How To Develop ESPRIT

How many fashionable young people's favorite clothing brands were now abandoned by young people nowadays.

"We have to retrieve the lost soul of ESPRIT and let her return to everyone's closet."

The new CEO from ZARA is ambitious, but how many consumers are willing to turn back?

In the popular shopping mall of Beijing, you will find that ZARA and GAP are the "aristocrats" in the fashion brand. ZARA occupies the first and two best positions of Chaoyang Joy City, while GAP's advertisement is hung on the exterior wall of the joy city.

However, looking for the 10 storey building of Chaoyang Joy City is not finding ESPRIT much earlier than the two.

Moving away from the prosperous business circle has become a nightmare for ESPRIT this year.

In September, ESPRIT's flagship store in Nanjing West Road, Shanghai, was forced to move to Hongkong's I.T.

Chief research fellow, Shanghai Business Information Centre

The reasons are analyzed.

Qi Xiaozhai: it is mainly inconsistent with the positioning of Nanjing West Road. Nanjing West Road will go relatively high. ESPRIT will not be able to afford it.

Sadly, the flagship store, which has been in operation for 12 years, has caused a sensation when it opened. Customers have entered the shop and even queued outside the door.

Not only in Shanghai, China, but also in North America, ESPRIT is being evacuated.

Since ESPRIT launched the pformation plan in September last year, management has focused on cutting down almost all shops in North America, involving 97 stores and 1600 employees.

In 2001, it expanded in the US as a "bottom up" gesture. Its brand inspiration came from the ESPRIT break of California leisure wind in the US. It did not expect that it would withdraw from the United States after 10 years.

Zhang Peng, a consultant who worked with ESPRIT in 2006, regrets that ESPRIT is no longer the same.

Zhang Peng: at that time, 80% of its business income came from Europe. In Europe, 48% of its revenue came from Germany, so the company's design and operation were mainly German, when the stock price went to 110.

In fact, the concept of fast fashion comes from Europe. The biggest feature is that the product is updated quickly, keeps pace with the latest international trend, and the price is close to the people, which is called "parity" by consumers.

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But in Zhang Peng's view, the present ESPRIT seems to be completely out of touch with fast fashion.

Although it is the earliest fashion brand to enter the Chinese market, ZARA is more fashionable and H&M product line richer than ESPRIT.

"Can't keep up with the popularity and can't lower the price," Zhang Peng said. ESPRIT's position is very awkward now, which has led to a decline in ESPRIT's profitability for 3 consecutive years.

Zhang Peng: poor management, brand positioning is not very good, the price is not low, but not as famous as those luxury brands, unlike a little lower brand selling cheap.

"Fast" and "change" are the key words to win fast fashion, and the guarantee of "fast" needs the full cooperation of supply chain.

ESPRIT, which always focuses on wholesale, lacks effective supply chain to support market competition.

The supply chain weakness is directly reflected in the inventory data of ESPRIT: in the 2010/2011 fiscal year, the stock amount increased from 2 billion 460 million yuan to 4 billion 220 million yuan, and the stock days increased from 65 days to 75 days.

To retrieve the lost soul, the road of ESPRIT seems to be very far away.

The direct consequence of high inventory is frequent discounts, and Ding Huayan, the voice of the economy, has found a ESPRIT store in an office store, where the discount is 3-5, and some clothes even have a discount after the discount.

Reporter: when are these discount clothes made?

Shop assistant: this year, last year.

About 70 percent off.

Interviewer: how much is this down jacket?

Salesperson: 360, the original price is 1200.

When discount becomes a convention, it will hurt the sales of brand and normal merchandise. The year-round discount is not a fast fashion style.

ZARA, for example, does not have a large amount of money. Even though the best selling style is limited, the time that a garment stays in the shop does not exceed four weeks, which in turn urges consumers to make a purchase decision as soon as possible.

The two are in stark contrast.

Zhang Peng, consultant consultant, believes that this is the reason why ESPRIT failed.

Zhang Peng: more importantly, competition is better than others.

ZARA, H&M these seasons are very fast, the style renewal is very fast, the clothing core is the design, ESPRIT design nobody family quick.

"May I ask you tide people ESPRIT tide?" a netizen raised this question in a fashion forum, and got the answer: "no tide, very dry."

Most of the ESPRIT products are made of pure color, but the styles are not changed so much that they are rarely seen in rivet, lace and other popular elements.

Some consumers told reporters why they didn't like ESPRIT:

Consumer: maybe design.

Consumer: ESPRIT style is not as good as before.

Consumer: it has never been a very fashionable trend.

ESPRIT's parent company acknowledged that in its annual report, the ESPRIT brand lost its vitality and led to the loss of customers.

In order to save the serious decline, Si Jie is taking a rescue action at the cost of up to 4 million 250 thousand euros in annual salary from its rival ZARA.

Their new CEO arrived in September 26th.

Zheng Mingxun, vice chairman of Si Jie non executive vice president, said that in order to cater to the market, Si Jie will be pformed into a fast consumption clothing brand. The goal is to speed up the listing of some new products weekly rather than monthly.

Some analysts pointed out that although the market share of ZARA and H&M is high, ESPRIT brand is famous and has the chance to turn over the market. As for whether ESPRIT can really kill a blood route, there may still be waiting time for verification.