Finally Wait Until Other Stories Enters China To Choose Tmall First.

Two years ago, when Other Stories decided to enter the Asian market and set up its first store in Seoul, many Chinese fans began to speculate and look forward to the future interaction between the brand and the Chinese market. Now, the official flagship store of Other Stories Tmall is officially opened today.

As a high-end women's clothing brand of H&M group, Other Stories is rich in literary atmosphere and unique personality. Since its establishment in 2013, it has 70 stores in 19 countries. Although it has not officially entered the Chinese market before, it is no stranger to Chinese consumers.

On the social platforms such as micro-blog and Zhi you, you can often see the discussion about the popular single product and the new product of Other Stories. A fashion blogger such as @SavisLook has also expressed her love for the brand. The popularity of brands in overseas markets has gradually spread to China through various channels, laying a good foundation for its true entry into the Chinese market.

Sanna Lindberg, general manager of Other Stories, told BoF that after receiving continuous positive feedback from Chinese consumers, the brand decided to cooperate with Tmall, an e-commerce platform, to open online flagship stores to better meet the needs of Chinese consumers. Tmall flagship store will continue the brand's official website design style, and synchronize the products, including clothing, shoes, handbags, jewelry and accessories, made by three studios in Paris, Stockholm and Losangeles.

Previously, Chinese consumers could only buy Other Stories products indirectly through fashion buyers and overseas purchasing, and their interaction with brands was very limited. Sanna said that interaction with consumers has always been one of the important sources of brand design inspiration. With the expansion of every new market, brands will choose more unique and interesting interaction modes based on the characteristics of local consumers.

If you pay attention, you will find that Other Stories has launched the "Me & Other Stories" column, which is popular among overseas consumers, on the official micro-blog account. As the name suggests, consumers can borrow this column to show their interpretation and understanding of different products, and share the various stories between them and their brands.

This is exactly the idea of Other Stories when it first started.

"In our eyes, every woman is an independent individual with his own ideals and goals. We think it is more important to empower women and enlighten them to express themselves more freely than dress advice. Sanna said. Other Stories wants women customers to choose products that really match their characteristics, so as to create their own style.

Referring to this concept, Other Stories has created a rich product line and has become a bright spot, from clothing to accessories, even beauty and skin care products. Compared with COS, H&M and other brands, it has a high degree of identification. In order to take account of innovation and multiple styles, the brand has been collaborating with different designers in the form of "Co-labs" since 2013, such as Rodarte, Ada Kokosar, Clare Vivier and Lykke Li, and has launched various highly original products. Readers "Gu Li Guo" message to BoF, "Other Stories" is the light luxury brand in the true sense of quality and price.

As for pricing, Other Stories, though it shares the high-end brand of H&M group with COS, is more approachable. Excluding the factors of tax and exchange rate, brands will adopt similar pricing strategies for Chinese market.

But taking into account many factors such as competitors, market space and so on, Other Stories will also face new pressures and challenges. Compared to the direct opening of physical stores, the brand's choice to enter the Chinese market through online channels is very cautious and prudent. Sanna also bluntly said that the future strategy of the brand in the Chinese market will depend on the development of the official flagship store. BoF reader "Y" also said, in the case of many fast fashion brands frustrated in the Chinese market, waiting for Other Stories will be a great challenge.

In fact, due to the rapid development of the electricity supplier industry, the whole fashion and retail industry has been greatly affected by the entity business. The latest report of Coresight Research, a market research firm, shows that the number of retail outlets that has been closed worldwide has increased by 29% over the 8 months ending 2019. It is expected that a total of 1.2 stores will be closed by the end of this year, compared with 2018. Prada, the fashion giant, will also be unable to meet the monthly rent of up to HK $9 million and will withdraw from its largest store in Hongkong next year. The fast fashion group H&M and Zara parent company Inditex have shifted their focus to online channels to prevent unpredictable business losses caused by the volatile business entities.

In addition, H&M is also taking measures to upgrade the same name chain store. The benchmarking is its Arket and Other Stories brand, which is more in line with customer requirements. In the recently released second quarter earnings report, H&M group achieved 57 billion 500 million Swedish kroner net sales, an increase of 11% compared with the same period last year. As of May 31, 2019, H&M group opened more than 4900 stores in 72 markets around the world and opened online stores in 48 markets.

Under the background of rapidly changing industry, how to occupy a place in the competitive market of China Other Stories will be the most important and thorny issue. It may be wise to cooperate with Tmall, but the follow-up development still depends on how the brand maximizes its advantages according to local conditions.