Declining Sales Of Clothing Will Become A New Trend For Retail Sales

Decline in clothing purchases

The amount of clothing purchases has declined. On the one hand, the frequency of clothing consumption has dropped. On the one hand, the price increases of some categories have affected the purchase volume. This is also consistent with the changes in clothing sales and clothing expenditure announced by the National Bureau of statistics. Conventional fabrics and technology are unable to explain the reasons for the rise of clothing. Only uncommon new fabrics and special technology can make consumers accept the price of clothing.

People buy less clothes. Statistics from the National Bureau of statistics show that sales of clothing and cloth have dropped to varying degrees in the same period from the fourth quarter of 2017. Clothing sales in 2018 were 54 billion 60 million, down 24.8% from 71 billion 910 million in 2017.

According to the National Bureau of statistics, in 2016, the sales volume of garment enterprises in China reached 30 billion 690 million in the four quarter, and dropped to 28 billion 330 million in 2017. In the first half of 2019, the sales volume of garment enterprises above Designated Size in China was 10 billion 270 million.

The results of China's commodity sales statistics released by the China Federation of Commerce and the China National Business Information Center also showed that in 2018, the volume of key large retail enterprises in China decreased by 4.2%, and the growth rate slowed down by 8.4 percentage points compared with 2017. In addition to the positive growth in retail sales, the retail sales of other categories of clothing were less than that of the same period last year.

1. Decline in clothing purchases

Clothing is just needed for people, and needs to be bought all the year round. Sales volume of clothing industry in the past is quite good, and selling clothes is easy to earn money, but now many clothing entities are closed down, and the number of people buying clothes is gradually weakening.

The reason for this is that Jiang Xiaoliang, a clothing practitioner, said in an interview with "China made news" that it was mainly because of the emergence of some rental clothes platforms. Nowadays, young people are very enthusiastic about this kind of novelty, so the sales of clothing are down.

From the market rents APP, small programs to all kinds of second-hand clothing offline stores, online trading platform and franchisee, people are exploring more possibilities in clothing trade, buying new clothes is no longer the only choice.

In addition, compared with the past, the quality of clothing is much better now, so the loss is smaller. Therefore, for thrifty families, the frequency of changing clothes will be reduced. Moreover, there is still a certain gap between China and other countries in terms of the innovation of clothing. It is not known that successive good original designs will stimulate the vitality of the clothing consumer market. In addition, clothing marketing methods also affect the quantity, but good mode can get twice the result with half the effort, but the rigid sales mode will only make the market weak. Unable to accurately understand consumer psychology, naturally can not improve sales.

According to the National Bureau of statistics, people spend less on clothing consumption as a whole. In 2018, the per capita clothing consumption expenditure of the whole country was 1289 yuan, an increase of 4.1% over the same period last year, and the growth rate was 1.2 percentage points faster than that of the same period last year. In the same period, the per capita consumption expenditure of the residents increased by 6.2% in real terms, and the growth of daily necessities and services, transportation and communications, education, culture, entertainment and health care was much higher than that of clothing consumption. In 2018, the proportion of clothing consumption per capita in the national consumption expenditure was 6.5%, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous year.

Zou Zhidan, a researcher in an interview with the China national economic news reporter, said that from the overall situation of social consumption, the overall signs of slowing down had a greater negative impact on the downward trend of the economy. The amount of clothing purchases has declined. On the one hand, the frequency of clothing consumption has dropped. On the one hand, the price increases of some categories have affected the purchase volume.

As for the demand market for terminal garments, the upstream textile industry is more difficult to be independent. Reporters noted that in the past two years, the cumulative growth rate of textile industry revenue has dropped sharply, from the growth rate of about 9% in 2017 to 2% in 2018, and even negative growth in 2019.

2, the price of single piece rises obviously.

Normally, lower clothing sales should mean a reduction in clothing consumption expenditure. But the fact is that sales of clothing are down, but clothing consumption is growing steadily.

According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, the retail sales of clothing commodities above the quota have increased year by year over the past 2011-2017 years, but the growth rate has slowed down year by year. In 2017, the total retail sales of clothing products reached 1 trillion and 36 billion 540 million yuan, up 1.4% over the same period last year. In 2018, the total retail sales of clothing products in China were 987 billion 40 million yuan, down 4.8% compared with the same period last year, and the retail sales volume of clothing products for the first time showed negative growth. As of the first half of 2019, clothing retail sales amounted to 474 billion 970 million yuan. In 2018, the retail sales of clothing commodities in major large-scale retail enterprises increased by 0.99% over the same period last year.

Among them, men's clothing sales unit price rose 4.6%, or 2.4 percentage points faster than in 2017; the sales price of women's clothing rose 7.1%, or 7.7% higher than that in 2017; the sales price of children's wear increased 10.5%, or 2.1% lower than that in 2017.

According to Zou Zhidan analysis, sales decline is corresponding to expenditure growth. Behind this, the sales price of single clothing is rising sharply.

Fashion, fast selling, personality and other clothing consumption concepts have changed the whole clothing consumption market. It is almost impossible for us to sell tens of thousands of pieces and hundreds of thousands of pieces of explosive clothing. The new generation of consumers are unwilling to bump into other people's clothes. They want their clothes to be customized and unique.

The new concept of consumption quickly returned to the garment enterprises, and then the production mode changed from big to small. Paying attention to original design, pursuing special fabrics and new colors have gradually become the development criteria of Frontier garment enterprises. Clothing companies invest a lot of manpower and financial resources in new clothing, but it is very difficult to put into production as much as before to dilute the cost of innovation and expand the benefits, so we can only increase the sale price of single garments by a large margin.

This is also consistent with the changes in clothing sales and clothing expenditure announced by the National Bureau of statistics. Behind the sharp rise in the price of single piece clothing is actually a phenomenon, that is, clothing companies will make new demands on fabrics. Conventional fabrics and technology are unable to explain the reasons for the rise of clothing. Only uncommon new fabrics and special technology can make consumers accept the price of clothing.

For the textile industry, it should also be aware of this change and make timely adjustments. We should dare to explore and innovate, instead of complacent in the fields of old varieties and familiar areas. Zou Zhidan said.

3. Analysis of the new trend of future development

Online and offline interoperability has become an inevitable trend, and new retail will become the trend of the apparel industry.

Zou Zhidan told reporters that clothing smart stores will be an inevitable way for the apparel industry to develop new retail outlets. With the increase of consumer income and the change of consumption concept, on the one hand, the overall development trend of China's apparel retailing industry is fluctuating. On the other hand, the change of consumers' shopping mode and communication mode in the digital age has led to the transformation of apparel retailing format, and the trend of the integration of apparel retail lines has become increasingly evident.

Apparel retailing digitalization is the only way for Apparel Retailing in the future. Its essence is to drive the consumer chain as the driving force, use the big data and new technology to carry out the comprehensive digital upgrading of the industrial chain, and finally achieve the promotion of efficiency and experience through the integration of online and offline.

In terms of consumer clothing preferences, the rise of new star consumer groups has been unable to label consumers in the 60, 70, and 80s consumer groups as they did in the past. Therefore, this means that the new round of consumption upgrading is more changeable, diverse and multi-dimensional.

China clothing association points out that individualized, differentiated and differentiated lifestyle leads to the unconformity of brand appeal. Many clothing brands will introduce younger and styled sub line brands, and more small and beautiful niche brands will be favored. Younger and high-end will gradually become the mainstream trend of garment industry transformation and upgrading.