Fast Fashion Is Accelerating, Forever 21 Confirms To Quit The Chinese Market.

In just 3 years, more than 200 stores were closed, and Forever 21, once considered fast fashion, is accelerating.

Following the announcement of the closure of the official website of China and Tmall and Jingdong flagship store on Thursday, the US fast fashion brand Forever 21 said on Friday that it would officially withdraw from the Chinese market in the near future after careful consideration of changes in consumer demand and profitability, but did not disclose the number of employees to be cut.

At present, Forever 21 flagship store in Shanghai is making a big discount sale. The brand store in Shenzhen will also be closed in April 30th, and Beijing Yau Tang shop is also facing clearance.

Since the end of last year, Forever 21 has also shut down stores such as Tianjin, Hangzhou, Beijing and Chongqing, including Hangzhou Hangzhou in 77 flagship store, Beijing APM and other important shops.

According to the official website of the brand, at present, Forever 21 has only 4 stores in the mainland of China.

Forever 21, founded in 1984 by Zhang Dongwen and Zhang Jinshu, born in Korea, has grown into one of the largest fashion chain brands in the world in more than 30 years.

In 2008, the brand tried to enter the Chinese market, but failed. It did not enter the market until 2011, and opened a number of physical stores and Chinese official websites, and joined Jingdong and Tmall.

In fact, Forever 21 has been reducing the size of its stores since 2016, so as to control costs as much as possible, and has withdrawn from many markets such as Belgium, Holland, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan and Australia, and most of its stores in North America have been closed.

In March of this year, Forever 21 also closed its first store in Xinyi District, Taipei, in June 2015.

In 2017, Forever 21 decided to evacuate the 6 Tier flagship store after the expiration of the lease of JINGWAH center in Tongluowan, Hongkong. It took over the American underwear brand Victoria's Secret.

According to Forbes data, sales of Forever 21 fell by 14% to $3 billion 400 million in 2017, with a loss of $400 million and 600 stores worldwide.

In addition to the challenges facing the core clothing business, Forever 21 launched the multi brand cosmetics chain store Riley Rose in 2017 and closed the store in La Cantera, Sanantonio, USA in March this year.

Riley Rose is responsible for the Forever 21 founder daughter Linda and Esther Chang. It mainly sells the new cosmetics brands in the United States and Korea to cater for the millennial consumers.

However, in addition to Riley Rose and the 21 Red comprehensive concept store, there is no other more innovative initiatives of Forever 21 brand in the minds of consumers no longer attractive, Puma, Gucci and Addias luxury fashion brand lawsuit let its image bottom.

According to the latest report released by investment bank Piper Jaffray, although Forever 21 is still the 4 largest clothing brand of American teenagers, 3% of the young affluent consumers say they will not buy Forever 21.

In the case of New Look, Topshop and Marsha general store, and other fast fashion and retailers have lost the Chinese market, the industry has not been surprised by the exit of Forever 21.

Chinese consumers also pointed out two disadvantages of Forever 21 through social media, that is, poor quality and inconsistent styles.

Neil Saunders, general manager of GlobalData retail industry, thinks that Forever 21 is too cautious, not decisive and bold in the expansion of China's market. It has missed the best time to accelerate penetration, and it is difficult to stand out from the competition.

Up to now, the international fast fashion that still sticks to the Chinese market seems to be left with H&M, Zara and UNIQLO brands. They are constantly seeking new breakthroughs in an attempt to consolidate their market share.

At the beginning of this year, H&M announced that Zhang Yixing, a versatile musician, became the spokesperson for his brand in the Greater China area. He is also the first annual spokesperson for H&M brand Greater China, based on the men's clothing with a sense of design and quality, and further promoting the development of his business in Greater China.

In March last year, H&M also announced the popularity of idols as the brand name of the new generation in China.

With the improvement of the consciousness of sustainable development of consumers, H&M is constantly strengthening the brand's own environmental image. It will announce the supplier's information on the official website, such as clothing materials, origin, supplier name, factory address and number of workers, so as to win more consumers' favor.

At its fashion summit in Copenhagen last year, H&M said its goal was to establish a circular and renewable business model and plan to adopt recyclable or other sustainable sourcing materials in 2030.

Zara also announced in September last year that micro-blog's official account announced that China's 90 star Dongyu Zhou and Wu Lei were the brand ambassadors of Greater China, the first spokesperson for the brand.

The other brands of the parent company Inditex group had little habit of hiring spokesmen before, but they suddenly introduced star resources in 2018, such as Massimo Dutti's Janine Chang, Oysho's Li Qin, and Pull&Bear's Wang Linkai.

At the same time, Zara also launched official website and e-commerce services in 106 countries and regions.

According to group CEO Pablo Isla, over the past 5 years, the group's total investment in online channels has exceeded 7 billion 700 million euros, of which 1 billion 500 million euros has been designated for upgrading technology and logistics.

UNIQLO, who has entered China for 13 years and landed on Tmall 10th anniversary, has chosen to impress consumers with its products. Not only has it constantly increased investment in research and development of new materials, but also has been regularly promoting cooperative series with designers such as Alexander Wang and J.W.Anderson to attract young consumers.

Young talent is also an important resource that UNIQLO wants to fight for. The parent company Xun marketing group said earlier it would raise the salaries of its employees.

Thanks to the importance of foundation and innovation technology, chairman and CEO of fast marketing group, UNIQLO has now surpassed Zara and H&M, becoming the fastest growing fast fashion brand.

In the first half of fiscal year ended February 28th, sales of XXX group increased 6.8% to 1 trillion and 270 billion yen, or 76 billion 300 million yuan, and net profit increased by nearly two digits. It recorded 9.5% to 114 billion yen, or about 6 billion 800 million yuan, a record high.

According to the analysis, although China's retail market still has great potential, fast fashion brands still need to be highly vigilant. With the rise of local clothing brands, accelerating the invasion of fashion and consumer attitudes, fast fashion competitors will come from thousands of Taobao sellers in the two platforms of Alibaba and Jingdong.

According to the report of Europe consulting company, only two giants of Alibaba and Jingdong account for about 70% of the market share in China. Other retailers have limited space in this market.

When the balance in the fast fashion industry is broken, it means that the new "destroyer" appears.

With the development of new technology, fast fashion mode will inevitably become the object of reducing dimension.

Taobao, which is driven by fierce competition, has been watching the trend, monitoring product design, and producing products from thousands of Chinese garment manufacturers behind them. In fact, it has formed a unique fast fashion mode in China. Sales of tens of thousands of pieces within two hours are unimaginable challenges.

Xiaomeng Lu, head of China business at Access Partnership, global public policy consulting firm, stressed that Chinese consumers are accustomed to shopping on APP and hope to deliver them on the same day. They do not pay much attention to the price, nor do they have much loyalty to the brand itself.

In this regard, fashion headlines earlier explained in the report that, unlike traditional fashion brands with low frequency and high added value "premium drivers", high frequency and inexpensive fast fashion brands are "efficiency driven", because consumers choose fast fashion instead of brand value because they choose more products, and they will not hesitate to turn to another brand when there are more choices in the market.

The Chinese market is a barometer of brand survival. With the fast fashion industry entering a difficult pition period, consumers' vision is becoming more and more critical. Retailers do not have many choices, only early layout can avoid elimination.

According to fashion headline data monitoring, since the beginning of this year, H&M has opened three new stores in Hangzhou, Shenyang and Changchun. Zara and UNIQLO haven't opened shop in China for the past few years. The price of clothing sold by the Zara in the Chinese market has decreased by 10% to 15% over the past two years, and the situation is getting harder and harder.