How Does The Garment Industry Break Through Under The Epidemic Situation?

On February 13th, Zhang Yong, chairman and CEO of Alibaba, said in a conference call that the new crown pneumonia epidemic posed challenges to the clothing industry, mainly because of the difficulties in supply and the decline in consumption intention. At present, there are many stores in the major clothing brands. In the absence of consumer participation, how should garment enterprises break through?

The store of a clothing brand in Beijing.

Heavy shop closing time delay

Before and after the Spring Festival is often the peak sales period of clothing industry, consumers have "buy new clothes for the new year" consumption tradition, coupled with the Spring Festival express gradually outage, offline shop sales will be even more popular. But the arrival of the epidemic broke the hot consumer scene. Most of the clothing brands chose to close stores and delay re employment.

Zhang Jiangping, chairman of Taiping bird clothing, said in an open letter that some shops in the Pacific bird business have been suspended and the time for resuming work has been delayed until February 17th. Women's clothing brand Eve Li also said that due to the impact of the epidemic, decided to temporarily close the line of about 1300 stores, accounting for 2/3 of the total number of stores.

Some international clothing brands have also made corresponding adjustments. Nearly 300 stores, which account for about 40% of the total number of stores in China, have been reopened. The fast fashion giant H&M has been temporarily closed in the 13 stores in Wuhan, China. Levi's (Levi 's) has closed about half of its stores in China, including the largest flagship store in Wuhan, which is the largest flagship store in Asia. Hammett Singh, chief financial officer of its parent company, said that in the short term, the company's performance will be affected. The down jacket brand alliance can stare that the stores in China's 1/3 have been temporarily closed, and the number of stores that continue to operate businesses have also been reduced by about 80%. The relocation plans of three stores have been postponed to the beginning of 2021, and the opening hours of the two new stores have been postponed. GAP group spokesman said the group decided to temporarily close its headquarters and factories in China. Its stores will adjust their business hours as required, and some stores will be suspended.

In addition, affected by the epidemic, many brands announced their withdrawal from Paris fashion week.

Rapid adjustment of self salvation

In the face of the epidemic, clothing brands have been "self saving" or "breaking through" through a series of ways, such as expanding sales channels, requiring dealers to return products, and cross boundary production.

Many of them turn to online sales. The Chinese Commercial Daily reporter found that the clothing brands of Taiping bird, Semir, La Natsu Bell, Eve Li and so on basically carried out live online activities everyday.

Taiping bird responsible person in an interview with the China Daily News reporter said that the current company's focus on expanding sales channels, through online live broadcast, spring sales and other means of sales.

A clothing brand anchor told the China Commercial Daily: "since the rise of live online sales, the number of live broadcaster brands has increased in a long time. During the epidemic period, the number of merchandise participating in live promotion is more and the activity is greater." According to the insiders, online live sales can also reduce inventory losses to some extent.

In order to reduce the losses caused by the epidemic, Jiangnan cloth clothing has another way. In an open letter to group dealers, the brand said that in response to the new spring products in 2020, the company will adjust the return rate of its 2020 spring products, including JNBY, sketch and Peng Ma, to 100%, requiring dealers to return all the products of some styles in advance.

A garment industry analyst told the China Commercial Daily reporter that Jiangnan cloth clothing recovered all new products out of consideration of brand image. In the low sales period, dealers will definitely discount sales to reduce losses, thereby affecting the brand image. After the new products are recovered, they can sell to their huge fans groups and give rebate to VIP consumers. This will increase user stickiness and kill two birds with one stone.

"Cross border medicine" clothing enterprises are more direct. In this outbreak, the shortage of protective clothing and masks for medical materials has made garment enterprises begin to "transform". Up to now, YOUNGOR, Hong Kong stock, Ordos, news bird, Huafang and other garment enterprises and other garment enterprises to transform, add production lines, production masks and protective clothing. Affected by this, the above garment enterprises share prices have risen.

An unnamed investor told the China Commercial Daily: "during the epidemic period, some garment enterprises can switch to medical supplies, to a certain extent, indicating that the management of the company has a good decision-making. Although the role of improving the overall performance is limited, brand influence and consumer sentiment will certainly be improved. In addition, the government has certain support and preferential policies for the garment enterprises that transfer medical materials, and enterprises may have better development. "

Thinking of epidemic situation

There is no doubt that the sales of the garment industry will decrease in the first quarter of this year. But what has the clothing industry learned in this epidemic prevention and control war?

In an interview with the China Daily News, Fujian Guangya, a retail expert in the clothing industry, said that the management fees of rents and personnel still exist, which will be a fatal blow to the lower garment brands. Enterprises need enough cash flow to sustain this period. Enterprises with cash flow problems will not recover. Clothing companies dominated by physical stores should adjust production plans and reduce costs.

Min Guangya said: "at the same time, the clothing industry sales channels will become more diverse. Previously, the clothing industry adopted the sales mode dominated by physical stores. The occurrence of the epidemic has made more clothing enterprises devote their energies to expanding sales channels.

Fujian Guangya predicts that after the outbreak, diversified marketing channels such as direct seeding and social marketing of clothing industry will increase. The operation of offline stores and the opening of new stores will be more scientific and reasonable, and will be more cautious. The sales mode will also be transformed to new retail businesses faster.

In addition, Fujian Guangya believes that the clothing brand will improve the service to consumers. The fan economy of Jiangnan Buyi is a typical case in the industry. After the epidemic, more brands will find ways to improve user stickiness.

From the point of view of logistics, when warehousing and logistics personnel are inadequate, consumers begin to worry about logistics. At present, the women's clothing brand express logistics business has realized the integrated management of transportation, express resources, warehousing and distribution services, and has been technically applied in the "professional" logistics.

The Chinese Commercial Daily reporter visited several clothing brand Tmall flagship stores and found that Yin man is one of the few clothing brands that can deliver goods within 48 hours. Fujian Guangya believes that the epidemic will test the fashion brand's logistics mode and efficiency. In the future, the logistics of garment industry will usher in an intelligent and technological upgrading.