Clothing Retailing: The Pain Of Profit Loss And The Difficulty Of Sewing

The mode of "joint deduction" has given way to today's department stores Endure the pain of falling profits and the difficulty of survival. Self run mode has been included in many department stores' new plans in various misgivings.

A citizen from three feet counters several products to every day in the face of temptations, tens of millions of choices; a city, from a Department store The building coexists with dozens of department stores and shopping centers.

Eager to grow up, the Chinese consumer market is too eager to show its tremendous energy. In the past few years, the market has released a strong link, and all kinds of new modes are accompanied by new formats.

Booming retail market It also brings new problems. Homogenization competition has made more and more retailers get bogged down in growth. Especially the traditional department stores are facing a huge impact. The "joint discount point" mode has made the seemingly prosperous department stores endure the pain of falling profits and the difficulty of survival. Xie Fuhui, a senior consultant in strategic management consulting, believes that the development of a unique self run brand is not only a new plan for business owners to break through in the new round of competition, but also a demand for new generation consumers to diversify the commercial consumption climate in the information age. Today, the self operated European and American department store industry has been running for many years, and China's retail department stores are included in the plan in doubt.

The choice of homogenization under the Imperial Palace

Reporter: what opportunities will self operation bring to department stores?

Xie Fuhui: at present, most department stores in China carry out joint mode. brand Business or distributors, agents to jointly operate, commodity business pressure is basically shared by department stores and commodity brands, price war has become the main means of shopping malls to attract customers. Today, with the continuous increase of operating costs and the increasing demand for differentiated competition, the joint venture mode has been unable to bring more room for gross margin in China's department stores. In contrast, self employment is a completely different strategy. By buying up the merchandise self-management and self creating brand, the various agency links have been reduced, the cost has been reduced, and the degree of differentiation of commodities has been improved to meet the individual needs of consumers. In the future, increasing the proportion of self operated commodities will be the general trend of the industry.

Reporter: what role should self run business play in department stores?

Xie Fu Hui: the positioning of self business in department stores is "characteristic + supplement", and it is an important means to build commodity differentiation and enhance brand image. In Europe and the United States and other developed areas, most shopping malls such as Martha department store and Lane Crawford adopt self operated mode with a gross gross profit margin of more than 40%.

Reporter: is it urgent to develop self owned brands for China's department stores?

Xie Fu Hui: department stores explore the centralized purchasing mode and improve the proportion of proprietary commodities is the general trend. If local retailers want to compete with international retail giants at home, or even seek globalization, they must take this step. How to set up a reasonable business development plan based on resources and capabilities will become the key to thinking in department stores.

Reporter: Lac Crawford is also ups and downs in the Chinese market. This mode is not smooth for domestic retailing. What is the situation of landing at present?

Xie Fu Hui: the self operation of domestic department stores is still in its infancy. The proportion of self operated commodities in most department stores is about 10%, and the gross profit margin of department stores in the first tier is only about 20%, and there is still a big gap between the proportion of self-employed goods in department stores in Europe and the developed areas. Once an industry expert once said, "when a department store's self merchandise ratio exceeds 30%, it has the core competitiveness of sustained growth."

Although many enterprises have recognized the strong advantages of proprietary commodities, many enterprises have been involved in self employment. Most of them are not operating well and are even faced with bottlenecks in development. Combined with the development experience of department stores' self operation at home and abroad, we can see that there are five key success factors in developing proprietary business: brand planning, design / buyer, channel, on-site sales force and staffing.

The expansion of individual needs can not be avoided.

Reporter: how should we balance the relationship between self created brand and agent brand in brand planning?

Xie Fu Hui: unlike the conservative strategy of its own brand, the agent brand can choose a brand with higher fashion, and introduce differentiated and forward-looking agent brand from the outside with a more pioneering spirit.

Reporter: are there any good shopping malls in foreign countries and in China?

Xie Fuhui: for example, Tianhong shopping mall and strategic partners registered the establishment of brand agency company, successfully signed the Danish women's clothing brand "PartTwo", opened a special counter in the shopping mall, the management effect is very good.

Reporter: the buyer system is a major business mode of foreign shopping centers, but it has not been perfected in China. How much can the buying system play in the construction of self owned brand?

Xie Fuhui: the buying system can purchase commodities according to the needs of specific consumer groups, purchase customized and fashionable products for specific groups, and satisfy consumers' individual needs well. Because buyers directly purchase from suppliers, they can save the agency links, reduce costs and increase sales profits.

Reporter: will it be a realistic and effective way to rely on buyers to develop self owned brands in domestic department stores?

Xie Fuhui: the buying system is the prevailing mode of operation of foreign department stores, and it is also the inevitable result of the development of retail specialization. However, this mode of operation requires buyers to have a keen insight into the market situation, a deep understanding of the consumption habits of local business circles, and a high demand for talents. The shortage of domestic buyers will restrict the development of the buying system in the domestic department stores, and the risk of buying the system is higher, and the shopping mall should bear the risk of selling the commodities that are not bought out, so the buying system has limited function at present, and it can not become the main force of the development of the self owned brand in the commercial field.

Reporter: so, can the development of self brand brand in China's department stores bypass the buying system?

Xie Fu Hui: the key to self employment is to train a group of prospective buyers who can understand the market and understand consumers well. With the expansion of the brand scale, shopping malls can expand the buying team in the short term, formulate relevant strategic plans for training buyers, and formulate professional standards for "buyers", and gradually develop independent design capability and develop proprietary brands in the medium and long term.

Reporter: what is the need for a large department store designer to invest in China?

Xie Fu Hui: This requires that the department store has a relatively clear positioning of the consumer group, and the investment can fully meet the needs of the consumer designers, and has a larger volume of orders, otherwise it is difficult to support the development of a brand; in addition, the new brand investment in the initial stage of development is larger, and the breeding period is longer, requiring department stores to have strong financial support. {page_break}

Strengthening terminal transformation management mode

Reporter: just mentioned the channel, does the brand building need special channels?

Xie Fu Hui: the channel here refers to e-commerce. E-commerce has developed rapidly in recent years with a compound growth rate of 100%. Many department stores have begun to get involved in online shopping centers, relying on physical stores, vigorously opening up e-commerce channels, online and offline interaction, and as one of the priorities of future development. The e-commerce mode has a unique advantage in developing proprietary brands, and can gradually enhance the credibility of the website through the sale of online self owned products, and drive online sales of joint products.

Reporter: what changes should the terminal do?

Xie Fu Hui: the development of self management needs to be transformed from the special management mode to brand management mode, and the level of process management will be improved. The traditional counter management mode pays close attention to the sales of counters, seldom involves the operation management of special counters, and pays attention to the discipline of salesmen. The brand management mode pays close attention to the sales of counters, and attaches great importance to the operation management of counters, such as inventory management, product display, etc., and attaches importance to the ability, attitude and performance of counter sales personnel.

Many department stores only realized the management of single brand information through IT software. However, due to the fact that the store's thinking mode did not change in time, and the enthusiasm for its own brand was not high, the management of the sales staff was relatively loose. Moreover, due to the distance and asymmetric information, the business self-management headquarters had weak control over the on-site management. Therefore, we should change the management mode, implement the fine process management of the free brand, and control the process through the control process, so as to control the result.

Reporter: self run brand seems to be a comprehensive challenge to the traditional department store industry from terminal service to backstage management. What adjustments do we need to make in personnel configuration and management?

Xie Fu Hui: in terms of staffing, a limited increase in key positions, such as the number of buyers, in order to cope with the expansion of self brand; appropriately increase the establishment of professional posts, such as the operation of merchandising, financial and human resources and other post configuration, to support the development of proprietary business.

In the brand mode, the salesperson's ability has an important impact on the performance. For department stores, to improve the ability of self marketing salesmen, we need to select and train excellent salesmen from recruitment, training, performance and salary. Take training as an example, by developing courses suitable for self marketing, product technology, operation management, storefront management and so on, we can improve salesperson's professional ability, supplemented by performance oriented performance appraisal system, improve salesmen's enthusiasm for work, and set up a phasing out mechanism.

Extended reading: buyout strategy

Neiman Markus (Neiman Marcus) is the most expensive chain store in the US. In the history of its development, it is always an important business strategy to develop a unique brand of self - owned brand. In its early days, it acquired the best specialized production line in Texas, which was used to produce women's garments of different styles. At the same time, Neiman Marcus takes a buyout strategy for high-end brands, and its buyers will differentiate themselves by buying all kinds of products or products of a certain product line in a certain production cycle.

Limited sales

Messi's department store is the mainstream department store in the United States. From Hawaii to Las Vegas, from Washington to New York, Messi stores are located all over the United States. One of the most important secrets that has lasted for 100 years is the special emphasis on unique products. These include Messi's widely known self owned brands, such as Alfani, Tasso Elba, American Rag, Karen Scott, John Ashford, Hotel Collection, and Ashford. In addition to its own brands, such as Martha Stewart series home brands, more than 1/3 of goods in Messi is also unique or limited sales.

Self operated low price

Martha, a famous British retail brand (Marks&Spencer), has a history of more than 120 years. It cooperates with more than 800 manufacturers to produce the "Saint Mickey" brand. It is known as "fashion maker". In addition to St. Michaels, Martha stores also run many own clothing brands, including Limited collection, AutographHE and per una. Martha stores take advantage of this kind of self operation as a sharp weapon in the market competition, and the price of self brand goods is lower than that of general department stores. According to industry estimates, the price of self built brand goods is generally less than 15% of the manufacturer's brand, while the profit margin can be as high as 30%.

Exclusive sale

Apart from general merchandise sales in Asia, Thailand's Shang Tai Department store sells its own retail products of its parent company's Central Retail Group as well as its exclusive selling special brand series, which is an important strategy to break through in the fierce retail competition. In Thailand, the central retail group accounts for 35% to 65% of its own merchandise. In the first Shang Tai Department store that entered China, whether it is the top brand Jim Thompson of tathy, or the top cosmetics brand of LVMH group, Acqua di Parma Palma's water, home brand Asianera, and Gerard Darel from France and the British brand Nicole Farhi are all tagged with the sign of "special products, exclusive sale".