Hongkong I.T Group: Buying Mode To Save The Market

Save the retail form of department stores from homogenization and decline.

If we look at Hongkong I.T group on the basis of ZARA standard, this company is absolutely terrible.

For example, ZARA completes the judgement of popularity, starts design, production, and then goes to the shelves of goods. The operation cycle of the supply chain takes only 30 to 40 days; I.T

But that does not mean that I.T has lost its competitive edge in the fashion market.

According to the I.T fiscal year ended February 28, 2011, its turnover increased by 27.99% to HK $3 billion 830 million in 2010.

The uniqueness of I.T lies in the way of buying and selling. It relies on a large number of buyers who are sensitive to the trend and cooperate directly with different brands and designers worldwide.

The more mainstream way of clothing companies in the world is to emphasize first class design capability, or to focus on building a faster supply chain.

But in fact, for those who pursue fashion and fashion, they can really buy clothes for them. Obviously, they are more attractive for quick turnover of inventory as a selling point.

Of course, I.T does not bet on the eyes of buyers. Its high profit growth contains more sophisticated management.

"Managing brands is just like managing stocks, so we need to monitor the trend in real time."

Chen Huijun, managing director of I.T group, told Global Entrepreneur.

The grasp of the trend and the system of purchasing and selling at any time constitute the competitiveness of I.T and ZARA, which emphasize the supply chain's clothing companies.

I.T has also been recognized by world-class first-rate department stores for its ability to manage buyers.

At the end of October 2010, French Lafayette department store and I.T set up a joint venture to jointly develop the business of Lord Buddha in China.

Lord Buddha thinks that fashion is the most competitive part of many department stores. The trend is changing fastest and consumer psychology is the most complex.

I.T has proved their ability in this area.

I.T, which has only been established for more than 10 years, has become the fashion symbol in the eyes of young people in Greater China.

"I.T. should be one of the most successful retailers in China."

Shen Lang, managing director of the Asia Pacific region, LaurentChemla, told the global entrepreneur.

In fact, Lord foe has always been regarded as the leader of the buying system in the clothing industry, but no matter whether he was himself or another first class buyer's shop, Lian KAFO had suffered setbacks in the Chinese market years ago.

At least in China, I.T has become the most capable clothing company.

Compared with single brand clothing companies, most I.T stores are more like small shopping malls.

Now, I.T group manages 5 major categories and more than 300 brands.

Among them, I.T is a young trend brand mainly based on Japanese brands (I.T group's two core clothing stores are costumes, and the price of clothing sold by I.T is higher than I.T). In addition, there are street brand portfolio Double-Park, 10 self created brands based on Izzue, and multi product shoe store ETE!

And so on.

I.T group will sell many brands in a large store, and will also open a store for a brand.

The unique understanding of the connection between brand and market is the core competitiveness of I.T's birth and development.

Shen Jiawei, his founder, earned the first barrel of gold by selling British brands in Hongkong, such as Martin shoes (Dr.Martens) and British Levi (Levi 's501) jeans, which was mainly driven by him 20 years ago in Hongkong.

Because of Shen Jiawei's keen grasp of the trend, when he changed the company's name by litigation risk, he named it I.T (IncomeTeam), that is, the "money making team".

Since then, Shen has made many brilliant sales achievements on other brands with Martin's shoes, such as Alexander.

AlexanderMcQueen and Wakubo Rei designer brand CommedesGarcons. are now known as the I.T buying team with Shen as the core. The team of about 40 people is active in fashion week, Fashion Expo and suppliers all over the world.

But Chen Huijun stressed that the buying system can ensure sustained profits, not just the buyers' vision, but also like watching stocks like the trend of some data at any time.

"Picking and buying a single product is not the most important thing. The most important thing is to sell it again."

Each buyer should focus on the market trend data of the brand on the computer every day, and decide the discount plan, the next purchase budget and the cooperation intention of I.T with the brand.

Towards the end of the year, I.T will formulate a procurement quota plan (OTB) for the coming year based on the actual sales and reasonable forecast of the year, and then assign the purchase budget to each brand and category, and finally implement it to every buyer.

After purchasing, the buyer will monitor the sales situation through the information system everyday, and gather together to form weekly and monthly trend.

For example, sales below 80% are too many leftovers and need to consider whether to modify the plan at the next purchase.

As an agent, another value of I.T is that it can provide advice for the agency's brand based on its rich experience.

For example, different brands are suitable for different cities and lots.

"Many brands want to be able to enter our store in Hang Lung Plaza, Shanghai, which is considered to be more upscale, but not all brands are suitable for them."

Chen Huijun said, Hang Lung Plaza is more suitable for I.T brand, and places such as Raffles are more suitable for I.T. because it can avoid the early cost risk. I.T has become the best channel for many foreign designer brands to enter the Chinese market, and there are many brands that later become rich and independent.

Chen believes that the role of "brand incubator" is beneficial and harmless to I.T. On the one hand, increasing influence can enhance bargaining power while purchasing, and thus raise gross margin. On the other hand, it also develops a broader platform for private brands that are mainly cultivated.

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After more than 10 years of making a dozen square meters of small shops into a fashion retailing Empire, the next goal of I.T is to include more categories and pform to buying department store operators.

"We also hope to learn to operate more large-scale comprehensive stores through cooperation with Lord Buddha."

Chen Huijun admits.

From this point of view, Lord Buddha is the best partner of I.T, because the former is an experienced teacher and provides the most authoritative endorsement for I.T in the department store.

But even the department stores, I.T will have a clear positioning, will still focus on the development of clothing, shoes, cosmetics and other areas that they are good at.

"Appliances like this will be fewer or even less."

Chen said.

For I.T, personally involved in the preparation and operation of old Buddha's department store is like an exercise under escort.

The common idea of the two sides is to have a Style department store, bringing the most representative products of France and Europe, such as French food, clothing and various classic elements, and household products will not be introduced at the moment.

"We want to refresh people."

Chen said.

This is not the first collaboration between I.T and Lord Buddha.

In 2009, a senior manager of Buddha's field discovered I.T's own fashion brand Izzue in Hongkong. This brand, founded by Maggie Cheung, director of film star, was founded in 1999. The style is not exaggerated, but it has been popular among Chinese young people at that time.

Then Lord Buddha signed an agreement with I.T to represent the brand.

Now, Izzue has entered the 10 stores in France and 1 stores in Berlin, Germany. It has become the only brand in China's Department of Lafayette department store.

This has laid the foundation for further cooperation between the two sides.

I.T and Lord Buddha account for half of the six board seats in the joint venture. Major business decisions are made by both sides, but they are also divided according to their respective areas of expertise.

"In order to pplant the original DNA of Lafayette department store to China, the shop's decoration style, visual effects of the display and the choice of commodity category will be mainly responsible for the Lord Buddha."

At the same time, Chen Huijun, executive director of Lafayette general store (China) Limited, told "Global Entrepreneur" that I.T will do more in government relations, human resources and administration. More importantly, it will make use of its own experience in the Chinese market for many years to give advice on location selection, goods selection and display.

"We sit together in the driver's seat and communicate every day."

Shen Lang describes the cooperation with I.T, "they have hundreds of stores in China, they will tell us what to do in the Chinese market is useless, and what will suddenly change."

"For retail, the three key words are" Location, Location, Location ".

Chen Huijun believes that the right location means half the battle.

When I.T entered the mainland market in 2003, in order to get through the channel quickly, it worked with another Hong Kong funded enterprise with strong channels. This enterprise is the enterprise that JEANSWEST, a clothing brand of the time, was very popular.

But the two sides eventually split up in 2007 because of their different development directions. Although the latter also hoped to represent some of I.T's brands, the mainstream business was the volume clothing.

After that, I.T began to explore the mainland market alone.

In the 2008 financial crisis, when most enterprises chose to stay dormant, I.T attacked the market and took a group of properties at relatively low prices.

Now the I.T group sells hundreds of millions of stores in the mainland - Shanghai Xintiandi and Hong Kong Hui square stores. Chen has worked with the property management before and after 2008.

Over the next few years, the commercial real estate sector grew larger and the number of I.T stores increased rapidly.

The basic requirements of I.T and old Buddha in site selection are in fact consistent, namely, convenient pportation, large flow of people and fashionable business circles.

With these criteria, there are only a few selected objects in each city.

The difficulty of location is difficult to supply. In the presence of many foreign retail enterprises, it is not easy to get quality property. It needs strong brand influence as support.

For example, I.T staged a property battle in Nanjing West Road and UNIQLO.

Chen Huijun recalls that the Hong Kong Hui square store became a watershed for the sales stars. After that, Shanghai Xintiandi, raffles, Beijing Oriental Xintiandi and other stores have gradually become the tidal current landmark of their cities. I.T has more and more influence in the industry, and it also has a lot of success in taking the place.