Electronic Business Platform "Star Wardrobe" Was Once Again Exposed To The Capital Chain Is Very Tight.

After more than three months, cross-border clothing business platform "star Wardrobe" was once again exposed to arrears of staff salaries, business loans, D round financing difficult to find plate Xia, etc., it is thought that this is its frequent financing and huge marketing frenzy burning capital chain tension caused by the situation.

Recently, a public report said that the star wardrobe was in arrears with merchant loans and delayed.

A star closet staff also revealed, "because of tight funds, employees have not been paid for 3 months, and they have not paid social security in five or six months."

In the eyes of the industry, the reason for the delay in the D round of the star wardrobe and the tight capital chain lie in the fact that on the one hand, the environment of capital cold winter has been caused; on the other hand, under the circumstance that the star clothing cabinet is not clear enough in the cross-border clothing business model, the "fast pace" makes cash flow insufficient to support the normal operation of the enterprise, which leads to a series of problems of the star wardrobe.

It is worth noting that the star wardrobe set up in 2012 is targeted at fashion female users. In March 2015, it began the pformation of business mode, from the initial shopping platform to cross-border apparel business platform.

In the past, through star dressing and matching, attracting traffic and guiding the shopping platform of Taobao and other e-business platforms, it was hard to make money with the words of CEO Lin Qinghua, a star wardrobe. Moreover, because users bought and traded on the third party platform, the shopping guide platform could not master user data, thus forming a commercial closed loop.

However, it is not easy to do an e-commerce platform, especially when the domestic electricity supplier is relatively mature.

AI media consulting CEO Zhang Yi said: "the electricity supplier is very hard to live, those who grow up in the cracks are rooted in vertical electric business enterprises are very obvious characteristics, can be very low-key and solid to do the product."

Star wardrobe since its inception has maintained an average of a round of financing frequency. In October 2014, it won the $10 million 800 thousand C+ round of financing such as StarVC, Jiangnan Chun and long Zi stock founded by free Quan Ren and Li Bingbing. In August 2015, it won the Zhejiang Yongqiang 50 million yuan Pre-D round of financing.

In the PreD round of financing, the valuation of the star wardrobe reached 1 billion 650 million yuan.

At the end of last year, D financing seemed to be in trouble. Some media quoted CIC staff's view that the star wardrobe was overvalued and the business mode was not clear.

Questions of doubt.

In June this year, Lin Qinghua accepted the interview with I black horse network. He admitted that the D round of financing which had been postponed at the end of March this year was also a little tight.

In arrears of wages and social security instructions, there must be some problems in the internal capital chain. In China, Li Pengbo, Deputy Secretary General of the 50 person forum for cross border electricity providers, and President of the Guangdong cross border electricity supplier Association Research Institute, it seems that the D financing difficulties of the star wardrobe are mainly due to two reasons, one is internal, the other is external.

As early as in June this year, the news of the interface news published in the name of "StarVC participation in the cross-border apparel business star wardrobe capital chain tightened D ring financing fear no unmanned dish" article said, get burst, star wardrobe arrears employees wages, high valuation, business model doubt, the outlook is not happy.

Subsequently, the star wardrobe issued a statement refuting, "there are a lot of false information in the text which are in serious contradiction with the facts", which triggered a ripping off between a start-up company and its interface journalists.

"At present, the financing is setback, the business mode is not clear, and the blind line has been lengthened in the absence of a good operation condition, which has caused such an unhealthy condition at present. It is really not a good phenomenon."

Zhang Yi told our reporter.

Li Pengbo believes that, from the inside point of view, the advertising is too fierce before the star wardrobe, and the drainage is not precise, resulting in the conversion rate is not very high, so it costs a lot of money, but there are not many customers left behind.

From the outside point of view, cross-border clothing business model of e-commerce itself has some problems.

Similarly, as a vertical electricity supplier, the rigid demand of the mother to child electronic business mode is there, and the commercial mode of cross-border clothing business does not exist in itself a particularly rigid demand.

"This means that for such a APP, its scale will not be very large, but because of its own needs, it can survive. After all, it has some innovation, but it can only be cultivated in a long way, rather than in the short term, because in many cases, this need needs to be excavated and cultivated bit by bit."

Li Pengbo said.

It is understood that the core business model of star wardrobe is: through overseas direct mail, bonded warehouse preparation and foreign design domestic production three modes, the clothing products will be sold to domestic white-collar young consumers, the average customer price is 300 yuan.

"Star Wardrobe" claims that goods are shipped from abroad, and then shipped in various ways such as bonded warehouses and overseas direct mail, so as to distinguish their business models from domestic ones.

Vertical enterprise.

Because the market size is too small, compared to mother and baby category, such cross-border clothing business enterprises are not many.

Li Pengbo told reporters.

The extraordinary marketing promotion allowed the outside world to quickly know the existence of the star wardrobe.

Public information shows that in November last year, the star wardrobe took a series of works of Bea Hayden and designer Li Wei with 61 million 190 thousand yuan in the goddess new dress program. This series of all single items was on sale in the star wardrobe. Since the program was launched, the auction amount of star wardrobe has accumulated over two hundred million yuan.

In addition, the company took the exclusive title, excellent soil and the naming right of the Iqiyi homemade program of "the king of fashion in China and Korea", the title of "China and Korea fashion king", the "entertainment rush back" and "fashion popcorn" jointly launched in 2015 by SBS.

In Zhang Yi's view, there are three main problems in star wardrobe.

First, business models or at least the business models that are expressed are not clear.

Secondly, the cash flow of star wardrobe can not achieve a benign and healthy cycle, which is the taboo of electric business. "Everyone thinks that a lot of money can support their business mode. This is wrong, especially when capital is in the winter. It is necessary to operate healthy cash flow. This is the best way for an enterprise to operate. It is more effective than financing and exaggerating the concept."

Zhang Yi said.

And the third is to find unique selling points in the market competition, and this selling point must be high frequency. The frequency of users of star wardrobe is not high, plus the characteristics of not being particularly rigid, especially in the business mode of B2C.

"The best way to do that is to do cash flow.

Profit is not enough to support this situation is very dangerous, big investment can consider appropriate contraction, not large-scale expansion is healthy development, in the relatively mature electricity supplier domain and limited mobile desktop space, star wardrobe needs proper business mode should be normal operation of enterprises, this is suitable for the business mode of enterprises.

Zhang Yi said.

The promotion cost of doing business needs is very high, and the chain is relatively long.

In this process, the whole consumption of products and business chains is very large. It must be backed up by powerful funds or financing. If the financing support is not in place, the middle will easily abort. Zhang Yi thinks: "everything in this stage is to solve the business model, solve the problem of cash flow and profits."

The marketing cost of star wardrobe last year was one hundred million yuan, averaging about 10000000 yuan per month.

Huge marketing investment has gained attention and financing, and has continued to invest in large-scale marketing after financing. However, the actual business of star wardrobe has not been promoted accordingly.