I.T Group Join Us Fashion Brand To Enter The Mainland Market

Most fashion brands in Europe and America are eager to expand the Chinese market, and Free People is no exception.

Recently, Free People, the most popular fashion brand of young people in the United States, announced that it would join hands with Hongkong fashion giant I.T group to open the first Chinese store in Shanghai, and formally enter the Chinese market.

Free People is one of the five major brands of Urban Outfitters, the tenth largest fashion retailer in the United States, who specializes in providing Bohemia style clothing for women aged 25 to 30.

Piper Jaffray's youth sales report shows that Urban Outfitters ranks fifth among the most popular clothing brands in the US.

Free People chief operating officer David Hayne said in an exclusive interview with reporters that this is the first time that Free People has opened a store in China, which is located in the I.T store of Xuhui District Hui Kong Plaza in Xuhui District, Shanghai.

From October onwards, Free People will enter 7 I.T shops in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou.

The internationalization of Free People is mainly based on Messi stores and other stores.

Or look for retail agents to achieve them.

Using other people's sales channels to set up shop stores is a common method for Free People to test water in the international market.

In 2012, Free People entered the Japanese market by awarding the exclusive marketing rights of World Co. and Ltd, and officially launched its Asian strategy.

According to the statistics of journalists, its stores in Japan have reached 7 stores.

In April of this year, Free People entered Hongkong in the same way - opened the first shop in the golden bell corridor.

Free People chief operating officer David Hayne introduces Free People, which has 30 stores in the UK, Australia, Japan and Hongkong.

David Hayne said, "store store will make our sales chain more complete, so that we have more free space to display products.

We can monitor customer preferences and fashion trends through wholesale channels, so as to better serve our retail customers.

In addition, by looking for retail agents, Free People's clothing can be sold in more than 1400 stores worldwide.

There are only 97 stores in Free People, all in the US and Canada.

Urban Outfitters is the strongest growth brand.

According to the results of the end of January 2013 to the end of January 2014, Urban Outfitters earned $3 billion 86 million in the fiscal year, of which Free People contributed about 15% of its performance.

"After continuous growth, Free People has become one of the most popular emerging apparel retail brands."

Free People has become an important weapon for Urban Outfitters to reverse its decline.

Thanks to Free People, High Street Tycoon Urban Outfitters has not been so ugly in recent years.

As a pillar brand of the company, Urban Outfitters has been declining in recent years.

In the first, second quarter of this year, net sales of Urban Outfitters decreased by 10% and 10.8%, respectively, and became the leading cause of poor corporate performance.

Over the same period, the net sales of Free People increased by 20.6% and 23.6% respectively over the same period, and the rapid growth of Free People has been maintained for many years. In 2012 and 2013, the revenue of Free People increased by 28% and 30% respectively.

Such high

I.T group is also valued.

Nowadays, Hongkong's tide brand I.T also wants to touch the light.

I.T is one of the largest clothing enterprises in Hongkong. It focuses on Chao brand, and its own brand is located in the middle and high-end price. Most of the shops are located in busy commercial streets, shopping malls and shopping centers.

Shen Jiawei, the boss of the company, married Hongkong star Chingmy Yau.

I.T stores are divided into multi brand store and brand store.

The multi brand collection store has I.T, I.T, double-park and ete! Four gates.

In 2013, I.T's performance in the base camp in Hongkong declined, and group chairman Shen Jiawei called 2013 a "difficult year".

In 2013, I.T not only reduced the number of shops from 295 to 275 in Hongkong, but also reduced its total revenue by 3.3%.

Thanks to an increase of 16.3% in the mainland market, I.T sales in 2013 reached US $870 million, barely 3.1% higher than the previous year, but net profit decreased by 27.3%.

In the Hongkong market downturn, I.T is increasingly relying on the mainland market, hoping to stimulate the market through new means.

The Free People's entry into I.T shop is one of the means.

I.T has 8 stores in Shanghai, located in Meishan Town, CITIC Plaza and other large shopping malls.

Earlier, in September 2013, I.T opened a branch with Galeries Lafayette in Xidan, Beijing, which is believed to boost confidence.

But its earnings report released in July shows that the joint venture is still losing money.

Can international brands like Free People become a new sales growth point for I.T? Maybe.

I.T has authorized more than 300 international brands, and has more than 10 independent brands and licensed brands, but the latter has contributed 59% of the turnover.

In the young women's fashion retail and wholesale market, Free People also needs to face Forever 21 and H&M fashion giants.

In 2012, Forever 21 entered China. In September this year, it opened 3 new stores in Chongqing, Wuxi and Hangzhou, and increased the number of Forever 21 in the mainland to 9.

The expansion of H&M, a clothing retailer from Europe, is even more astonishing. As of the end of August, it already has 3341 stores worldwide.

In the Chinese market, the number of stores increased from 15% in 2007 to 241 last year, with a total sales volume of 1 billion 100 million US dollars.

Free People also acknowledged in the latest annual report that Forever 21 and H&M have "higher brand awareness, financial and other resources".

So Free People is a bit conservative for the development of the Chinese market, and David Hayne, the company's chief operating officer, has made it clear that they do not have any plans to open their own stores in China.

Although it has entered the mainland market, the focus of Free People is still in North America.

In the first 7 months of this year, Free People opened 7 stores in the United States. It seems that it is not difficult to achieve the goal of opening 12 new targets in the year.

In the past 4 years, Free People has more than 13 new stores in North America and 20 in 2011.