It'S Difficult For The Middle-Aged And Elderly To Buy Clothes. Who Is Staring At The "Ox Nose"

Breaking through the bottleneck of narrow selection of styles, the elderly clothing The market will turn into a big business. In the future, there will certainly be more enterprises with foresight and insight to join the pioneer in the market development of clothing products for the elderly, and this market will be activated in the near future and glow with vitality.

　 Reporters experience the difficulty of buying clothes for elders

From the late September to the early October of this year, it can be said that it is the golden node for all kinds of businesses to fight for sales promotion. The traditional Mid Autumn Festival, the National Day Golden Week, the Double Ninth Festival and other festivals come one after another. If consumers have been shopping during this period, they can feel that the promotion campaign for the traditional Mid Autumn Festival has not ended, and various discounts and promotions for the National Day Golden Week have been overwhelming. However, compared with the large-scale and large-scale promotion of various commodities during the Mid Autumn Festival and the National Day Golden Week, the traditional Double Ninth Festival seems to be slightly neglected. The reporter recently visited the market and found that in addition to several types of health care products for the middle-aged and elderly on the market Clothes & Accessories There are few categories of goods and few promotions.

Recently, Ms. Gong, a consumer in Weihai, called the reporter for help, telling him that she wanted to go back to her hometown to see her parents during the National Day Golden Week holiday, and buy them suitable clothes clothes To show filial piety, we should celebrate the Old Man's Day for them in advance. However, to Ms. Gong's confusion, she spent two weekends running around the Weihai clothing market, and was unable to buy suitable clothes for her parents. Seeing the festival approaching, Ms. Gong was very worried.

In order to help Ms. Gong with her doubts, on September 25 and 26, the reporter conducted a large-scale visit to the Weihai clothing market, and found that it was indeed more difficult than expected to buy clothes for the elders. From Liqun Commercial Building, Haigang Building, Korea Town to Tongyi Road Pedestrian Street in Huancui District, the reporter has almost visited several major clothing stores in Weihai City, and found that middle-aged and elderly clothing, especially elderly clothing, accounts for a small proportion of the clothing market in the region. In these clothing stores, rows of young people Fashion clothing , children's clothing, etc. can be seen everywhere, but there are only a few counters or stalls that specialize in clothing accessories for the middle-aged and elderly.

In the process of visiting and investigating, the reporter conducted random interviews. The consumer, Miss Chen, told the reporter that she seldom went to such clothing stores to help her parents buy clothes. She usually chose to help parents buy clothes on the Internet. Talking about the reason, Ms. Chen said: "First, there are very few counters selling clothes for the elderly in these clothing stores, and the styles are relatively old, almost the same old style every year, there is no new idea, and there are few discount activities; second, my parents are relatively fat, and it is difficult to find the right size in these stores even if they break their legs. However, there are also some disadvantages in choosing online shopping. First, there is no guarantee of quality ; Second, it also takes a long time to return and exchange goods when the size is not suitable. It saves a lot of effort compared with shopping all over the street. "

　　 "Nowadays, young people are making more and more styles of clothes, but it takes a lot of trouble to buy clothes that look good in style and fit in size for the elderly. I heard from my friends that there would be more choices for old people in the Wanduofu Fair Price Clothing Market, but I haven't bought suitable clothes after several visits. Now I give my old people customized clothes, and I The style is beautiful, so I choose the older fabric color to customize it for my mother. However, there are fewer and fewer tailor shops now, and the cost of customized clothes is very high. The cost of fabric and handicraft together will buy two clothes of the same style as mine. " Consumer Ms. Liu also said in an interview that it is difficult to buy clothes for the elders.

Later, after a comprehensive search of several online shopping e-commerce platforms, such as Taobao, Tmall and Paipai, the reporter found that clothing for the middle-aged and the elderly accounted for a relatively small proportion in the number of all clothing sales products, and the reporter roughly calculated less than 3%. So why are there so few clothes for the middle-aged and elderly? Is there no market potential for middle-aged and elderly clothing, or is clothing production not smart?

　　 The consumption power of middle-aged and elderly groups unknown to garment manufacturers

China is a country of ceremonies. Since ancient times, there has been a traditional virtue of respecting and loving the old. The government departments also vigorously promote respecting and loving the old through various policies and measures. For example, on December 28, 2012, the newly amended Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly, which was voted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, clearly stipulates that the ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the Elderly Day every year.

It is reasonable to say that China has gradually entered the stage of aging development, and the proportion of the elderly population continues to increase. The reporter searched the basic data of the elderly published on the website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the data showed that by the end of 2012, the elderly population aged 60 and above in China had reached 194 million, accounting for 14.3% of the total population. It is estimated that the number of elderly people in China will exceed 200 million in 2013, the proportion of elderly people in the total population will exceed 30% in 2042, and the number of elderly people in China will exceed 400 million in 2034. In addition, according to relevant data from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, with the continuous expansion of the coverage of pension insurance in China, the total amount of pension payments for the elderly in China will reach 2814.5 billion yuan by 2020 and 7321 billion yuan by 2030. And "China spin The survey figures released by the newspaper also show that at present, the output value of China's aging industry is about 1 trillion yuan, of which only the clothing for the elderly has a consumption potential of at least 200 billion yuan every year. Combined with the scientific analysis principle of the consumer market, the female consumer group will be the source of strength leading the market consumption ability. Statistics from authoritative institutions show that female consumer groups support more than 60% of the consumption power of an ordinary medium-sized city. According to the above statistical data, the consumption market potential of middle-aged and elderly women should be enormous. However, why is the development scale of the textile and clothing market for the middle-aged and the elderly so small now?

"Many enterprises have noticed the clothing consumption potential of middle-aged and elderly women. According to survey data, the proportion of middle-aged and elderly women who buy clothing accounts for more than 20% of all women's clothing purchasing power, especially in second and third tier cities, which is higher." Referring to the current clothing market for middle-aged and elderly women, Mr. Li, the publicity officer of Weihai Textile and Garment Association, said in a telephone interview that in general, if middle-aged and elderly female consumers buy their own clothes, most of them will not choose high-end malls, specialty stores or stores, especially in the second and third tier cities, which are concentrated in low-end wholesale markets and roadside stalls. However, if children buy on their behalf, most of them prefer high-end stores, pay attention to clothing quality, and have high requirements for quality.

It is difficult to get relatively accurate survey data on the proportion of elderly people buying on their own and children buying on behalf, so it is difficult for enterprises to grasp the consumption power of these customers. It is not hard to imagine that garment enterprises will face business difficulties if they produce large batches of middle-aged and elderly clothing without effective sales channels to support them. Plus the whole Textile and clothing industry It is still in the downturn of the post financial crisis, and most garment enterprises dare not rush to develop this market due to their own safety concerns.

　　 Breaking through the style bottleneck, the elderly clothing becomes a big business

"The consumption potential of middle-aged and elderly people in clothing is a topic that can be extended indefinitely. Clothing enterprises need to re-examine the business opportunities around them, explore how to seize this' bull nose 'and open up the domestic clothing market, especially the effective way of the clothing market for middle-aged and elderly people in second and third tier cities, which is a topic worth discussing." At the end of the interview, Mr. Li told the reporter hopefully.

As Mr. Li said, if businesses can seize the "bull's nose" of the elderly clothing market, they will usher in a huge consumer market. Therefore, how to guide and drive the elderly to consume in the clothing field has become an important issue that textile and clothing enterprises must face to develop markets and seize business opportunities. At present, due to the misunderstanding of traditional concepts, the misconceptions such as "the price of clothing for the elderly should not be too high", "the management of clothing for the elderly does not earn money", and "the comfort and simplicity of clothing for the elderly is good" restrict the overall development of the clothing market for the elderly. At the same time, these misconceptions also lead to the general sense of design and fashion of the existing middle-aged and elderly clothing products in China is not strong, the style is conservative, and the quality needs to be improved.

"The choice of style is narrow, and this is the current elderly Clothing market An obvious problem in the pattern. In the future, we need to change the old wrong ideas, do a good job in the research of the clothing market for the elderly, understand the real demand of the elderly for clothing, increase the types of products and produce the right products. " When talking about the difficulties faced by the current middle-aged and elderly clothing market, Mr. Zhang, an assistant to the chairman of a well-known clothing enterprise in Zhengzhou, pointed out that the current middle-aged and elderly clothing production is mainly faced with a style problem. At the same time, in terms of sales, the middle-aged and elderly people are generally not strong enough to go to areas too far away to buy clothes, mostly in areas not far from home. Therefore, the sales effect of setting up a special clothing area for the elderly in major comprehensive supermarkets is relatively outstanding.

In addition, with the help of E-commerce platform Some enterprises that develop the clothing sales market for middle-aged and elderly women have also made many valuable attempts. For example, Handu Clothing House, which has done a lot in this field, took the lead in subdividing the elderly clothing market, taking the fashionable middle and high-end brand route. The target customer group of Handu Clothing House is aimed at young children who help their parents buy clothes on the network platform. They constantly seek innovation and change in clothing styles, maintain a sense of stability in fashion, and emphasize product quality. Spring and autumn clothing is priced at 200~300 yuan, summer clothing is 150~200 yuan, and winter clothing is more than 300 yuan, making remarkable achievements.