Fast Fashion Brands Will Face The Challenge Of "Slowing Down".

The post-90s job worker, Xue Ke Xin, found that the red blog owners and fashion designers who often paid close attention to them were gradually becoming popular among the public during the end of 2017 and early 2018. Fast fashion The brand began to take goods, and UNIQLO's wear, Zara's boutique combination, H&M's receipt and so on replaced the luxury or niche of the past. brand 。

Despite the efforts made by the brand, "fast fashion" itself has been labeled as "monthly dumping", "quarterly dumping" and "annual throw" in the consumer main force such as Xue Ke Xin. "The quality is too poor to wear." Xue Ke Xin showed a dislike expression to reporters when he evaluated the fast fashion brand.

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, in the past, Zara, H&M and other fast fashion. Latest fashion Brand strategy innovated the clothing market with low price, fast speed and the provision of fashionable clothing. However, the "speed sequela" has gradually emerged in the upgrading of consumption. "Fast" has increasingly become the shackles of fast fashion brands.

Haze, quality problems are hard.

In fact, since 2016, some of the world's most fast fashion brands have been growing weak, and their most important profit growth has been in varying degrees of decline.

In January 31st, H&M group issued the fourth quarter 2017 financial report in 2017. In the 3 months to November 30th, total sales were 58 billion 481 million Swedish Krone (about $6 billion 890 million), down 4% over the same period. On the day of its performance, H&M opened its stock price plunging 15% to its lowest level since 2009.

The fast fashion giant Zara, which once won the first prize in its performance, is coming out of its parent company Inditex group, which is affected by exchange rate fluctuations and rents of physical retail stores. The group's profitability has been hurt, and it wants to sell its 16 shops valued at about 400 million euros in order to obtain more liquidity to expand online sales. In addition, in the nine months ending October 2017, Inditex group's net profit rose 6% to 2 billion 340 million euros, up sharply from 9% in the same period last year, and the gross margin fell to 57.4%.

Fast fashion is not just fashion, but also speed of expansion. But when combing the relevant data, reporters found that between 2016 and 2017, fast fashion brands appeared "fatigue".

Data show that Zara has 12 new outlets in the mainland, a decrease of 5 compared with the 17 new ones in 2016, a decrease of about 29%, and a total of 77 new outlets in mainland China in the year of 2017, compared with 72 in 2016, an increase of 5, an increase of about 7%; H&M abandons the target of adding 10% to 15% new stores in China every year; even the news of the store is coming, and at the beginning of 2017, UNIQLO parent company has closed its domestic stores; MANGO has almost no store in the Chinese market; Martha has completely withdrawn from the mainland market and so on.

To add insult to injury, fast fashion, another core competitiveness of fast fashion brands, has brought many quality problems in the increasingly fierce competition, and has been criticized by more and more consumers such as Xue Kexin.

Combing reporters found that Zara, H&M, GAP, UNIQLO and other brands in China repeatedly fall into the quality gate, is a frequent visitor on the blacklist of industry and commerce, quality inspection departments. In December 28, 2017, the General Administration of quality supervision, inspection and Quarantine issued the "unqualified information on imports of industrial products in November 2017", indicating that 1000 clothing products of UNIQLO and Zara were notified of quality problems. In May 2017, July and October, Zara was listed on the list of unqualified imported industrial products.

Journalists can restore the Zara supply chain known as "fast". It can be found that Zara takes only 10~15 days from design concept to shelf life, and inventory turnover reaches about 12 times a year, which can give consumers more than 12000 products a year.

Wu Kai, a senior apparel retailer, told reporters that the situation of unqualified international fast fashion brands such as Zara is not uncommon. As a result of production outsourcing, the product supply chain is very long, which leads to the lack of control in the production process. More importantly, these brands are more focused on brand building, market competition and product design. At the same time, they also need to reduce costs. Quality problems are common.

Reporters visited a number of fast fashion brand entity stores, the quality is getting worse and worse, many consumers give feedback to reporters. However, the reporter asked consumers in the store the choice between price and quality. Most consumers give reporters feedback is the first consideration is still the price, and fast fashion brand in the quality door to brand image is also reduced.

"When you see the news, you will choose other houses for a period of time, but you will still choose when you have a new style and nice clothes to market." Li Jiao, who is waiting for the fitting test, told reporters that compared to the tens of thousands of high priced clothes in the mall, she would give more money to the fast fashion brand at low cost, but also expect quality improvement.

Just like Li Jiao's "tolerance" for fast fashion brands. So that brands can complete the quick iteration on commodity category in the past, and can also show the spirit of conquering the city. Reporters also learned that UNIQLO entered China for 16 years. As of 2017, there were more than 500 physical stores. Zara entered the mainland for 12 years, and nearly 700 stores in China in the first half of 2017. H&M entered China for 11 years, and at the end of November 2017 a total of 506 stores were opened in 138 cities in the mainland.

Get rid of "fast fashion" label

Although the fast fashion brand is being shrouded in "shadow", the huge consumption potential of the Chinese market still makes enterprises scramble for bets. Or spanition from fast fashion labels, or expansion of brand matrix, the introduction of new brands, including the entry into the whole channel and many other strategies are emerging.

Take the H&M group as an example, its existing brands include H&M, COS, &Other Stories, Monki, Weekday, Cheap Monday, H&M Home and new Monday. Last December, it announced that a brand new /Nyden would be launched in 2018, focusing on designing limited money and not taking the fast fashion line.

Not only that, the discount platform Afound, known as "a paradise for finding style and cheap goods", will also be available soon. The platform will sell all clothing brands of H&M group and will also have external brands.

"The emergence of Afound may help H&M clean up inventory. New brands such as Arket and /Nyden are helping companies get rid of the fast curing fashion and deteriorating brand image. Moreover, the new brand also has more room to play and more plasticity. Wu Kai told reporters.

UNIQLO, which is from Japan, is still popular in China, but its growth has slowed down significantly. At present, its main brand, UNIQLO, accounts for 80% of its revenue, while GU is considered to have more room to grow in future than UNIQLO, while Theory, which was acquired in 2009, is locked in high-end consumer groups.

UNIQLO has been trying to get rid of the fast fashion brand, though it is also facing a slowdown in its stores and expansion. The slogan of "service life" conveys that UNIQLO is an innovative fabric technology company, not just a clothing company. Ryui Masa, the company's founder, has said publicly that UNIQLO is targeting technology companies.

In addition to the LifeWear series, it also includes HEATTECH heating technology, Ultra Light Down light and convenient down, and DRY-EX fast drying. UNIQLO believes that fabric technology is the key to distinguishing it from other fast fashion brands.

As a matter of fact, the same old brand jeans brand Levi 's, which has been clearing away from the "fast fashion" label, has been doing its best in fabric innovation as well as UNIQLO. In 2013, Levi 's set up an innovation laboratory in its San Francisco headquarters, Eureka Innovation Lab. According to the introduction, the office is not only convenient for the headquarters design team to be able to quickly feed back the creativity to the market, but also because of the consideration of the factors adjacent to Silicon Valley, through this way, it has a chance to cooperate with Silicon Valley's high-tech companies.

For example, in 2014, Levi 's and Google jointly launched the "black science and technology" project of Project wearable clothing accessories, Project Jacquard bike jackets, and Intel's radio frequency identification technology (RFID) cooperation.

Nicolas Versloot, managing director of Levi s greater China, told reporters that at present, Levi 's is also actively seeking partners in China. Previously, the US headquarters has jointly developed virtual sculptiers with a local start-up company in San Francisco Bay area, providing online consultancy services to consumers, and successfully introducing them to the physical store. There are many excellent technology innovation companies in Shenzhen. It is not difficult to achieve such a technology. And Levi s believes that China is one of the most cutting-edge markets for innovation and digital development. The penetration of digital entities in China's offline stores is faster than that in other regions. China's physical stores will become a benchmark for the development of overseas market stores.

The joint name is equal to 1+1 greater than 2?

The brands in fashion industry have always been good at introducing cross-border cooperation to improve the price performance of their products, and enhance their recognition of their brand value and stimulate consumption. A successful joint name often leads to long queues and snapping up, but many joint names only accuse and question.

In 2017, it was considered to be a year of joint blowout eruption. All kinds of clothing, luxury goods and IP image brand have been combined to save the market situation. But consumers who have gone through too many joint lines have become smarter.

Lv Tinghui has always been a loyal fan of various designers and limited funds, and has "panning gold" in the joint ecological chain. She told reporters: "in the joint ecological chain, smart consumers are able to identify what products are simply fabricated for marketing. Therefore, the circulation of joint commodities will also have value judgments.

In March 2017, UNIQLO announced a new joint venture with Loewe creative director J.W.Anderson, and the joint product was on sale in September 22nd, but consumers did not buy it. Not only the heat caused by the Internet was generally low, but also the actual conversion was not satisfactory. "This series of product design is too picky, it will encounter obstacles in circulation, and the value of spanformation can not be high." Lv Tinghui commented.

In fact, it is not just UNIQLO that has been frustrated in the joint venture. Almost every year, H&M, a joint venture, has also fallen. In November 2017, H&M officially launched the 2017 designer cooperation series H&M * ERDEM in China. Although the sale of joint products has been reduced from 14 stores to 5 stores, there has been no crazed queuing yet.

"The joint names of these fast fashion brands are too unambitious. Not only are the styles and fabrics not satisfactory, but they also encounter price cuts after the first time, which makes it very unworthwhile to spend time and money on the limited purchase. Lv Tinghui told reporters.

She also told reporters that in 2000, the brand was jointly named "golden age". At that time, the early joint style was regarded as an artistic creation, not just limited as a gimmick. Although there are many outstanding joint series, but now more and more businesses feel that the joint business is very good when they earn, and they start to lose heart.

Promoting full channel strategy

Xiao Jiayu, who is engaged in digital advertising planning, has noticed that more and more clothing stores in China are integrating new technology and black technology to connect "new retail". She has fixed time every week to use the shop to find new technology in the market.

In early 2017, GAP set up an electronic touchscreen and LED model fitting screen for its customers in Nanjing West Road flagship store in Nanjing West Road, Shanghai. In the middle of the year, Xun Marketing Group announced that the global 3000 stores covered by its UNIQLO and GU brands will use RFID tags. At the same time, there will be 100 stores in the Chinese market to put the "intelligent buyer" LED terminal to enhance the shopping experience.

The market share of domestic electricity supplier sales is increasing. Consumers are accustomed to consumption in the relevant brand e-commerce channel. In the latest report released by H&M group, it is also estimated that the annual online sales growth will be at least 25% in 2030, and will surpass the entity business in the future.

As a result, H&M, which has always insisted on building its own electricity supplier, has finally announced its entry into the third party platform Tmall, which has become the H&M's choice. But for other partners, it is "why not?"

According to statistics, in the 2017 double 11 shopping carnival, UNIQLO occupied the first place in women's clothing sales, and broke one hundred million sales in just one minute. Meanwhile, UNIQLO tried the new retail test in double 11, that is, supporting the purchase and purchase of Tmall from the more than 500 stores in the country, giving customers a better sense of integration online and offline, and providing more scenes and channels for double 11 consumption. Last September, GAP was making full profits in the Tmall super brand day, and its sales increased by more than 27 times over the same period in 2016.

Peel Hunt retail analyst Jonathan Stevenson has stressed in British media reports that electricity providers are "invisible" against "tangible", and that fast fashion needs to be faster and lighter. It needs to get rid of the efficiency loss caused by the large volume of physical shops, because the electricity providers do not need to guarantee the stock reserves of each store.

But Nicolas Versloot told reporters: "the whole channel is the trend of the future, not just the channel of e-commerce. The pace of change in China's market is very fast and huge, and it requires brand makers to be quick and sensitive to make judgments and try, otherwise the market demand is very easy to be occupied by competitors.

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