class and wealthy consumers will live in the urban agglomeration within the radius of 50 km radius from one to three cities. This concept enables enterprises to put resources into a city in the cluster and make full use of these resources in other nearby cities. For apparel enterprises, such resources may be a management team to supervise the operation of franchisees. They may be advertising and promotion activities covering all cities in the cluster, or training and management of store personnel, logistics and warehousing.

We find that some retailers, such as supermarkets, are adopting cluster expansion and management methods, but many garment enterprises do not adopt this way to build business. Garment enterprises, especially those that have entered big cities, can draw lessons from other industry retailers when formulating their own expansion plans. At the same time, enterprises need to recognize their unique needs when providing services for small cities in the cluster. For example, consumers in small cities have less contact with fashion, and need more training and guidance in clothing selection and matching. Their willingness to consume is also lower than that of consumers in big cities. Enterprises need to take special account of these situations when they sell.

Value orientation related to emotional needs

China's clothing market lacks enough brands in specific emotional space, and there is a lack of differentiated products and services in similar emotional space. Multinational enterprises must seriously consider which successful brands are suitable for the market, and local enterprises need to identify or establish their unique positioning in the market and distinguish themselves from their competitors. For these two types of enterprises, we must understand their own brand and should have the emotional space of consumers, and be consistent with the emotional needs of consumers.

By creating a reliable image and distinguishing its products and services in many emotional spaces, the casual retailer bestowes itself in the Chinese market. Its four brands now have more than 4000 stores in China, providing consumers with different brand combinations for different emotional spaces, including leisure and professional women's wear brands Vero Moda, casual menswear brand Jack Jones, more fashionable and young women oriented, and women's clothing brand Only with a price slightly lower than the other two brands, as well as a senior men's wear brand Selected, which is only sold in top cities.

Providing unique and differentiated consumer experience

As consumers become more familiar with fashion, shopping and Internet, businesses need to consider more ways to market their products and create an exciting retail environment for shoppers. This is especially important for big city markets, and consumers in big cities are seeking new ways of shopping. In big cities, business growth is increasingly coming from outside channels of physical retailing.

Brand screening is the strength of Hongkong I.T company. The company manages more than 300 brands, replacing 50 brands every year. The company has four different multi brand store models aiming at distinct consumer groups with distinct boundaries. Poorly performing products are quickly phased out, and shifting inventory means that consumers can get fresh and exciting experiences in a unique environment every time they visit a store. The company also successfully surpassed its original value proposition, namely, introducing new brands at the same time of acquiring and selling mature brands. At present, the company operates seven private brands, earning more than other brands sold by many brand stores.

It is also worth noting that developing value-added services to enhance shoppers' retail experience. The company attaches great importance to staff training, the goal is to enable employees to have a deep understanding of brand products and services. The company also trains employees to provide customers with single product or portfolio recommendations for customers to try on. Because consumers in small cities have not yet fully cultivated their sense of personal style, this service mode is very effective in smaller cities. After getting the suggestion, customers have a higher chance of buying.

Although clothing is already a popular category of e-commerce, few retailers have successfully realized a real multi-channel retail experience in China. The real-time visibility of multi-channel inventory, the reliability of logistics services, the convenience of product return and the coordination of cross channel promotion have always been the problems faced by enterprises in trying to expand into the network domain. Almost no enterprises have integrated systems. For example, when a consumer discovers a product that he likes but doesn't have the right size in a store, he can't make phone calls or go online to make reservations in the store.

China's clothing market will undergo another dramatic change of ten years. Consumers will become more sophisticated at an unprecedented rate and are developing in a completely different direction from the past in terms of brand, product and retail experience needs. Competition for consumer emotional needs and retail channels will be more intense than in the past ten years. Predicting these important changes and developing the right products as early as possible will be the key to win the Chinese market for garment enterprises.