The Fast Decline Of Performance And The Root Of Disfavor Of Fashion Brands

Fast fashion has developed explosively with cheap, fast and diversified products.

Every few days the store will have new models, which are similar to the big ones, but the price is much cheaper. The more stores they open, the more they will have.

These are some in recent years.

The current situation of chain stores.

However, the recent earnings reports of several major companies show that the fast decline of the performance of fashion brands seems to have gradually fallen out of favor.

Former giants encounter financial crisis

According to media reports, the world's second largest clothing retailer H&M, net profit in the first quarter of fiscal year 2016 has shrunk by 29.6%, while American apparel retailer GAP has not been spared. Net profit in the fourth quarter of last year dropped by 33%. By the decline of UNIQLO's performance, its parent company's fast selling group's net profit run plunged 55.1% in the first half of fiscal year 2016; even Forever21, which had a low price, was experiencing financial crisis on the other side of the ocean.

Just a few years ago, the fast fashion brand with its "speed" sword was still on the market.

However, in just a few years, it has been reduced to a series of failures. What is the matter?

The high price behind the low price

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Company designers will design new styles for each season, and they will be different from fashion retailers. They will design, process and publish new products at any time, as long as there are new trends.

Only by catching the fashion trend of top brands and integrating into their own design elements can we easily make clothes.

How fast is such a garment cycle? No more than 20 days in H&M.

Low prices and continuous new products keep customers patronizing fast fashion chains like H&M and Zara.

According to statistics, people in Britain now have 4 times as many clothes as they did 30 years ago, and every year they have the same weight clothes thrown into the trash cans, most of which come from fast fashion brands.

Elizabeth Cline in her book "excessive dressing: the shocking price behind fast fashion" Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost Of Cheap Fashion suggests that cheap fashion products actually do more harm than good to society.

She believes that the frequent upgrading and low quality of these products have led to a large number of clothes being abandoned, and these clothes are often not worn repeatedly.

In the frenzied pursuit of cheap fashion products, a lot of resources have been wasted and even led to deep environmental risks: whether these clothes can be degraded is still a puzzle.

The fast fashion clothes that seem to save money are actually much more burdens on society than people can imagine.

The awakening of rational consumption concept

Since 2015, the speed of fast fashion has been exposed.

Consumers are fleeing the fast fashion consumer cycle (buying cheap clothes - discarding cleaning - buying again).

Overseas fashion website Racked in the "quality or quantity Quality or Quantity" in the text of the consumer accounts.

The article says: because fast fashion, low price and various styles are more likely to cause impulse shopping, the money that consumers invest in it is often equivalent to buying a big suit with fine workmanship and fine design.

However, with the rapid upgrading of these brands, the frequency of these clothes is not large.

Low price and quality problems often lead to premature elimination of clothing. Consumers spend more money than buying classic brands.

The malignant pattern of rapid satisfaction, discarding and re consumption is the embodiment of fast fashion, which is only profit, good and reckless. It also makes most consumers indulge in, unrestrained, and excessive greed has become the characteristic of the times.

But now consumers are beginning to change. This is the real dilemma of the fast fashion.

New consumer

At the beginning of awakening, the choice of personality and practicality becomes more and more tired of poor quality and cheap goods.

With the rise of the new middle class in China, more consumers will choose to go out shopping or buy clothes with higher quality and higher design level.

Even for those who do not want to fly out of the country, the traditional brand strategy in the domestic market also provides convenience for them.

Without the sense of fashion, the price difference becomes smaller, and the advantage of fast fashion brands naturally becomes vulnerable.

Store expansion failure

Before escaping, it is also a magic weapon for fast fashion to dominate the market in addition to using cheap clothes to attract consumers.

As of February 29th this year, UNIQLO has 436 stores in China, and will continue to open 80-100 stores a year.

This rapid expansion speed has also made the fast fashion brand gradually taste the bitter fruit of "big step".

In the depressed environment of the fashion retailing industry, the problem of early blind expansion, excessive store size and high rent has become the shackles of fast fashion brands.

For the mall side, the fast fashion brand is the panacea for the absolute absorption of powder.

But today there are many choices, and the rise of fast fashion restaurants, new entertainment formats, scene business and lifestyle ecosystem has made it more and more important for shopping malls to charge higher rents to fast fashion brands that once used to be cheap.

Even though some of the fast fashion brands have received 1-1.5 million yuan / square repair, but in the current period of low fashion retailing, the blind expansion of shops, large shops and expensive rents are bringing serious crises.

An expert in Britain once said that the mode of quick satisfaction, discarding and re consumption is that the "fast fashion" industry only pays attention to profits, does what it takes, reckless consequences, and makes consumers unrestrained.

But customers who have experienced "excessive consumption" will naturally be tired of this way, and the market will have their own choices.