The Fast Fashion Brand, Once Popular, Has A Large Area Of "Cool".

Only in the past six months, another fast fashion brand has fallen in China.

Only this time the brand ownership changed from England to the United States.

In April 25th, the US fast fashion brand Forever21 announced its announcement at its official website, Tmall flagship store and Jingdong flagship store, announcing that it will suspend operation from April 29th, and the membership points will be cleared to deal with merchandise returns from now until May 30th.

Subsequently, Forever21 China official website also issued a notice that the official website was closed, and the order before April 29th could be applied for refund before May 7th.

As for brands like GAP, Zara, H&M and so on, what's wrong with the fast fashion Forever21?

Why is the fast fashion brand unacceptable in China?

Can you find any Forever21 shops in Chongqing?

Where will the other brands go in the future?

The upstream reporters launched an investigation in the major business districts of the main city.

Forever21 shops are hard to find.

It may be strange for some people to mention Forever21's fast fashion brand.

In fact, as early as in 1984, Forever21 and GAP, Zara, H&M and other brands, which were founded in the United States, are taking the fast fashion route. Not only are there new products coming into the market every month, but also the consumer groups with many kinds of goods, cheap prices and the flagship age of 20-30, are deeply loved by young people.

"I like these fast fashion brands very much."

Li Xi, a junior student at Industrial and Commercial University Of Chongqing, thinks that clothes can catch up with celebrities in the fast-paced life, and they are not expensive. This kind of consumption can be accepted by themselves.

In addition to Li Xi, the upstream reporters interviewed many citizens in Nanping commercial circle, Guanyin Bridge business circle and Monument for Liberation business circle. Most of them gave an endorsement to the fast fashion brand.

"High-end design, civilian prices."

Dong Yang, a white-collar worker working in the Guanyin Bridge business district, told the upstream reporters that many young women like herself were affected by the European and American winds, so the love for fast fashion brands became the subconscious behavior of consumption.

Upstream journalists know that brands like Boohoo, ASOS and Missguided can produce goods within 2-4 weeks.

Zara and H&M take 5 weeks, but it takes 6-9 months for traditional retailers to update their products.

"Fast" has made a fast fashion brand, but it has also become a loser.

In the upstream reporter's visit, many consumers said that the departure of Forever21 is an inevitable result.

"I have bought a sweater for 3 days, but I haven't washed it yet.

The sleeves are open.

And the trouser legs of trousers are also washed once.

On the navigation software, when the upstream reporters searched the Forever21 shop, it was discovered that the only Forever21 store in Chongqing was located in Bayi Square, the Monument for Liberation Business District of Chongqing, but it is now closed.

"There seems to be a shop like this before. It was decorated very luxurious, but it didn't seem to be seen after the Spring Festival."

In the Bayi Square, the upstream reporters interviewed some merchants, but many people did not have a deep impression on the shop.

The pformation of fast fashion brands is imminent.

"In fact, if you compare the material of these fast fashion brands and the durability of a garment, you will prefer Taobao's explosive clothes."

Yang Shiman, a post-90s white collar, said he liked these brands before, but now he prefers to wash clothes. After all, from the perspective of price performance ratio, fast fashion always has one kind of clothes to wear but one year's impression.

Along with the Topshop, NEW LOOK, Forever21 and other brand clearance, Zara, H&M, C&A, GAP equivalent type of fast fashion brand in the future, where to go, has become a hot topic for netizens.

In this regard, the upstream news reporters through the collection of big data found that inventory, number of stores, business and consumption habits change has become overwhelmed fast fashion brand "straw".

The 2018 China family smart consumption report shows that the second tier cities tend to be rational consumption, and the 345 tier cities begin to enjoy the upgrading of consumption. Thanks to the popularity of smart phones and the rapid development of electricity providers, the consumption habits of the three or four tier cities are getting closer to a second tier city.

At the same time, in the four quarter of 2018, the typical city shopping center (commercial area of 50 thousand or more) accounted for 22.3%, and the number of shop opening accounts for 21.7%, the worst performance in five formats.

But a bigger crisis is still within the company.

According to public reports, the Inditex performance of Zara parent company has been slowing down since the second half of 2016.

In the 2018 fiscal year, the group's sales growth slowed to 3%, the worst growth rate in nearly 5 years.

Among them, Zara's clothing prices in the Chinese market in 2017 and 2018 fell by 10% to 15% on average.

Earlier, Pablo Isla, chairman and chief executive of the group, said in a media interview that the profitability of the group was being hit by the fluctuation of exchange rate and the rising rents of physical retail stores.

In addition to the hard performance of Zara, H&M is also struggling.

According to relevant media reports, in the three quarter of 2018, H&M stock nearly 39 billion kronor (about 27 billion 500 million yuan), accounting for 33.5% of total sales, exceeding the warning line of 30% of the clothing enterprises' health stock rate.

Of course, this has a certain reason for opening a new store with H&M for 4 days.

It is precisely inventory that makes the H&M operating profit decrease from 18% to 12.8% in the four years from 2012 to 2016.

To ensure profit margins, H&M abandoned the goal of adding new 10%-15% stores every year, and even the iconic Xidan Joy City store was closed.

Fast fashion brands are looking for ways to survive.

In May 2016, ASOS, the UK's fashionable e-commerce website, announced that it had stopped operating in China.

In August 2018, Topshop announced the termination of cooperation with the Chinese franchise partner Shang pin network.

Three months later, in November, its brand announced in Tmall that the Tmall flagship store would be closed and the store cleared as a result of the adjustment of the international business strategy.

At the end of 2018, the British brand New Look announced its withdrawal from China.

Although it is not yet clear whether Forever 21 will be withdrawn from China, it is imminent to find new ways to survive.

And pformation, star marketing, net red marketing and reducing the number of stores has become the killer brand of fast fashion brands to deal with the crisis.

In 2018, H&M opened Tmall flagship store in Taobao, striving for more online traffic.

In September of that year, Zara, the first new retail concept store in China, also settled in Shanghai Times Square.

Moreover, with the rapid development of short video platforms such as jitter, the fast fashion brand has always been close to the new selling way of "traffic star + net red".

Celebrities such as Wang Yuan, Zhang Yixing, Dongyu Zhou and Wu Lei have endorsed fast fashion brands.

Related practitioners say young fans behind the stars have become a new customer base.

In terms of business, H&M increased the supply chain investment, hoping to resolve the crisis with the high-end secondary line brand Cos and &Other Stories.

In addition to reducing the number of new stores, Zara is also integrating home Home Zara.

At the same time, we continue to strengthen the supply chain excellence and digitalized the existing stores.

What is interesting is that the two competing brands have coincidentally arranged the "beauty" market for the beauty market.

In addition, C&A marched into the wedding dress market and GAP overweight children's clothing business, trying to find a new growth point for training.

According to relevant media reports, as of fiscal year 2018, H&M has 465 outlets in 153 cities in mainland China; Zara parent company's brand matrix stores have 580 stores, and the uniforms which advocate the basic cost and performance ratio are all over the scale of 673.

Where will the fast fashion brand go in the future?

Or from another precedent, it can give other brands a wake-up call.

After all, the new retail era has arrived, and how to adjust the strategy to win back the hearts of consumers is the most immediate consideration of fast fashion.

Author: Qu Hongrui Ran Ran