What Will GAP Be More Embarrassed Than ZARA?

Take a little survey, and take a stroll from you.

How long? A week, half a month, half a year, a year?

The headmaster in Guangzhou asked a circle of friends. The answer was basically six months or more.

There are two reasons: there are only two shops in Guangzhou GAP, and the chance of chance is too small. Every time you visit GAP, you always feel that you can't buy clothes. As a result, there is no desire for it.

"If you want to buy the foundation, there will be cheaper uniforms in the nearby VT101. If you want to buy something better, you will have H&M and UR, next to Tianhuan and Tianhe City, ZARA.

The furnishings in the shop are really messy, like shopping in stores. "

Once netizens "Tucao"

It can't afford to buy it when you are a student.

Although it is a teasing joke, it exposes the embarrassment of GAP in China more or less. It is cheaper than the UNIQLO, but the fashion is not up to H&M and ZARA.

Another reality is that compared with UNIQLO, H&M and ZARA,

After entering the Chinese market for 3-8 years, the scale of the store was shedding several streets by the front three.

Now, where should the "king of clothing" go?

Defeated by UNIQLO, Japan, China

In 1969, GAP was founded in the United States during the anti cultural movement in San Francisco.

In the early days, GAP captured the group of young people who walked on the front end of the fashion, and quickly grew up to become a "cheap brand" brand in North America by virtue of the symbolic products of the American leisure style such as khaki trousers, jeans, shirts and caps T.

In 1986, GAP creatively proposed and defined the "SPA" model that has been popular all over the world, expanding the North American market rapidly and laying the leading position in the global garment industry for more than 20 years.

At the same time, through the acquisition of Banana Republic and self created Old Navy brand, GAP has gradually become a multi brand matrix clothing group. Since 1987, it has gradually entered the UK, Canada, France, Japan and other countries, and tested the global expansion of water.

In the early twenty-first Century, GAP, with its brand aging and product innovation, began waving goodbye to its golden age.

In 2001, the market value of GAP group was gradually overtaken by H&M, ZARA parent Inditex and UNIQLO parent fast selling group. Since 2007, the scale of revenue has also been surpassed.

This is largely attributed to the blame.

A strategic mistake: early focus on North America, missing the global expansion of the Asian market, especially the Asian market, was so passive that GAP was badly squeezed in the saturated local market.

In 2007, GAP formally put forward the strategy of globalization.

In 2008, the international market gradually became the focus of GAP development. North America opened up shop or closed shop mainly to optimize the channel structure.

In the process of Asian market development, GAP first took Japan as the main position and faced UNIQLO.

This is another major strategic mistake. It not only can not compete against rivals whose products have more price advantages, but also directly leads to GAP missing the opportunity to develop in China.

In 2010, GAP came late.

At that time, in 2002, 2006 and 2007, UNIQLO, ZARA, H&M had taken the lead in establishing a higher brand awareness among consumers, and had a certain scale of stores.

This gap has continued to this day.

According to the commercial real estate headline statistics, as of the beginning of November, GAP had only 152 stores in the mainland.

Among them, there are 65 stores in the first tier cities, accounting for 43%, 82 stores in the second tier cities, about 54%, and 5 cities in three cities and below, accounting for 3%.

Obviously, a second tier city is still the main market of GAP, while UNIQLO, ZARA and H&M have already started to sink channels to seize the three or four line cities with huge consumption demand.

In November 8th, GAP's first store in Xinjiang settled in Urumqi MM2 shopping center.

Urumqi is the latest city that GAP has opened up in the mainland in the past two years. It is also the second market that GAP has opened in Northwest China after Xi'an.

Such a rhythm, GAP seems to have been "lagging behind".

Late arrival, the shopping mall is not in good position.

After nearly 10 years of weak performance or even decline, China has become the last straw of GAP, but it is still struggling.

The competition pressure from competitors is on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is limited by location strategy.

In November 2010, the first batch of 4 flagship stores in GAP were located in Shanghai Nanjing West Road Chuang Chuang building, Huaihai middle road Hongkong square and Beijing Chaoyang Joy City, Beijing APM (formerly Dongan Plaza).

It is not difficult to see that GAP's early location strategy: the mature shopping center in the core business circle of the first tier cities, the small and medium-sized gold lots, are all large shops, the area is generally above 1000, or even close to 2000.

Such a site selection requires GAP to face a real problem: the "good location" of the mature shopping mall is very few, and expansion is bound to be restricted.

At that time, Yang Deming, President of GAP China, also admitted that it was difficult to find the ideal location because of its late entry, so this year (2010) only opened 4 stores.

After a year (up to November 2011), GAP has only 8 stores in the mainland, and is still located in Beijing and Shanghai, and has not opened up new cities.

Subsequently, GAP will aim at outlets outlets and enter Hangzhou, Tianjin and other second tier cities.

Today, Oteri J is still one of the main channels for GAP expansion, especially in the second tier cities.

Commercial real estate headlines carding found that as of early November, GAP outlets stores 31, of which 20 are located in second tier cities, accounting for 24% of the second tier cities in GAP stores.

Although the core business circle was not easy to shop, GAP did not give up the strategy.

According to win win big data analysis, GAP mainland stores are mainly located in crowded area business district and municipal business circle, accounting for 59% and 39% respectively.

(remarks: municipal business circle - the main business group of commercial radiation can cover the business area of the whole city and even the surrounding cities; the regional business circle -- the main business group of commercial radiation covers nearly all the business circles that are divided into regions.

)

It is worth noting that in these two business circles, the layout density of stores is different.

There are usually only one store in the regional business circle, and the GAP will choose two or more stores to accommodate more passengers due to more people.

Take Shanghai as an example, Xujiahui and Lujiazui have higher traffic volume and over 30 thousand trips on weekdays and holidays, so GAP has two stores respectively.

But this strategy also led GAP to fall.

In March 2016, GAP and its subsidiary brand OLD NAVY settled in Guangzhou Parc Central, which is only 300 meters away from the GAP store of the Plaza.

Although Tianhe Road business area has more than 60 thousand passengers, the surrounding H&M, ZARA, UNIQLO distribution density is too high, GAP is "out" in the fierce competition, and 9 months later (December 2016) rushed out of the store.

Grab the first bench of electric business track, lack of stamina.

When GAP entered China, domestic social media and e-commerce developed rapidly.

According to the Ministry of Commerce statistics, in 2007 -2009, the average annual growth rate of China's online retail sales reached 117%, which is 6.5 times the average annual growth of total retail sales of social consumer goods.

With the sharp smell of online dividends at the time, GAP first became the explorer of the earlier online and offline integration of online channels through ZARA and H&M.

In 2010, GAP joined the official online shopping mall, online and offline, to support nationwide distribution, aiming to reach consumers outside Beijing and Shanghai.

Less than half a year, GAP settled in Tmall, more than three years earlier than ZARA.

At that time, Tmall flagship store is still a new concept. Many brands regard it as a channel for selling inventory, while GAP is new at the same time, and achieved good results at that time.

For another electricity giant Jingdong, GAP has also responded swiftly.

In August 2014, Jingdong, the flagship 3C product, began to dress and dress categories. It has introduced global brands such as GAP, FOREVER 21, Levi's, Lee, Tom Tailor, and won a share in Tmall's monopoly of fashion apparel business.

The electricity supplier network was launched. GAP also launched Tmall's online order and store delivery in 2016.

In the past two years, the trend of WeChat shopping has gradually risen. GAP and WeChat have become more frequent.

Last year, GAP launched an advertising campaign in WeChat's circle of friends, creating an astonishing record of 26% below the line. The joint launch with WeChat has become a hot topic in the circle of friends, narrowing the distance between the brand and the nearly 1 billion active users behind WeChat. This summer, GAP launched the WeChat small program mall to further expand the online channels, providing online shopping, scanning code, finding clothes, finding stores, and other services.

The long-term layout of GAP online sales and digital operation is the main reason for its continued success in some market organizations.

In recent years, the income of GAP group has increased rapidly from 1 billion 860 million US dollars in 2013 to US $3 billion 100 million in 2017, which has increased to nearly 20%.

However, there are many variables in the electricity supplier channel. "Coming early" is not a necessary condition for success.

Take Tmall flagship store as an example, GAP currently has 6 million 640 thousand fans (up to November 23rd), far behind ZARA, and will soon be surpassed by H&M on the line less than a year.

Online stores want to get more fans and sales. Apart from the effect of the brand itself, product description is particularly important.

Accurate product descriptions can help brands to be searched by more consumers as much as possible.

Headline Jun found that GAP still has much room for improvement at this point.

Its product description can be basically summed up as "brand name + application of crowd + product + product code + material, edition, season and other supplements", such as "GAP men's plus velvet sweater jacket, 356277WElogo hat and autumn winter clothing".

However, ZARA has obviously added more descriptive words such as "pattern, printing, pearl, retro" and so on. The product features are more detailed.

In addition, in the product evaluation of GAP, "packaging is simple, customer service reply slow" and other keywords have occasionally appeared, which is GAP still needs improvement.

The "SPA" originator is childish, turning over and hoping?

Once missed, struggling for many years.

In the face of opportunities, the response is slow, the location strategy is limited, and the electricity supplier platform is flat. China has not yet become the GAP's "life-saving straw".

"Tossing" never stops.

In the past two years,

The biggest flagship store in China, the independent children's clothing store, the cross border beauty shop and the hotel, have launched many theme flash shops. However, none of these have touched the root. The aging of products has been the core issue of GAP's criticism.

Today, the only thing GAP can get out of it seems to be children's wear.

In the world, children's clothing is a strong product line of GAP. In the process of layout China, children's clothing also has a higher strategic position.

In the majority of GAP stores in the mainland, the area of children's clothing is about 1/3, which still attracts many loyal consumers. Discount, quality and comfort are the reasons for selling well.

In September last year, GAP tested children's children's clothing stores in the mainland. Compared with the previously neglected Shanghai flagship store, the strategy of independent children's clothing stores was recognized by the industry.

Cheng Weixiong, general manager of textile and clothing brand management and Shanghai Liang Qi Brand Management Co., Ltd., said, "compared to adult dress,

Children's clothing is quite outstanding among the foreign popular brands. The strategy of opening the children's shop independently is right, and also fits the market demand of the local children's clothing at the moment.

However, with the opening of the second child policy and the gradual saturation of the adult clothing market, there are more and more players in the children's wear market.

At present, including Semir,

,

Many clothing brands such as Metersbonwe, Anta, Lining, CABBEEN and so on have tried to seize the last piece of cake that has not been completely carved up in the industry by means of self creation or merger and acquisition.

In 2014, the share of GAP in China's children's wear market was 0.6%, ranking seventh.

With the surge of local brands, the GAP children's clothing, which was the main item, was squeezed out of the top ten in 2017.

But GAP is still waiting, will he miss again? Will his next adventure be beaten again? (author: Lu Zhizhen)