Who Can Shake The Hundred Billion Level Market When The Children'S Clothing Industry Enters The Reshuffle Period?

Two years after the implementation of the comprehensive two child policy, the number of births was less than expected, the people's willingness to "have babies" was not high, but the Chinese children's clothing market was becoming more and more lively.

With the adult market gradually saturated, Many clothing brands, including Sima, Hailan Home, Taipingbird, Metersbonway, Anta, Li Ning and many other clothing brands, remain "children" ， Join the battle for children's wear market by creating sub brands or mergers and acquisitions. not long ago, Cabin Group also announced the launch of the children's clothing brand "Cabbien love ”-- regardless of luxury brands, fast fashion The brand is still a sports brand, and they have focused on the field of children's wear, trying to seize the last market in the industry that has not been completely divided.

The Investment Analysis and Prospect Forecast Report on China's Children's Wear Market 2017-2021 released by CIC Consulting shows that China's children's wear market size in 2017 was 159.7 billion yuan, and it is estimated that the compound annual growth rate in five years (2017-2021) will be about 8.05%, and the market size will reach 217.7 billion yuan in 2021.

The reason is that although the willingness to give birth is not high, the rising purchasing power and consumption willingness of the new generation of parents are driving the rapid growth of the children's clothing market. While the industry is busy, it indicates that variables are about to happen. Who will succeed in cutting a piece of cake under the diversified pattern of scuffle?

　　 The domestic children's wear market started late, and the "giant" pattern gradually became

Compared with adult clothing, China's children's clothing industry started late. With the improvement of economic level and the change of family consumption habits, professional children's wear in China began to appear in the mid-1990s and has entered a rapid growth period in recent years.

The audience of the children's wear market is mainly the 0-16 age group, which is divided into high-end, middle end and low-end markets by price. The high-end market has been dominated by international brands for a long time, and there is a lack of well-known brands in China. Most local professional children's clothing brands such as Anta Children, Annelle, Barabala, etc. are located in the middle and high-end market, while the low-end market is a large number of low visibility brands or non brand clothing.

Taking 2015 as an example, when the market was booming, the retail volume of children's clothing in China was 2.315 billion pieces, and the market size of children's clothing reached 137.2 billion yuan, of which the retail size of high-end children's clothing was only 14.4 billion yuan. The overall product level is dominated by the middle and low end, and the high-end demand has not been fully released.

Therefore, the market share is decentralized, and the market share and competitiveness of a single brand are limited. According to the report of CIC Consulting, the market share of the top ten brands of children's wear in China is 11.3%, and Barabara ranks first, but the share is only 3.6%.

"The high-end children's wear industry has not yet formed a strong leading brand, and the market concentration is relatively low. The children's wear industry has become the last piece of cake in China's clothing industry, and anyone is likely to become a leader in the children's wear market," the forward-looking industry research institute analyzed in the report.

Although the market share is relatively scattered at present, CITIC Securities released the Infant and Child Industry Series Report in May this year, which mentioned that from the perspective of investment opportunities, brands such as Sima Garments, Anta Children, Annell and Taipingbird have shown signs of emerging in the children's clothing industry, and are expected to become "giants" in the industry in the future.

Because of adapting to the trend of sports life, having sports functionality and meeting the needs of parent-child interaction, sports brands are the "invaders" with the most natural advantages and competitiveness in this market, and are expected to cut a big cake.

As early as 2001 and 2002, Adidas and Nike launched children's wear products in China. Following closely, Chinese local sports brands targeted this "blue ocean", of which Anta Children was the first to enter - in 2008, the second year of landing in Hong Kong stocks, Anta Children's brand was founded and opened its first store, which is exactly 10 years ago.

The financial report of Anta Group never announced the performance of children's clothing, but insiders said that in 2014, the number of Anta children's stores had reached 1200, From 2018 to now, the number of stores has increased to nearly 3000.

Anta Children has the advantage of being a pioneer, taking the lead in establishing a children's sports database and mastering the leading technology in the research and development of children's sports equipment. At the same time, Anta Children preempted the dominant market area earlier, and the channels of each platform developed maturely, with a 10-year accumulation of brand users.

Seeing that "Pioneer" Anta has good benefits for children, over the past few years, local sports brands such as Li Ning, PEAK and Tebu have followed suit and stepped into the children's clothing market in succession. Among them, Li Ning withdrew the agency right of children's wear brand, reorganized its business, and launched its own children's wear brand, Li Ning YOUNG. At present, the number of children's clothing stores of these brands is growing.

　 Overall upgrading of children's clothing layout from product to marketing

More and more big brands are competing in the market. Industry competition is not only reflected in price or production capacity, but also brand names will face all-round challenges in product design, market promotion and channel expansion.

In the early days, parents paid more attention to practicality when buying children's clothes, and even chose large clothes to cope with children growing up quickly. With the increase of family income, the sensitivity of new generation parents to price decreases. Consumer demand has changed from satisfying basic life to becoming more diversified - pursuing fashion and a sense of technology, longing for high-quality store experience, and satisfying children's curiosity. Among them, the market demand for children's sports shoes has increased. In 2018, the mother and baby category of Double 11 sales, Nike children's shoes sales ranked first on the whole network, and Anta children's shoes ranked first among domestic brands.

In addition, Euromonitor According to the data of International, the scale of the global fashion industry increased by 4% to 1.7 trillion US dollars in 2017, of which the sales of children's clothing increased by 6.2% to 160 billion US dollars, accounting for nearly 10% of the total. During the Spring/Summer 2019 series of China International Fashion Week, the children's wear special show reached a new high of 26, becoming a category that cannot be underestimated in the fashion industry.

In the face of the change of children's wear trend, Anta children's brand's product concept has changed from focusing on professional sports in the initial stage to more diversified, including focusing on science and technology, fashion and life. "We adhere to consumer orientation and meet the personalized needs of different groups of children", said Lin Xianghua, president of Anta Children

In 2005, Anta Group established the first sports science laboratory in China, becoming the first domestic sports brand with an independent research institution. The 2017 financial report shows that the company's R&D costs account for 5.7% of the revenue, ranking first in the domestic industry. Bearing the scientific laboratory of the group, Anta children's brand focuses on scientific and technological innovation - cool series running T-shirts equipped with Bingchun technology, A-FLASHFOAM Anta wormhole technology running shoes with polymer particle energy materials, etc. are all technology leading products.

In addition to professional sports products such as running, basketball, football and outdoor sports, Anta Children has a strong design team in the sports life sector. At present, the brand has started global design and deployed design studios in Japan, South Korea and other places. The BLANC series launched this autumn has brought many surprises with the fashion design of sports minimalism.

Anta Children has launched co branded products with cartoon movies, such as popular Marvel, Little Yellow Man, Hello Kitty and other series have won many praises. With the help of cross-border IP, Anta Children not only brings diversified design to products, but also enjoys fan economy. Similarly, when the movie blockbuster Star Wars was released, Adidas launched the "Star Wars" theme series, bringing "Yoda Master" and "Darth Vader" children's clothing.

The depth of crossover cannot be ignored. Anta Children and McDonald's "run for love", Hello Kitty Run、 The marketing cooperation of Sparta Warriors Children's Game has achieved outstanding results. Taking the public welfare activity "Run for Aimai" as an example, Anta Children designed parent-child T-shirts as the chief sponsor. As we all know, McDonald's is one of the most popular catering giants for children, while Anta Children is the best in children's clothing. Because the concepts of the two brands coincide, the brand image of Anta Children has been significantly improved.

At present, children's wear brands are keen on parent-child interactive marketing. Balabala once launched a graffiti contest on the anniversary, with clothing gift bags as prizes to mobilize the participation of consumers. The person in charge of the brand revealed that the graffiti contest not only demonstrated the talent of the baby, but also enhanced the parent-child interaction, which coincided with the mothers' love of sunbathing babies.

Anta children's parent-child play is more skillful. In 2017, it launched its own IP "Good Luck Games". The "Good Luck Games" project is aimed at children aged 5-10 years old, including professional sports, fun experience and children's physical fitness test, positioning children's exclusive sports games. The 2018 "Winter Games" has been held in 7 major cities and star platforms such as Zhang Liang and his son, attracting nearly 10000 groups of families to participate. Anta Children's Plan uses the data collected from the annual "China National Games" to build a theoretical model of Chinese children's sports behavior, providing guidance for children's equipment research and development.

When brands sign a large number of performance stars, the children's wear market is somewhat lagging behind, and few brands choose child stars as their spokesmen. Anta Children signed a contract with Zhang Yuexuan, the son of Zhang Liang, to endorse the brand. It is a well-known children's clothing brand that first signed a spokesperson in China. "Through Zhang Yuexuan's fashionable and energetic image and playful and warm personality, consumers have a three-dimensional understanding of Anta children, and build a richer brand personality. At the same time, with the help of star models, the attention of products is increased," Anta children responded.

　　 Shopping Center: A New Battlefield of Children's Wear Terminal Competition

In addition to products and marketing, the terminal is the key link of direct dialogue between children's wear brands and consumers. At present, the offline channels of most brands are mainly department stores, exclusive stores and multi brand collection stores. With the penetration of online shopping habits of new generation parents in the field of infant and child consumption, e-commerce is also the main force of sales.

Due to the particularity of children's experiential consumption demand, offline layout is very important. The industry generally believes that children's clothes with an area of more than 100 square meters are big stores, and those with an area of more than 300 square meters can be regarded as flagship stores. In the early days, children's clothing stores were rare, mostly within 50 square meters, generally located in the secondary business district.

In recent years, this terminal pattern has changed quietly. Large shopping malls in China have expanded children's investment attraction areas, or even a separate floor as a children's area. The trend of parent-child business is obvious, and children's clothing gradually gets rid of the limitations of department stores.

Shopping centers have become a favorite channel for children's wear brands - Annelle announced to expand shopping centers this year, increasing 50 to 80 shopping centers every year. Anta Children has successively cooperated with Wanda, Aegean Sea, CapitaLand and other shopping centers, enjoying the rights of information sharing, priority entry and so on. Anta Children said that it would increase the number of large-scale concept experience stores.

Du Xia, an expert in the business design chain, believes that "in the domestic market, the basis for consumers to judge whether a brand has strength is very simple, which is to evaluate the brand through visible terminal stores. It is the industry consensus to establish an image through large stores."

However, under the high rent, the requirements of the shopping center on the operation level have increased. Anta Children said that offline stores need to pay attention to environmental atmosphere, experience area setting and member activities to bring more physical experience to customers.

In November this year, Anta Children's largest experience store in China opened in the busiest Qingnian Road in Kunming, becoming a new commercial landmark of the block. This 1100 square meter large concept store spans two floors, with highly scientific lighting lines, spacious and lively exhibition area design, fashionable style and sports atmosphere, instantly attracting children's sensory attention.

Not only is the appearance style cutting-edge, but every corner of the store is carefully arranged, and the products of professional sports, fashion cool and baby children are clearly distinguished. One stop experience areas such as basketball, football, Lego, ocean ball, board games and so on can meet children's endless curiosity. The most intimate thing is that the height of shelves and locker rooms is designed according to the age group, so that children can take their favorite items.

From professional sports to trendy life, the store layout, together with the right humanistic details, will enable every child attracted here to enjoy the best shopping experience. The design of Anta Children's super concept store has become one of the industry benchmarks.

Another Children's clothing Leading brands also achieve the ultimate in terminal experience. Balabala opened a "children's lifestyle experience store" in the shopping center this year, launched parent-child games such as canvas bag DIY, handmade soap production, flower arrangement art, clothing DIY, and held birthday parties, small painters, small shopping guides and other activities from time to time, and even recorded children's TV programs in the store. Mastering shopping centers, coupled with novel experience services, has become a critical place for the children's clothing industry to cope with terminal competition.

　　 The industry faces reshuffle due to obvious trend of branding and market segmentation

At present, there are more than 300 million children under the age of 14 in China, and the consumer base is extremely large. According to the Report on the Development Status Analysis and Market Outlook Forecast of China's Children's Wear Industry released by Smart Research Consulting, from 2013 to 2017, the compound growth rate of the domestic children's wear market size reached 9.68%, leading the growth rate of men's wear and women's wear.

Compared with the mature foreign market, the ceiling of the domestic children's wear industry is far from being reached - in 2017, the per capita consumption expenditure of children's wear in Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom was $57.8, 98.2 and 117.4 respectively, while that in China was only $19.2. In the long run, there is a lot of room for improvement in domestic children's wear consumption expenditure, which will benefit children's wear enterprises from the demand side.

With the transformation of the industry from extensive to large-scale and refined, the Chinese children's wear market will become mature and the trend of branding will become more obvious.

Nielsen's research report in the field of children's wear brands shows that the overall awareness of children's wear brands increased by an average of 15% in 2018, and the awareness of sports children's wear brands increased significantly - Adidas, Nike and Anta children have entered the first echelon, while Tebu, Li Ning and Uniqlo ranked the second echelon, and sports brand children's wear has become a major trend.

However, under the market dividend, the children's wear industry is also facing challenges. Industry insiders believe that the serious homogenization of products is the main problem facing the domestic industry at present. Except for some children's clothes with specific styles extended from adult clothes, or clothes specially designed for a certain age group, most brand images are not prominent.

Therefore, the market competitive pressure will accelerate the in-depth segmentation of the children's wear market, and find their own segmentation areas and advantages, which is the key to brand differentiation.

In fact, sports brands have obvious advantages in the field of segmentation. Children's sports market The demand for casual clothes has gradually changed. In the past, a set of casual clothes was used to play all sports. Nowadays, the family income environment has improved. In order to meet different sports needs and avoid sports injuries, parents are more willing to choose more professional sportswear for children.

At present, 80% of the children's sportswear market is leisure style pan sports products. In the remaining 20% of the professional sports market, local brands have begun to compete for their own niche categories.

Anta children have long been aware of the subdivision trend, "Anta children will strengthen scientific research and development in the field of professional sports in product design, meet the aesthetic and exploration needs of the new generation of highly knowledgeable parents and children, and deepen the shaping of Anta children's brand values and enhance brand influence."

The three categories of football, basketball and running are the main targets of Anta children in the field of sports segmentation. In 2015, Anta Children launched a football series, and this year, it cooperated with Burnley Club, a strong team of the Premier League, to further develop the youth football market. The popular Anta spokesman Clay Thompson's "crazy" basketball series also extends to the field of children's clothing, and many children wear the same style of idols to the basketball court. In terms of running, cool series T-shirts equipped with Bingchun technology and Heyuyi technology clothing all demonstrate the professional performance of Anta children.

In addition, the relatively small international brand Under Armour started with sports tights. With this advantage, its children's category also focuses on sports tights with outstanding sweat absorption performance, leading the domestic children's clothing industry in this segment. Also based on its own genes, Jordan, a sports giant focusing on basketball, chose to focus on youth basketball clothing.

Facing the future Children's wear market Every entrant is ambitious. at present Anta Group Anta Children, FILA KIDS and Kingkow, three children's wear brands, have different market positioning, product styles and target audiences, which helps the group diversify its children's wear categories, comprehensively cover the middle and high-end markets, and become the industry leader that shakes hundreds of billions of markets. Take Anta Children, which has been founded for 10 years, for example. The brand goal is to achieve a business scale of more than 20 billion and a market share of 10% after 5-6 years of development.

　　 Anta Group Li Ling, Vice President, expressed her recognition for Anta Children's 10-year growth, "The consumption demand of children's clothing market has changed, and more attention has been paid to quality, technology and design. Anta children not only follow the market trend, but also play a leading role. The category is gradually increasing. International advanced concepts have been introduced in sports technology and materials, including technologies such as light absorption, heat preservation, quick drying, wind resistance and waterproof. No matter in the past or in the future, Anta Children are an important driving force for the Group's performance growth, with huge development potential. "

With the entry of many capital, the "blue ocean" of the market in the past has become "red", and it is no longer realistic to obtain sustainable development only by market dividends. When refined production and sales processes become the standard configuration Children's wear industry In the reshuffle period, vulnerable enterprises will be eliminated gradually, and only truly "strong" brands can stay.