Fast Fashion Surviving Two Extremes: Creating A Myth While Encountering "Water Adverse"

According to incomplete statistics, in 2019, there were 8 fast fashion brands including H&M, ZARA, UNIQLO, MJstyle, Muji, UR, C&A and GAP, adding 218 new stores in the mainland (excluding upgraded stores), a record low.

In just four years, the domestic fast fashion has gone from glory to gloom. Over the past year, the polarization of the industry has become more and more obvious. Many brands have been hit by "reverse" and even withdrawn from China. The myth of UNIQLO continues at the end of the scale.

Fast fashion business is changing. When the consumption trend and aesthetic perception are changing rapidly, fast fashion brand store strategy has changed. At the same time, some new trends are also quietly forming.

　　 1 "slow down" into the industry consensus, UNIQLO is still the fastest.

In 2019, 86 new stores were added to UNIQLO, which is still the fastest fast fashion brand, and the number of new stores is far ahead. It is two times more than 33 of the second domestic brands UR, and GAP and Muji have been followed by 30 and 28 stores respectively.

The number of other brand new stores is below 20, of which 14 are newly opened by MJstyle, and 12 by H&M and ZARA respectively, while C&A has only 3 new stores.

From the past four years, the development of other fast fashion brands has slowed down to varying degrees except the number of new GAP stores.

The decline of MJstyle is the most obvious. The once dark horse of domestic product staged a 185 speed and passion drama in 2017, and the growth rate of new stores fell 78% and 67% after two years.

The number of new H&M stores in the international giant also declined year by year, from 77 in 2016 to 12 in 2019. The decline was widened to 60%.

UR, Muji and ZARA are relatively stable. In the past four years, the number of new stores is smaller, with a drop of 20%.

In addition, even in the case of UNIQLO, the new store in 2019 was 4 fewer than last year.

Obviously, "slowing down" has become the consensus of fast fashion industry. When the industry is down, rents and labor costs are rising. The large scale of stores has become a burden to a certain extent.

　　 2 seize the East and second tier cities and accelerate subsidence.

From the perspective of regional distribution, the fast fashion in 2019 still focuses on the East China market, especially in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. A total of 7 brands were overweight, with 90 new stores, accounting for 41%. Among them, there are 36 UNIQLO stores, accounting for 43% of the brand new stores in the year, and nearly half of GAP and MUJI products are located in East China, 13 each.

Secondly, the Southern China region also attracted 7 brands, accounting for 39 new stores, accounting for about 18%. They are mainly distributed in Guangdong Province, especially in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shenzhen Baoan big thousand li, Guangzhou Cloud Gate NEW PARK and other shopping centers have two or more fast fashion new stores.

Southwest and central China added 23 and 21 respectively. The 6 brand new stores in Southwest China are concentrated in Kunming, Chengdu and Chongqing, with 10 and 4 respectively. Central China has 8 brand new shops, mainly located in Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Luoyang, Changsha and other places, stationed in Changsha century Jin Yuan shopping center, Zhengzhou YOYO PARK, Luoyang Zhengda square and so on.

The fast fashion shops in the rest areas are below 20. There are 18 in North China, 8 in UNIQLO, more in Beijing and Tianjin, 14 in the northeast, concentrated in the capital cities of the three eastern provinces, and are located in Changchun skyscraper city and Harbin Yintai city. 13 new stores in the northwest are gathered in Shaanxi, and four brands of UNIQLO, ZARA, UR and GAP have opened 7 new stores here.

From the point of view of urban distribution, in 2019, the second tier cities were the key markets for fast fashion brands. The expansion of cities under three lines and below speeds up, and the trend of subsidence is obvious.

The fast fashion market in the first tier cities is getting more and more saturated. Last year, 34 new homes were added, accounting for about 16%. Shenzhen has 11 cities, most of which are fast fashion new stores last year, 8 in Guangzhou and Shanghai, and 7 in Beijing.

There are 110 cities in the second tier cities, accounting for more than half of them. In the number of new shops in TOP10 cities, the second tier cities account for 5, while Hangzhou and Kunming each have 10 new stores, second only to Shenzhen. And a shopping center often has many fast fashion brands, such as UR and GAP of Longhu Tian Jie in Xixi, Hangzhou, and UNIQLO and UR of Kunming's Hang Lung Plaza.

It is worth mentioning that last year, fast fashion accelerated layout in the low tier cities. There are 74 new shops in the three and below cities, accounting for 34%, which are distributed in 14 three cities, 20 four cities and 18 below four cities. Anshan, Guilin, Qinhuangdao, Shantou, Puyang and other places are more popular.

Among them, UNIQLO and MJstyle sink more obviously. In the cities below four and four lines, UNIQLO has 21 new stores, accounting for 25%; MJstyle has 8, accounting for 57% of the total number of new brands.

　　 3 cling to the chain shopping mall and OLE's thigh.

Over the past year, fast fashion brand location is still dominated by shopping centers. In 218 new stores, shopping centers accounted for more than 90% of the shops.

Wanda Plaza, Longhu Tian Jie, the Mixc / Vientiane exchange, impression city, and Yuet plaza have provided great room for fast fashion, especially in the low tier cities.

Take Wanda Plaza as an example, in 2019, Wanda Plaza introduced 30 fast fashion new stores, including four major brands of UNIQLO, H&M, GAP and UR. Among them, there are 5, 6 and 12 stores in three, four and four lines, accounting for more than 76% of the total. By the end of 2019, the country had opened 323 Wanda Plaza, covering 30 provinces and cities and 201 cities throughout the country.

At the same time, Oteri J has become the location strategy of some fast fashion brands. In 2019, 16 fast fashion shops were located in outlets, including 4 ZARA and 12 GAP. The latter through the location of the initiative, sand boat and other chain Ole, greatly enhanced the speed of the shop, the total number of mainland stores exceeded 200, covering more than 40 cities.

On the other hand, in 2019, the number of new businesses opened in these shopping centres was about 48%. In 2020, there were 874 shopping centers in the country. The total volume of business was about 79 million 230 thousand.

Among them, Wanda, Xincheng, India, Longhu, Aegean Sea, Suning, greenbelt, century Jin Yuan, Baolong and Huarun are ten famous developers. The total number of 177 shopping center projects will be opened, which will bring greater opportunities for fast fashion.

　　 Four A bit of a "miserable" fast fashion, and I think of some new tricks.

With the New Look and Forever 21 ending China's journey one after another, the fast fashion industry in China is full of sadness. MUJI has fallen off the altar, successively suffered a trademark loss, failed in quality inspection, declined in performance and plunged into a crisis of being abandoned by the middle class. ZARA not only closed the stores of two core business circles in Beijing, but also shut down all Wuhan stores overnight.

In the quagmire, fast fashion brands are also exploring more ways to maintain their competitiveness in young consumer groups.

Fire to explosion IP joint name

In 2019, KAWS, seven dragon balls, LINE, Disney, LEGO, Conan, star wars and other IP were all printed on T-shirts by UNIQLO, the online sales seconds were sold out, the traffic flow skyrocketed under the line, and the topic fever was exploded in a short time, and the popularity and influence of the brand rose. There are also ZARA x Disney, H&M x Garfield and so on.

Through this wave of operation, UNIQLO earned a lot of money. In the fiscal year ending August 31, 2019, the profit of UNIQLO Greater China increased 21% to 89 billion yen over the same period. According to the parent express group, it is estimated that in the 2022 fiscal year, the sales volume of the Greater China market is expected to exceed 1 trillion yen.

　　 Bringing Japanese aesthetic style home decoration to China

From a spoon to tableware, clothing, daily necessities, Muji has more than 7000 categories, and its format covers all aspects of daily life. In December 2019, it formally announced the first launch of home decoration service in China, MUJI INFILL, and opened the first model room in Qingdao.

In fact, Muji has 19 years of experience in home decoration and provides services such as decoration, renovation and layout. This time, we set foot in our home furnishings, aiming at home furnishings, furniture, home appliances integration home demand solutions.

Clothing rental services, stores to introduce other clothing brands

Last year, GAP's Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters and H&M joined the renting service. It is understood that H&M first launched a clothing rental service for its members in Sweden. Members can rent up to 3 items at a time. The rental period is one week. The rental price of each garment is about 260 yuan, and the rental clothing is mainly a high-end H&M series.

In addition, H&M also announced that it will sell other clothing brands in H&M brand stores. Previously, &Other Stories and Arket of the group have tried to sell other external brand products in the store.

Fast fashion brand is hoping to narrow the relationship with consumers. However, whether it is clothing leasing or the introduction of other brands, is only a means, did not touch the essence of the problem.