Overseas Tide Group Attack China Market Red Sea Fight

Following ZARA, UNIQLO, H&M three brands entering China, GAP, ASOS, C&A, TOPSHOP, Abercrombie & Fitch, NEXT, WE, Mango and many other international

It has surrounded the Chinese market.

After UNIQLO, Muji and other Japanese fashion brands entered the Chinese market in large numbers, another Japanese trend popular brand IMAGE also entered the high-profile market in April 2012.

In addition to setting up a physical store in China's first tier and second tier cities, it has also entered into strategic cooperation with the largest fashion business platform in China.

It is reported that in Japan, with 6 million members, the fashion ladies' brand IMAGE, which uses mail order and catalogue sales, has entered the Chinese market, taking the strategy of combining online and offline channels, and specially hired Yang Mi as the brand spokesperson.

In the past 2011, almost all the international fast fashion brands have experienced an unprecedented high speed expansion in China. H&M opened 31 stores in one breath and reached 77 stores at the end of 2011. Last year, the number of shops opened up to the total number of stores opened in the past few years. UNIQLO opened 43 stores and the total number of stores reached 113.

It is estimated that in 2012, the international fast fashion brand will continue to expand this momentum and push the scope of its opening to the two or three line market, and continue to squeeze the domestic mass leisure market.

Tidal wave into China

A few years ago, if we mentioned international fast fashion brands, consumers might only know.

Three major international brands, UNIQLO and H&M.

However, in the past two years, the international fast fashion brand has surrounded the Chinese market. Following the three international fast fashion brands, GAP, ASOS, C&A, TOPSHOP, Abercrombie & Fitch, NEXT, WE, Mango and other brands have entered the Chinese market one after another, and have opened direct outlets in the core cities of the first tier cities.

In contrast, ZARA,

The three major brands of H&M, which have obvious advantages in the domestic market, have become a synonym for fast fashion brands because of their early entry into the domestic market. The development of the three brands is particularly fast. Among them, Spain's ZARA has opened 92 stores in China. In 2012, it plans to open 150 stores and cover 50 cities nationwide. Pan Ning, general manager of UNIQLO's Greater China, announced that in 2012, UNIQLO plans to add 100 new stores in mainland China and 30 new ones in Taiwan, while Sweden's H&M goal is to quadruple it in three years.

In the view of Lu Xiaoxia, a senior overseas buyer, the reason why H&M can come from behind is that it always attaches importance to the enhancement of brand value added, enables star designers to participate in the development of products, pboundary product design, and asks stars to attend the opening ceremony of shops in China to participate in various entertainment and fashion activities. The highly publicized brand marketing strategy has completely activated the young consumers in China, and has rapidly established the brand image of fashion trends in their minds, so that the consumers of the first tier cities are eager to come to it.

UNIQLO's advantage in Japan is that consumers eat from 10 to 70 years old. Its consistent black and white strategy is also recognized in the Chinese market. This kind of wild strategy magnifies its brand value, and UNIQLO will do the best in parity, so that it can be eaten by both young and old.

By contrast, China's late entry into the GAP market,

, Mango,

Other brands have lost the edge of the market, and the brand performance is not high enough, and the penetration in the urban market is not enough, so the overall development is relatively slow.

TOPSHOP, NEXT, ASOS and other brands have opened physical stores in the first tier cities, but they are seeking new ways to break through because of poor operations.

"ZARA and H&M did a lot of publicity before entering the Chinese market. They closely linked themselves with fast fashion and spread the concept of fast fashion in the world. They also have a high profile in the Chinese market. They have a more professional public relations communication department, and they often pay attention to the spread of brand image.

The other fast moving fashion brands are relatively low-key, and the way the brand operates is somewhat acclimatized.

Angeli Jan, founder and fashion marketing expert, appraise Angela.

It is predicted that by 2020, China's annual expenditure on fashion consumption will reach 13000 billion yuan.

Especially in Europe and the United States and other traditional fashion consumer market downturn, the Chinese market leads the global fashion consumption ability, attracting one after another overseas fashion group to wave the horn of China.

However, the Chinese market is not a good nut to crack. There are TOPSHOP and NEXT regrets, and then there are H&M and ZARA close to each other.

"For the" new players "in the Chinese market, the high cost of offline stores, the vast territory of China, and the limited resources of high-quality shops make the traditional layout method based on the expansion of offline stores as a core step by step.

CEO Ji Wen Hong said.

Setting up offline stores is the first choice for all fast fashion brands to enter the Chinese market, but obviously some success has failed. Nowadays, fast fashion is already the Red Sea in China, and the competition in offline channels is the Red Sea in the Red Sea.

Before TOPSHOP, NEXT, ASOS, online channel down, after ESPRIT such an old online channel layout is very successful, still can not get rid of the annual profit fell by 98% of the doom.

More and more brands are seeking the pformation of China's channel mode, even if the brand has been firmly established on the Internet.

After the first visit to China in 2001, after the strategic cooperation between UNIQLO and Taobao mall in 2009, UNIQLO Taobao flagship store was launched to test the water market. After opening the channel of the Internet, it also matched the layout of the offline channels to achieve two legs to walk, creating a precedent for entering the Chinese market by the electricity supplier "Qu".

GAP entered China late and took the layout of the Chinese market under the combination of online and offline. In 2011, GAP began to try to develop a network marketing channel in China. This year, it officially launched an official network marketing channel with Tmall. ZARA said that it opened up an official marketing channel in autumn and winter in 2012, and it is not clear whether it is also working with Tmall.

ASOS's products are already on line, and IMAGE will also enter the Chinese market through the platform.

In the same way

Local widely recognized national brand, IMAGE's high-profile overseas operation strategy of China is clearly referring to the experience of "fellow townsman" UNIQLO.

IMAGE plans to open 30 physical stores in high-end stores or prosperous areas in 25 important cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Dalian, Harbin and Shenyang this year.

In the network channel, IMAGE has taken the cooperation with Xiu Xiu net.

Form, as an important first step for IMAGE group to enter China's market strategy, the network will be fully responsible for the sale of IMAGE products across the line.

"As China's leading online high-end department store platform, it can provide professional support for IMAGE in localization, marketing, technology and logistics system for Chinese white collar users."

Ji Wenhong said.

But whether IMAGE can win in the battle of the Red Sea is still unknown.