Pattern Changes, Women Underwear Market More Difficult, Homogenization Become The Bottleneck Of Development

In mid June, there was no "warning". The Holland women's brand Hunkemller (Chinese Name: Xiang Kou Mu Le) opened in China's first store in Pudong New Area Century Plaza, Pudong New Area. At the same time, the brand announced ambitious plans in China: in addition to opening 4 brand stores in China this year, the brand will reach 47 goals in China in five years.

Hunkemller is one of the most famous lingerie brands in Europe. Its brand has more than 130 years history. In 2016, Hunkemller was speeded up by the acquisition of private equity funds. As of now, the number of brands in the world has reached more than 930.

Hunkemller chief executive Philip Mountford said that China is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and its demand for international brands is also increasing. The development of China's underwear market is very natural for the brand.

The industry believes that Hunkemller's main competitor in China is Wei Ming. Public data show that there are 53 stores in the Greater China area, and Hunkemller China's "five years and 47 stores" target is obviously "intentional". The emergence of a strong opponent is undoubtedly exacerbated by the recent downhill trend of Wei. In recent years, prestige in the international market has been declining. The lack of inclusiveness and diversity in underwear size has been criticized by public opinion, which has lowered both reputation and performance. In the 2017 fiscal year to 2018 fiscal year, the sale of secret revenue continued to become a "blot" in the L Brands earnings data of the parent company. Despite the fact that in 2017, the first move to China was made by Wei Ming, but the pace of expansion in China was relatively slow and its influence was not as good as before. The store people are often accessible, the brand in the Tmall flagship shop is also increasing discounts, Beijing business newspaper reporters see, 5 lace low waist bikini underwear discount only 198 yuan, even lower than the flat price fashion brand uniqo underwear price is still lower.

Local high-end brands are squeezed

As foreign brands have entered China, the Chinese women's underwear market is becoming crowded. Meanwhile, changes in consumer preferences and needs are also leading the development of women's underwear market in China.

The 2019-2024 year China women underwear industry market outlook and investment planning analysis report released by the foresight Industry Research Institute in April this year shows that the high-end brands in China's underwear industry are dominated by foreign brands, and domestic brands mainly occupy low-end market. An Li Fang, Ttiumph, Finn and man's Finn are the most famous high-end brands in China's underwear industry. Urban beauty, good athlete and Lun Sha occupy the middle end market. The low-end market brands are mainly wholesale, such as Shu Wei, pearl, and so on.

There are as many as more than 3000 women's underwear brands in China. But from the present point of view, the proportion of women's underwear market share is mainly concentrated in the middle end brand. Among them, the fast fashion underwear brand city beauty market share occupies the first place in the domestic women's underwear market. Compared with the middle end brand, the competition between international brand and local brand mainly takes place in the high-end underwear market. As international brands such as virgin entered China, sales of high-end underwear brands represented by Li Fang have been declining in recent years.

Public data showed that in the 2016 fiscal year, an Li Fang's income fell to double digits, while net profit plunged 51%. In the 2017 fiscal year, because of the relocation costs, the profit of the company increased by 4 times, but its real income increased by only 5.57%. In the 2018 fiscal year, the net profit of an Li Fang declined again, which has not been improved so far. In June 21st, Ann Li Fang issued a profit warning, and estimated that the net profit in the 6 months ended in June 30th was less than that in the same period last year. Anli Fang attributed the decrease in net profits to the "continued weakening of the retail business and the uncertainty of the global macroeconomic environment."

Is the impact of international brands on local brands really fatal? Domestic underwear industry insiders told the Beijing Commercial Daily reporter that the presence of high-ranking brands such as "Wei" will bring some pressure, but not much. As a matter of fact, foreign underwear sales to China are not intended to be adjusted to the Chinese version. The comfort level will be greatly reduced and the return rate will be large. Take the location of the breast for underwear, for example, the pattern of foreign countries is usually lower than that of the domestic ones. Chinese women will feel uncomfortable when they wear them. In terms of body size, Europeans and Americans are also taller and wider than Chinese. This also determines the location of shoulder girdle.

Homogenization becomes the bottleneck of development

Chinese women's loyalty to underwear brands is usually relatively high. Compared with brand awareness and style, Chinese women pay more attention to beauty, comfort, functionality and accessories when purchasing underwear. For example, underwear fabrics are breathable enough, whether they are worn in summer, whether they can be matched with pajamas or slippers in one stop. Without sufficient reasons, they will not usually try new underwear brands, especially the high-end underwear brands with higher price.

This means that China's local underwear brands still have great potential to tap. The market outlook and investment planning analysis of the Chinese women's underwear industry in the past 2019-2024 years shows that as of 2018, the Chinese women's market has exceeded 160 billion yuan, and the size of the industry will expand rapidly with the increase of 7 sets per year for Chinese women's per capita purchase of new underwear, as well as the demand for beauty, comfort and functionality of underwear. However, compared with other developed countries, there is still a big gap in the Chinese women's underwear market. From the per capita consumption of women's underwear, Chinese women spend only 20.2 dollars on underwear per capita last year, which is only about 1/4 of some developed countries in Europe and America. But at the same time, it also shows that with the awakening of domestic women's awareness of underwear consumption and the internationalization of consumption concept, the domestic female underwear market will have enormous room for development.

In the above industry view, compared with foreign countries, China women underwear market leader brand in the industry accounted for a lot of difference. Take the market share of women's underwear market as the largest, for example, in the Chinese domestic market, the urban beauty who takes the first share of the market share is only 4.2% of the market share of the whole female underwear, while the US's Marks&Spence, Wacoal and Japan's market share account for several times the city's beauty. It also shows that the market development of Chinese women's underwear industry is far from mature, and the imagination of the enterprises in the future is huge.

He pointed out that in fact, the difficulties faced by Chinese women's underwear enterprises are not the invasion of foreign underwear brands, but the serious homogenization of brands, and the lack of R & D's unique benchmarking new products. This is also a "trump card" that local underwear brands need to consolidate the city.