Fast Food Consumption Is Worried. Fast Fashion Is Losing Young People'S Market.

More and more people are paying attention to the price of shopping carnival. The winning trend of fast fashion people represented by H&M and Zara is beginning to be rewritten.

In the past Christmas holidays, the clothing sales of the ultra fast fashion brand Boohoo sold for less than 5 sold 486 pieces, which means that the shipping cost was higher than the product itself, and rival ASOS also sold 257 dresses and 2141 different styles of clothes at a price of less than 10 pounds.

H&M and Zara also started the biggest discount season in the whole year.

But insiders believe that with the fast fashion profit space being compressed, the peak of this resource and manpower intensive industry is about to end, and it may cause consumers' strong opposition, just like the attitude towards selling coffee cups and plastic packaging.

At present, the world's consumers will buy 80 billion new garments every year, with a total consumption of 1 trillion and 200 billion dollars, most of which are made in Asian factories, while the clothing and textiles consumed by the United States waste more than the rest of the world. About 85% of the garments will be sent to landfill every year. According to McKinsey's latest report, more than half of the fast fashion apparel will be abandoned in less than a year.

At the same time, after 90 and 00, the new generation has become the main consumer of clothing. They are no longer satisfied with buying clothes made from mass production at low prices, but hope to get a unique experience and innovative products.

According to the latest report released by fashion agency Thredup, 25% of female consumers said they would no longer buy fast fashion clothes from 2019, most of them young consumers.

Of the more than 1000 women surveyed by Thredup, 58% thought that waste should be reduced this year. Another 42% said they would reduce waste by buying second-hand goods.

The report also showed that 40% of the millennials surveyed said they would stop buying fast fashion brands, and 54% of the Z generation respondents aged 18 to 21 decided to buy higher quality products.

Some analysts believe that although the number of samples collected by Thredup is not large, the results of the report still have some reference value, at least we can confirm that some young consumers' fashion ideas are indeed undergoing subtle changes.

Data from Mintel, a market research firm, also showed that in 2018, about 33% of consumers bought clothing once a month, less than 37% in 2016, while consumers from two to three months increased from 64% to 67%. Nearly half of consumers said they were more likely to buy clothing from brands trying to reduce environmental impact, and the proportion of people under the age of 24 rose to 60%.

In 2018, Fashion Revolution attracted 2 million 500 thousand people to participate in activities through social media, video and official website. Its pparency index has gained more and more attention in recent years.

Such an environment and market trend is undoubtedly a big challenge for fast fashion.

The dark side of fashion

The advantage of fast fashion is cheap, fast and low price, and behind this huge demand industry, there are many unbearable "secrets".

With the popularity of the Internet, the dark side of fast fashion has been gradually uncovered.

Such as the butterfly effect generally, for the fashion industry's criticism is coming in a rush, these criticisms are not only a single problem, but a chronic disease involving all aspects of the industrial chain.

People are beginning to realize that the fashion industry, which is famous for its bright days, is actually hiding a lot of loopholes, not only the familiar environmental pollution, labor rights and interests, but also more problems such as secret supply chain, women's rights and interests.

In November 2012, the blaze of Bangladesh Rehn garment factory caused 121 people to die in flames. In April 2013, H&M's clothing factory in the outskirts of Dhaka suddenly collapsed, killing more than 1000 people. In January 14, 2014, Greenpeace released a report that 12 international brand children's clothing products including H&M had toxic substances.

In July 2016, Hongkong NGO organization Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehavior (university student and teacher monitoring unscrupulous enterprise action) in a 46 page report pointed out that Zara, H&M and UNIQLO fast fashion brands such as CSR promotion and OEM factory survival environment.

According to the BBC news program wide-angle mirror, some refugee children from Syria work in Turkey garment factory.

These children are around 7 and 8 years old and work 12 hours a day, with a salary of only 1 pounds per hour.

These garment manufacturers are linked to several international brands, and Zara's name is on the list.

In November 2017, the Bravo Tekstil staff of the garment factory closed down, and the little paper hidden in Zara clothes again pushed the fashion to the cusp.

"The dress you want to buy is made by me, but I didn't get it."

After the exposure of the paper hidden in Zara clothing, the supply chain environment behind the fast fashion brand is once again highly concerned by people.

As a large clothing group with annual sales of over 20 billion euros, Inditex group owns a huge supply chain network. Last year, there were 1850 suppliers and 6959 factories. The Turkey outsourcing company Bravo Tekstil was also one of them. In July 2016, Bravo Tekstil broke down overnight, and 3 months before the closure of the factory, the workers mainly made garments for fast fashion brands such as Zara, Mango and Next, of which 75% of the clothes were supplied to Zara.

Some analysts pointed out that behind the frequent occurrence of all kinds of immoral supply chain incidents is the disregard of the price sensitive fast fashion brand target audience for the rights and interests of the brand supply chain workers and the working environment, but now this situation has begun to slowly turn around.

In addition to illegal labor, in the long run, the huge carbon emissions of the excessive clothing industry have irreversibly damaged the global climate and environment.

Excessive production leads to an increase in inventory, and more frequent updating cycles result in more and more unsalable products. In order to get rid of slow-moving inventories, the brand can only choose to incinerate landfill. The harmful gases and carbon dioxide generated by these practices are the main inducements of climate warming.

H&M has been exposed since 2013 and has burned 60 tons of unsalable clothing in Denmark, averaging 12 tons per year, causing widespread controversy in the industry.

In the face of accusations and doubts, H&M argued that the products were "defective", and they could not be sold or recycled under any circumstances, so they were automatically destroyed.

After the incident, Else Skjold, a professor at the Turin School of design in Denmark, rebuked that in the eyes of the industry, the practice of H&M was very hypocritical. Under the guise of "sustainable development", it did not do much.

H&M is not a case in point. The British luxury brand Burberry was also found to incinerate inventory and defective products in the past year, which has also aroused the concern of the industry. The more consumers are aware of the seriousness of the environmental pollution problem in the clothing industry.

The exposure of one problem after another is awakening more and more consumers, and its impact on the environment is also punishing the fast fashion industry.

How fast fashion can be sustainable

The concept of sustainable fashion originated from the introduction and prevalence of "sustainable development" in the discussion of global economic issues, and was introduced into fashion discourse system.

It is reported that the necessity of popularizing sustainable fashion is probably the first step to affect cognition. First, it is necessary to make consumers realize that sustainable development involves far more scope than imagination, including consumption decisions.

Caroline Chalmer, executive consultant and chief operating officer of Global Fashion Agenda, also said that sustainability is closely related to three aspects: environment, society and morality. It not only exists in the supply chain of fashion industry, but also includes how production, fashion sales and consumers are trenches, and, of course, how consumers consume fashion.

Last January, 64 luxury fashion brands including Zara, Asos, H&M, Kai Yun group and Adidas promised to further implement sustainable development measures by 2020.

As a member of GFA, a global fashion association dedicated to sustainable development and circular production, each enterprise has submitted specific targets for sustainable design, recycling of old clothes and the use of recycled textiles by 2020.

In the past few years, H&M group has become the most active company in the fast fashion area to promote sustainable development through old clothes recycling.

At the same time, with the launch of H&M group's new brand of Arket and other main lifestyle, the group is developing towards the direction of quality, thereby reducing the conflict between fast fashion and sustainability.

Up to now, H&M has made some progress in sustainable development. In the annual best fiber material market report recently released by the global nonprofit textile exchange, the group has been rated as the world's largest supplier of sustainable cotton and man-made fiber materials.

According to the latest textile fiber materials market report of the textile exchange, the H & M group is also one of the world's largest users of sustainable down products and one of the largest users of sustainable wool.

This marks a further step towards the long-term goal of the H & M group in its sustainability, that is to say, by 2030, 100% of the materials will be recycled or other sustainable sources.

The Inditex group, which is betting on innovation and high technology, has set up an internal innovation department, invites talent from start-ups to develop new technologies, and uses technology to shorten the time for information integration and decision-making, as well as to make the supply chain more responsive, reduce redundant employees, achieve rapid matching between inventory supply and changing needs, and strictly control inventory.

It is reported that the new innovation Department of the Inditex group is led by Alejandro Ferrer, a former data engineer and founder of the start-up company, David Alayon.

The Department aims to further improve the group inventory management by introducing new and high technology to further shorten the new cycle of products.

The new Department has also worked with California's robotic company Fetch Robotics to plan to use robots instead of labor in inventory management. Another initiative is to develop a machine that can quickly detect the number of clothes in the packaging box with Intel, a chipmaker.

However, Felipe Caro, a professor at the Anderson School of management at University of California at Los Angeles, believes that if Zara wants to further shorten the delivery date, there must be no shortcut to local production.

Inditex group has also adjusted its own mode of operation. It will centrally manage the distribution of products of various brands by adopting central inventory and other modes. The number of new products distributed to all stores worldwide will be increased to two times a week, and online official website will be synchronized on the same day or the next day.

In the shop, Inditex group also began to accelerate the layout of new retail through technology.

At the same time, in order to win the trust and goodwill of consumers, more and more brands and retailers have announced the list of suppliers.

According to the 2018 fashion pparency index released by Fashion Revolution, 37% of the brands and retailers announced a list of manufacturers, which was 32% in 2017 and 12.5% in 2016.

The list of suppliers has also become more detailed, including factory information, street address, product type and number of workers.

18% of the brands and retailers disclosed their two level processing plants, which was 14% last year.

Only one brand, ASOS, disclosed where they purchased raw materials, and last year there was no brand to disclose the information.

Xun marketing group took the lead in making public the UNIQLO supply chain in 2017. This year, the group has expanded the scope of information announced. In the list of 46 major raw materials suppliers, apart from sewing factories, it also covers two level suppliers of raw materials factories, accounting for about 80% of clothing output.

Most of these factories are located in China, with a total of 25.

In addition, the British government has put forward a sustainable clothing action plan. 9 major retailers, including Next, Marsha, Ted Baker, Primark and ASOS, have signed and promised to reduce landfill, water and carbon footprint by 15% in 2020.

With the improvement of the overall cognition level of fashion industry, more and more brands begin to regard sustainability as the premise rather than the cost of development.

How to get out of a blind alley

Fast fashion mode has come to the crossroads. Whether it is Zara or H&M, it is faced with the dilemma of abandoning quantity choice quality or abandoning fast and choosing sustainability.

One is consumers' pursuit of individuality and original design, which is contrary to the established track of fast fashion by imitating luxury brands.

Another point of view is that the fast fashion industry originally aimed at consumers who are sensitive to the price and fashion style. If Zara and H&M really turn to high-end brands or launch a higher quality high-end series, will consumers really buy it? This is still a big question mark.

At present, the three giants of fast fashion are heading for three different directions. UNIQLO chooses to return to basic funds and win by quality. H&M directly collaborates with luxury brands or designers to make the imitation become original. Zara is still conservative.

From the data analysis, sales of UNIQLO's three brands continued to grow.

In the 2018 fiscal year ending August 31st, the sales of fast selling group of UNIQLO parent company rose 14.4% to 2 trillion and 130 billion yen, or 131 billion 400 million yuan, and net profit rose 29.8% to 154 billion 811 million yen, or 9 billion 500 million yuan, to close to 10 billion mark.

Among them, UNIQLO's sales in overseas markets, including greater China, exceeded Japan's regional sales for the first time, up 26.6% to 896 billion 300 million yen, or 55 billion 100 million yuan, and operating profit rose 62.6% to 118 billion 800 million yen compared to the same period last year.

Japan's UNIQLO year-on-year sales rose 6.7% to 864 billion 700 million yen, or 53 billion 200 million yuan, and operating profit rose 24.1% to 119 billion yen.

The annual sales growth of H&M group dropped to a single digit from 2016. Compared with 19% in 2015, the annual revenue growth of the group was 6% and 4% respectively in 2016 and 2017.

In the three months ended August 31st, H&M group's operating profit dropped 19% to 3 billion 910 million kronor, or about $351 million.

In the first 9 months of fiscal year 2018, H&M group's revenue rose 2.9% to 153 billion 980 million krona, or about $16 billion 800 million.

Analysts say more directly that the good days of Zara are over. From the 2016 fiscal year, the profitability of Inditex group has shrunk and gross margins have fallen for four consecutive years.

Although the group's revenue in the first three quarters of fiscal 2017 continued double-digit growth, the growth rate of the world's largest fast fashion retailer was becoming more difficult from the fourth quarter of last year.

In the first quarter of 2018, the revenue growth of Inditex group dropped to 2% compared with 14% in the same period last year. The Group Chairman and CEO Pablo Isla also admitted for the first time in the meeting after the earnings conference that the profitability of Inditex group is being hit by the fluctuation of exchange rate and the rising rents of physical retail stores.

In the first half of fiscal year, the group's performance also recorded the worst performance in three years, and net profit increased by only 3%.

We need to be alert to the fact that the competition faced by fast fashion is not only in the same industry. With the influence of sustainable fashion accelerating fermentation all over the world, and the rise of consumerism, some brands have seen new business opportunities, trying to grasp the fast fashion loss consumers.

Unlike other brands, to meet the biggest shopping event of the year, "black five" is different. The US fashion brand NOAH decided to close its official website and offline stores on the day of "black five", so that consumers could reflect on the problem of excessive consumption due to discounts.

NOAH has always been committed to charity and environmental protection activities. The brand said in its statement that although its closure may not bring any substantial changes to the "black five", it is hoped that people can begin to think, "product itself is more important than product inspiration."

Buying Orchestra T-Shirt is more important than listening to the orchestra live performance.

Looks like a slippery hand is more important than actually skating the skateboard technology. "

British designer and current Timberland creative director Christopher Raeburn also said on the eve of this year's "black five" that its namesake brand "black five" closed the official website and flash shop, because people could not continue to consume like this, but needed to make consumer decisions and buy less but better things after careful consideration.

He urged people to think more before buying, and small progress would bring about great improvement.

REI, the outdoor brand of the United States, played the slogan "we are out today" on the front page of the official website on black five. The background is a pair of couples snuggled up to each other to see the sunrise in the snow mountain.

Since 2014, the brand has given 12000 employees a holiday on black five and encouraged them to play outside.

Consumers can still buy things online, but do not enjoy any discount.

Everlane, a high street brand, works with a non-profit organization, Surfrider Foundation, which is committed to marine conservation. It promises to clean up 1 pounds of marine plastics every time an order is completed.

The "black Friday fund" column at the top of the home page of the official website shows the progress of their 20000 order targets.

Cuyana, the US clothing brand, donated 10% of its black five earnings to the California wildfire relief fund.

Neither of the two brands has a discount plan for black five, but they encourage the support of social activities to make up for the negative effects of consumption.

Samantha Dover, a senior retail analyst at Mintel, emphasizes that consumers in the Internet age want to know the exact source and mode of production more than ever before. Therefore, fast fashion should not simply set up several simple old clothes recycling bins in the store, but consider how to make the whole production and supply chain more sustainable.

When the price that follows the trend is gradually being exposed and computerized, young consumers who are constantly improving their environmental awareness will naturally begin to worry about the consumption pattern of "fast food" and make changes.

But fundamentally, the essence of fast fashion can not be separated from commercialization. The concept of "sustainability" may remain at the marketing level for these brands. After all, to achieve real environmental protection, it is difficult to sacrifice profits.

But the change is never terrible. The terrible thing is to go straight on. After all, no one is convinced that shopping Carnival will never stop.

Author: Zhou Huining