Local Clothing Brand: "Go To Dealers" Is A False Proposition?

While the international brands are going to distributors in full swing, the war seems to be spreading to the public and local clothing brands.

In July 2011, the strong cancellation strategy of the group led to an unprecedented fierce conflict with its agents everywhere.

Although the Hunan agent of its brand ONLY came to Beijing to protest, it failed to restore the determination to "go to agents".

Meanwhile,

Domestic brands such as Anta, Hongxing Erke, YOUNGOR and so on are constantly adjusting their channel strategies and strengthening the control and control of channels.

Among them, some brands also announced the withdrawal of part of the agency power, increase the proportion of direct battalion.

But can domestic brands relying on agency system really abandon agents?

Success or failure dealer

"Almost all well-known local clothing brands are built on the basis of agency system. Agent system plays a very important role in speeding up sales of brands and improving sales."

A well-known women's clothing brand executive told reporters that the Chinese market is very large, and the business environment of different business circles and regions is not the same. Therefore, if the brand wants to integrate into the local market as soon as possible, it is the most effective way to cooperate with agents who have rich fund and channel resources.

One option.

In the view of Wu Jianmin, chairman of Shu long group, the agency system of brand is more realistic than the restriction of funds and talents.

"Brand needs to be fully realized and its capital and team building are highly demanded.

And if the store operation is not good enough, the capital pfer speed is too slow, it will also cause great pressure on the cash flow of enterprises.

Wu Jianmin said.

At the same time, Wu Jianmin believes that in many cases, brand promotion agent system is more conducive to brand channel expansion.

"Brand franchisee is the agent's own industry, so agents have invested a lot of energy and thought in the daily operation of the store.

The effect of finding professional managers for shop management is quite different.

Wu Jianmin told reporters that professional managers are employees with fixed salaries, and their personal interests are not closely related to the business performance of the shops. Therefore, some enterprises are in a much better position than before.

"ONLY is very typical. After the withdrawal of agency power, the efficiency of shops is not as good as that of agents."

With the obsession of sales figures of clothing enterprises, the growth rate of brand agents is also accompanied by the soaring sales volume of enterprises, which also brings hidden trouble for the healthy development of brand enterprises.

"Although the agency mechanism is very helpful to the development of brand channels, the uneven quality of agents and the excessive number of agents pose a higher challenge for enterprises to control terminal channels."

Xu Xianling, assistant director of Yin man, told reporters that the lack of effective management of agents has led many garment enterprises to have a large backlog of inventory in recent years.

"In the past few years, many enterprises in Wuhan were holding orders, but the number of agents who came to participate was significantly reduced compared with previous years."

Mao Lihui, a famous fashion critic in China, told reporters that Wuhan's orders this year will drop by 80% compared with previous years.

In addition to not participating in the order, many agents discounted and squeezed stock in order to return the funds, which caused great damage to the brand's terminal image.

Cheng Fangding, assistant director of YOUNGOR, told reporters that this is why YOUNGOR has insisted on increasing the proportion of direct battalions in recent years.

In this regard, what causes the mutual loss between agents and brand enterprises?

Thinking to be changed

"I think a lot of brands have a lot of problems with their attitude towards joining agents. Many companies think that selling goods to dealers is a matter of vicious circle between the two sides, even if they sell their products and keep their inventory backlog."

Liu Weiwen, director and deputy general manager of JEANSWEST group, told reporters that in his view, the final product sales could only be completed if the product was passed to the consumer.

Now, this cooperation mode between brands and agents can still maintain normal operation in a good market environment. Once the market is sluggish, this cooperation mode will be hard to maintain.

"As far as I know, dealers around me can only earn 10% of their money."

Wu Xiaoyu, a dealer in Anhui who has many well-known brands, told reporters, "but my agent's brand performance is pretty good. I will choose a well-known brand as an agent besides, because I have agreements with the branding parties, and the goods that can not be sold can be returned to the brand side, or there is a corresponding compensation mechanism."

According to the press survey, when ordering goods to the branding party, the agent usually asks for a 80% deposit. Even if the dealer is late, the buyer will generally not allow the return of the product, and of course, it will not refund the dealer's deposit and payment, so this will not have a big impact on the sales figures of the brand side.

Therefore, for Wu Xiaoyu like agents, fast sales of products, the realization of goods circulation and quick return of funds are the support of agents to achieve healthy cooperation between the brand Guan Jian.

It is reported that there are few brands that can support returns in China.

Liu Weiwen told reporters that for the backlog of inventory of dealers, JEANSWEST will help its agents to digest inventory through its direct stores, or exchange some of its goods, and does not support all returns.

Therefore, the cooperation mode between the brand side and the agent is also a hidden danger for the cooperation between the two sides.

In this regard, Yang Dayun, President of UTA, China Fashion Management Group, believes that the profit seeking nature of dealers will make it difficult to consider the overall situation of brand development. Therefore, in his view, enterprises must ensure a healthy development of terminal channels in the future.

"Many dealers in order to allow enterprises to continue to supply their best sellers, sometimes they hide their inventory from the brand side. The lack of mastery of terminal sales data leads to a deviation between the production plan and the real situation of the market, which also exacerbates the inventory problem of enterprises."

Yang Da Jun told reporters.

In this regard, whether dealership can really become a remedy for enterprises?

Is it a false proposition to "go to dealers"?

Wu Jianmin thinks that both sides have advantages and disadvantages to the development of enterprises. Ultimately, they must make decisions according to their actual operation.

"Distributors can share the cost of enterprises in channel development, help enterprises to quickly spread the market, and self run is conducive to better control of terminals, and conducive to the steady development of enterprises."

For this problem, Liu Weiwen believes that the practice of international big dealers can not be applied to local mass brands.

"The audience of luxury goods itself is very small, so its store configuration is not much, which is very different from the popular clothing brand."

Liu Weiwen said.

It is undeniable that popular clothing brands usually drive sales through storefronts quickly, so as to realize the profits of enterprises. Therefore, it is very difficult for general enterprises to achieve the corresponding rationing of funds and talent teams in order to maintain the operation of such a large quantity of shops. It is difficult for them to realize the construction and improvement of channels without the help of distributors.

In this regard, a senior person in the industry told reporters that it is not very realistic to completely deallocate with dealers, especially for start-ups whose financial strength is not strong enough to rely on agent resources to help them better promote the market.

Li Mei, the industry insider, admitted that although the topic of dealership is being fry at present, the industry that actually tries it is only limited to several terminal sales, which are not particularly ideal for small and medium-sized enterprises.

In the well-known brand enterprises, there are few enterprises that are brave enough to try. We still have a wait-and-see attitude towards the completely direct mode.

In this regard, Liu Weiwen told reporters that in his view, enhancing the control and control capabilities of enterprises to the terminal is more realistic for the garment enterprises currently in pition. "We have assembled ERP systems for all direct and agent shops to enhance the ability of enterprises to collect and process terminal data, and enhance the logistics distribution and other reaction systems, so as to ensure that enterprises understand the dynamics of the terminal in a timely manner and make timely decisions according to the market sales situation."