Wuhan: The Largest American Shop Has Few Customers, And Its Leisure Brand Is Generally "Winter".

"In the past, an average person could sell twenty items per day, and now it is difficult to sell ten."

In May 24th, the pedestrian street in Jianghan Road, Wuhan. Metersbonwe A salesperson in the store told reporters that business has not been good this year.

Reporters looked at the 2015 annual report released by the US state dress, noting that the annual performance of Smith Barney apparel has been the first time in 8 years since its listing in 2008. The announcement shows that in 2015, its operating income was 6 billion 295 million yuan, down 4.92% from the same period last year. Net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was -4.32 billion, a sharp decline of 396.57% over the same period last year.

Insiders said that in the past year, the garment industry is still in a "hot water" year. Not only is the United States, including Giordano, Baleno, JEANSWEST, and other casual wear, men and women wear and so on, business performance has declined to varying degrees. At present, from the end demand, it is still slightly weak. In the context of enterprises' transformation, investment and return can not be balanced. In the short term, the overall situation of the industry is still somewhat difficult to reverse.

There are few customers in Wuhan's largest American state store.

Shanghai Metersbonwe apparel Limited by Share Ltd was founded in 1995. In less than six years, the company's total sales volume exceeded 10 billion yuan, becoming one of the leading brands of domestic casual wear. In recent years, it has shown a "weakening" state. It seems that the prospect of becoming a global tailor and providing a new fashion life experience for the global consumers seems to be farther and farther away.

On the afternoon of May 23rd, the reporter came to the Metersbonwe store opposite the Guangdong mall in Wuchang. As the largest flagship store in Wuhan, thanks to the advantages of geographical location, it has a huge passenger flow. A few years ago, during holidays, consumers were queuing up for clothes, queuing up clothes and queuing up to pay for money.

However, last year, while upgrading and upgrading, the business area was shrinking. Nearly half of the pavement is rented to other brand clothing, beverage shops and convenient hotels.

In response, the head of the Finance Department of the store said in an interview with reporters: "we do not need such a large area to rent it." When reporters further asked whether the reason for reducing the area was due to poor management, she said it was not convenient to disclose.

Reporters stayed in the shop for half an hour, and found that there were not many customers choosing clothes and trying on them. Many customers were attracted by the discount signs appearing in the shop. Reporters observed that customers trying on clothes were much more than they actually bought.

Casual wear brand generally "winter"

Over the past few days, journalists have visited many of Wuhan's interior stores or " Keep house Most of the casual wear brand stores are in the predicament of shrinking sales and shrinking business space.

The salesperson of JEANSWEST clothing counters at a shopping mall in Castle Peak told reporters, "business is not as good as a year." In the face of inquiries about the operation of the counters, she said, "during the May Day holiday, the sales volume of the counter has shrunk by nearly half."

Reporters found that the same floor of Baleno, Metersbonwe also appeared in the sales decline, when the reporter further asked the specific sales decline, the relevant staff said it is not convenient to disclose, the whole industry is depressed.

A staff member who is mainly responsible for the leisure brand in the shopping mall, Zhang said that she began to contact with American, JEANSWEST, Baleno and other leisure brands in 2005, and they still remember the hot scenes they sold at that time. "The sales of these brands are all up to 5 million yuan. On Christmas day and new year's day, consumers often have to queue up for clothes, queue up for clothes, and queue up to pay."

In addition, a reporter who visited the Jianghan Road leisure clothing store for 5 years, said Miss Luo, told reporters that "the era of American, Baleno and JEANSWEST has really passed by, and that they have rarely bought these brands since work."

She recalls that when she was at school, there were many stores in Jianghan Road. Every weekend she would go around with her classmates, often buying clothes by herself, and the whole dormitory would follow suit. Now, more foreign fast fashion brands such as ZARA, H&M and UNIQLO are on the same street.

At the same time, she added, compared with domestic brands, the products of foreign fast fashion brands have been updated faster, with new products every week, and there will not be any products that have been sold all summer. In addition, the comfort of shopping is also very important. For example, in H&M, there is no tail shopping guide. You can try it on with your clothes. If you have more people, you can pay the money to take it home and try it on, and you can return it within a month. These are the services that domestic brands do not have.

Internet transformation to build light products

In 2015, the United States and costumes actively promote the layout of the Internet business and explore new directions for innovation.

Under the leadership of chairman Zhou Chengjian, the United States has been on the Internet for a long time: in 2011, the direct investment website was purchased from the listed companies. After more than two years, Bong network was reclaimed, almost the same time to start the O2O strategy, and upgrade the old shop to O2O shop. In the annual report, the United States pointed out that the overall development of the Internet business has entered a benign track. The state purchase, the whole network, and the fan have formed effective force points through precise positioning, and sales revenue has increased by 123% over the same period last year.

However, in the view of the industry, the transformation of Smith Barney on the Internet is somewhat putting the cart before the horse. The United States will put too much energy on the construction of the Internet platform itself, ignoring the fact that the Internet is just playing a role as a tool. The key to acquiring the market and consumers is the product itself.

"For the United States, it is particularly important to find its own position. In fact, when the fast fashion brand has just entered China, the United States has announced that it wants to be "China's ZARA". This declaration shows that the United States wants to be bigger and stronger in the Chinese garment industry (22.460, -0.03, -0.13%). But from another perspective, China's young consumers already own a ZARA, and they no longer need another domestic ZARA. The United States must get rid of this way of copying behind the fast fashion brand and find its own product positioning. Clothing industry expert Li Xi has publicly said.

In response to questions such as "how effective the company's Internet transformation is and its future transformation plan" and "two years of shop closings, the first loss in listing eight years," and "the sales and marketing situation of Wuhan branches", the reporter sent an outline to the American Apparel headquarters.

Expert opinion

Customer centered or redeemable

In the apparel industry, the decline in the performance of Smith Barney's clothing reflects the real dilemma of most enterprises.

Statistics show that as of April 25th afternoon, Shen Wan Textile and garment industry 48 listed companies released the 2015 performance report or express. Among them, 21 enterprises operating income declined, and 21 enterprises' net profit declined. In addition, there are 11 listed companies with double revenues and profits.

In response, Professor Zhou told reporters that the development trend of the clothing industry should be customer focused. In the final analysis, solving the fundamental problem of "meeting customer needs and potential needs" is the only way out for the traditional clothing enterprises to be reborn and break through. Garment enterprises without "customer centralization" awareness and strategy implementation will be "marginalized" in the subsequent competition.

He added that the transformation of the Internet is a good try, and more opportunities for the future industry will be left to those who are connected to the Internet. But in the Internet era, we must first achieve "small" and beautiful, although it has independent design, but it is not high end and not sophisticated enough. If we fail to do something well, we will do the best; secondly, we should shorten the inventory cycle in the transformation. The "fast fashion" route of ZARA clothing is to shorten the inventory cycle as soon as possible, in exchange for low price but quick return of cash and profits. At the same time, in the grasp of e-commerce, products should be as good as possible to meet customers' tastes.