China's Development Slows Down In Women's Underwear Market

With the fact that the 24 year old secret show has been cancelled this year, the competition for women's underwear industry, known as the "last piece of cake" in the clothing market, has become more complicated.

In July 30th, Australian model sheikna sheikk revealed in a media interview that the show was no longer held this year. At present, the official has not responded positively, but in response to the media interview, he said: "because the fashion industry is changing so fast, we need to reconsider the traditional Internet TV show."

In fact, the decline of Wei began in 2016 and did not improve in the first quarter of this year. A quarterly earnings report released by L Brands, the virgin parent company, showed a net profit of $40 million 300 thousand in the first quarter of this year, down 15% compared to the same period last year. Among them, sales fell by 5%, and L Brands said that 35 stores were closed in the first quarter of this year.

At the same time, it is worth noting that Stuart Burgdoerfer, the chief financial officer of the company, said in a media interview that the plan to slow down its pace in China. Similar to the fate of Wei, there are many traditional women's underwear brand "boss", the impact of the new brand, the market share has been nibbled.

In August 9th, Zhu Yue, director of consulting and consulting, told the times weekly that underwear brand competition in the Chinese market has not yet formed an industry leader, and the industry concentration degree is very low. This has also created many brands wishing to enter the Chinese market. The large-scale entry of foreign underwear brands is bound to have a certain impact on domestic brands.

Local brands profit diving

In recent years, the improvement of women's economic ability and the enhancement of their self-consciousness have boosted the growth of the underwear market.

According to the statistical analysis of the market outlook and investment planning analysis of China Women's underwear industry released by the prospective industry research institute, statistics show that in 2017, the scale of Chinese women's underwear market increased to 152 billion 100 million yuan, an increase of 7.1% over the same period last year. As of 2018, the scale of China's women's underwear market has exceeded 160 billion yuan, reaching 161 billion 100 million yuan, an increase of 5.9% over the same period last year.

Although the market scale is improving rapidly, the per capita consumption expenditure still has much room for improvement. According to the data provided by China consulting, less than 10% of Chinese clothing expenditure per capita in 2018 was used for underwear. Compared with developed countries, such as the United States 13%, Britain 16% and France 20%, Chinese women consumers still have the potential to increase their underwear consumption.

In 2017, it also shifted its strategic vision to the Chinese market. In 2017, it opened the first flagship store in mainland China in Shanghai, and the same year's Shanghai exhibition was also held in Beijing.

In mid June of this year, Holland's 100 year underwear brand "fragrant" Mu Mu Le was tested in the Chinese market and opened in China's first store in Pudong New Area Century Plaza, Pudong New Area. At the same time, it announced the opening plan of "5 years and 47 stores" in China.

As more and more high-end international brands enter the Chinese market, local underwear brands feel the pressure, especially the high-end brands represented by an Li Fang.

The analysis report released by the foresight industry research institute points out that the high-end brands in China's underwear industry are mainly dominated by foreign brands, and domestic brands mainly occupy the low-end market. Moreover, there are as many as more than 3000 women's underwear brands in China, and the sales scale of over 90% brands is below 100 million yuan, and there are few brands with over 1 billion yuan in scale sales.

Nowadays, under the intense competition, the high-end market representatives, the brand of Li Fang, and the brand representatives of the middle end market, are declining in performance.

The weekly Times reporter combed the financial report and found that in the 2018 fiscal year, the profit of an Li Fang dropped by 69.48% to 151 million Hong Kong dollars. In June 21st, the company issued a profit warning, expecting that the group's net profit in the 6 months ended in June 30, 2019 will be reduced compared with the same period last year.

Anli Fang attributed the decrease in net profit to the continued weakness of the retail business and the uncertainty of the global macroeconomic environment.

In addition to Fang Li Fang, the city beauty began to profit early warning. In the announcement, the urban beauty expects that the overall profit in the 6 months ended June 30, 2019 will drop by no less than 80%.

Zhu Yue believes that the large-scale entry of foreign underwear brands is bound to have a certain impact on domestic brands. The decline of domestic underwear brand profits is also not related to the intensity of brand transformation. Some new lingerie brands are able to seize the preferences of new generation female consumers, and therefore have a great impact on the traditional underwear brands.

Products facing breakthroughs

In addition to facing the impact of foreign underwear brand, domestic women underwear brand itself is also facing a breakthrough upgrade.

In most countries, women's underwear is the most concentrated category of women's clothing. The characteristics of products determine that underwear has high requirements for R & D, production, SKU management, brand and retail.

However, due to the low concentration of underwear industry in China, many lingerie enterprises have not done well in research and development. XinDa securities research report pointed out that in the field of design and edition, many underwear enterprises in China introduced the styles and sizes of bra directly from outside, and only a few leading enterprises directly studied the chest characteristics of Chinese women, leading to insufficient fit of domestic bra.

"The domestic lingerie brand is not enough to emphasize the design at present. Due to the different preferences of the new generation of consumers, enough design sense and personalization are bound to be a major trend in the underwear industry. In terms of fabric development and product design, there is still a slight shortage of domestic underwear brands compared with foreign brands. " Zhu Yue said frankly.

Zhu Yue suggested that, due to the difference between the different races, the design and comfort of underwear should be considered for the design of the Chinese people. It needs more investment and research and development, and the brand that can get the advantage of first hand will be expected to further expand its market and gain a larger share in the future.

In addition, according to the "underwear industry trend study" released by the first financial business data center and Tmall underwear, the overall online bra market is showing a trend of consumption upgrading, and the influx of young consumption forces is increasing. The price of buying underwear is getting higher and higher, and the frequency of buying underwear is also rising.

With the "95 after" and "00 after" as the main body of consumption, the consumption of women's underwear market must also be upgraded comprehensively. Nowadays, many lingerie brands also take the "younger" route from product development and brand promotion.

For example, the Bralette style introduced by foreign brand Aerie is similar to bikini and can be sold as a selling point. This year, the city beauty also changed the spokesperson from Lin Chiling to "95 after" young actor Guan Xiaotong, but whether the promotion of brand younger is effective, still needs further performance test.