Clothing Industry Seeks Market To Change Business Mode: Unhappy Or Dead?

The classic fashion brands Gap, J.Crew and Abercrombie &Fitch, which are not in good operation, are changing their business models to adapt to a faster and cheaper market.

H&M and companies that are similar to their models may still be able to sustain them.

The book value of Michelle Obama's favorite brand J.Crew was reduced by 1 billion US dollars; the market value of A ropostale was shrunk by half; Ann Taylor shut off dozens of stores before the parent company sold it to the Ascena retail group (Ascena Retail Group); the pure American brand of Michel Obama announced that it would close down 1/4 of its North American branches because of the drag on the decline in market share.

In this may encounter fairy mother-in-law.

Some executives of the company now believe in elf magic powder, the so-called Pixie Ankle Pant (Pant).

For example, the leadership of Gap Gap (Inc. Inc.) regards this kind of trousers sold by its Old Navy as a template to help companies get out of the trough.

The cheap, easy to make and fashionable elf seven pants show how well the US retailers have not implemented these years. The American fashion industry has to adopt these methods if they want to survive.

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This short stretch of printed stretch pants is unique in its production and supply chain.

At present, it takes us about 9 months to enter the market by American companies, twice as long as Sweden's H&M, Spain's Zara, Japan's Uniqlo fast and so on.

The result is that Gap and other American companies have to sell at a discount due to overstocking.

The seven cent trousers sold by Old Navy are products of a faster and more flexible new production mode.

Before the large-scale production, the brand first sold several small samples to understand the market reaction. Its cooperation with suppliers was never too close, and there was always a variety of cloth in hand to adapt to the new trend.

This approach has seen a good result now: after a sales slump, sales of Old Navy increased by $1 billion over the past four years, and it is still growing rapidly.

Gap plans to copy this pattern in the production of its brand name and Banana Republic brand.

Abercrombie & Fitch, Ann Taylor and J.Crew are also trying to improve their response to fashion changes.

"The power of decision has shifted dramatically to consumers."

Oliver Chen, a retail industry analyst at Cowen & Co., a market research firm, said (Oliver Chen).

What consumers need is the most fashionable and changing faster than ever before.

"Many situations show that (consumers) change is now faster than the market."

Old Navy executive vice president Jordi Brick (Jodi Bricker) said.

But speed and flexibility are just the United States.

Desperate measures.

The industry also has to let shoppers get rid of the idea of selling only discounted goods.

American brands have fallen into discounted rabbit holes, with those super cheap "fast fashion" clothing stores and sales discount stores (such as Ross and T.J. Maxx).

Discount sales, in turn, force them to reduce the quality of their products in order to maintain profits.

Companies are now trying to make up for even some damage to their brands.

Abercrombie & Fitch gave up its brand logo and improved its texture and washability.

Customers of Banana Republic can find its

The elasticity of cloth has improved, or the stitches have changed a little.

Jeff Kirwan, the chief executive of Gap company, regards improving quality as the "foundation" of Jeff Cowan's brand reappearance.

No matter what clothing manufacturers in the United States do, if they want to maintain their existing market share (see Annex), they will have to do it quickly.

UNIQLO has 42 stores in the United States, and this number is still increasing, and only four years ago it had very few.

The number of H&M stores in the United States is now close to that of Gap - 370, and this year it will increase by dozens.

Gap's whole category stores will soon drop to 500, less than half of its peak in 2000.

By this fall, all of the above companies will face a new and terrible competitor: Primark, a fast fashion chain in Ireland, has swept across Europe, and the price of its products is so low that even H&M will feel shudder.