Large Women'S Wear: A Neglected 10 Billion Dollar Outlet

The popularity of the large size women's wear industry not only intensifies the industry competition, but also makes it more and more difficult for entrepreneurs to make money.

Large women's wear seems to be becoming a dark horse track.

On July 25, 2020, Yang Tiantian opened the first live show with goods in xiaohongshu. On that night, the total transaction volume of Yang Tiantian's first shopping with goods exceeded 7.36 million, and more than 3000 pieces of individual large women's wear were pre sold for the first time.

After the carnival of big girls, the charm of big size women's wear was finally noticed.

According to coresight research, a global retail think tank, by 2020, the size of the US large size clothing market will grow to US $24 billion, with an annual growth rate of about twice the total growth rate of the clothing market. In 2020, the value of China's large size clothing market will be as high as 10.9 billion US dollars.

In the past two years, with the spring breeze of e-commerce and live broadcast, the track of women's wear in large size is rapidly warming up. Taobao alone has more than 600000 stores related to large women's wear. Dongguan, which has been rated as the city of live broadcast of large women's wear, has launched a new 50000 large women's wear in one year.

In addition to Yang Tiantian, there are a group of practitioners who are making money in silence. The users of large size categories are accurate, and the repurchase rate is high. Practitioners have already received a wave of dividends early. Some even say that they can buy houses and cars by selling large women's clothes. There have also been public reports that in 2018, the hourly salary of some large models has reached 2000 yuan, with a monthly salary of 70000-100000 yuan. Even a part-time blogger can earn 1000 or 2000 yuan a month, or even more.

But at the same time, different from the all women's wear market and the average size women's wear market, the large size women's wear market is a race track with categories but no brand. By contrast, it is still a niche, with a customer price of only 150-200 yuan, and the return rate can reach 15% - 25%.

Obviously, it's not a smooth road waiting for women's big sizes.

Spring of "big size"

In fact, before 2016, large women's wear has always been a neglected market in the industry, both at home and abroad.

On the one hand, because the body of fat people is more diverse, people with fat thighs, fat belly and fat shoulders have different clothing needs. Therefore, the design of large size clothes needs more styles and fabrics, and the cost is higher.

On the other hand, the fashion industry believes that oversized clothing will "smear" the brand image. Retailers usually regard large size clothing as a subsidiary business and do not really have a deep understanding of this category.

As a result, the brands that started their business in the big market at that time could be described as "rare".

Guo Qian, who started the large size clothing business in 2013, said that at that time, there were not a few stores specializing in large size clothing. "At that time, the domestic industry was not so subdivided, and even around 2015, among the more than 2 million SKUs of tmall clothing, there were only 30000-50000 large women's dresses."

The neglect of the industry makes it very difficult for large consumers to wear the clothes they like.

"Offline stores are not very friendly to" fat girl "and there are few big stores. Every time I go to the store, I always ask, "do you have my size?" it's very embarrassing Consumer Liu Juan is from a little fat to a big physique, and is a pear shaped figure with a relatively fat lower body. After getting married and pregnant a few years ago, she went further and further on the road of being fat. "It is more difficult to buy clothes of the right size than to win a prize."

It wasn't until 2016 that Forever 21 launched the oversized Sportswear Collection and expanded its business scope from T-shirts to sports underwear to tights.

In the same year, H & M cooperated twice with Ashley Graham, a famous oversize model, in the Paris Fashion Week in March and the promotion shooting of high-end limited edition women's wear in autumn and winter respectively, and launched a special large size clothing product line.

Data from the lancet, a medical journal, also showed that 641 million adults worldwide are obese. China's obese population has surpassed that of the United States, ranking first in the world. 30.1% of Chinese adults are overweight and 11.9% are obese. Analysis from global retail think tanks shows that the annual growth rate of large size clothing is about twice that of the total growth rate of the clothing market.

The long-term gap between consumer demand and supply, coupled with the fact that large size models have stepped onto the T-stage, the women's wear market with large size seems to be recognized by the fashion industry, and finally set off waves in the market.

In particular, in the last two years, Guo Qian has clearly felt that a large number of women's wear entrepreneurs with large sizes have emerged in the industry, including corresponding design, advertising and marketing, large size model agents, large size cultural and creative companies, and large-scale online celebrity incubators.

Liu Juan also felt the change. When she searched for large women's clothing keywords on Taobao, she not only showed more results, but also made the clothing style more beautiful.

In fact, according to CCTV financial report, in 2018, there were more than 10000 Taobao stores with large size women's wear. Among them, more than 10 stores had annual sales of more than 100 million, such as nandaofeng, wujijia and other brands. At that time, large size women's wear had become a 10 billion scale characteristic market, and the market share was steadily increasing by 20% every year.

Through Taobao Search for "large women's wear", we found that there are as many as 600000 stores involved in large women's wear business. On the platforms of Zhihu and Shuo Yin, you can search for relevant information about "large women's clothing entrepreneurship". The following are often comments on how to do the business of large women's wear.

Nowadays, large size women's wear has become a veritable outlet in the field of clothing segmentation.

Get rich with dull voice

Thanks to the help of social media KOL and live broadcasting platform, some girls with low self-esteem began to take a serious look at themselves and get rid of their body anxiety, and even began to enter the industry after seeing the opportunity.

In 2014, after Li Yue, a big girl, registered her account on Weibo, she accidentally found many beautiful big girls on it. In her own words, when she didn't touch the large women's wear, because of her weight of 150 kg, she was always a fat girl with low self-esteem. "I didn't know how to dress up at all. I just began to be a little bit confident after learning how to wear KOLs on Weibo."

After that, Li Yue tried to hang up some of her idle large size clothes on her microblog. She was surprised to find that many fat girls like these clothes. It made her realize that women's wear in large sizes might be a business worth flipping over. As a result, Li Yue quickly registered shop on Taobao platform and started a large clothing business.

Zhang Le, another big girl, said that as a big size crowd, she not only couldn't buy clothes that fit her own, but also often saw that 80% of the big size people on the street didn't fit. Later, after seeing the online KOL people sharing the large size collocation, the idea of entrepreneurship emerged.

Four years ago, despite the opposition of his family, Zhang Le set up a large physical store business in Dalian. Because she is a big size user herself, she knows the needs of big size girls very well. In terms of selection, showing thin clothes is the first goal. "Fat girls have a lot of waist, thick shoulders and big chest girth. The fabric of the clothes should be a little hard, and they should not be close to the body."

Zhang Le didn't let Zhang Le down by choosing large women's wear category decisively.

Large women's wear has its own characteristics. Big girls will be surprised when they see clothes that can really meet their needs in a store, thus forming a high degree of loyalty to the brand. Therefore, large women's clothing stores have the advantages that ordinary clothing stores don't have - location is not particularly important, and they don't have to open in the business circle with dense crowds.

Zhang Le revealed that she rented a 40 square house in a not prosperous area in Dalian. As long as the customers are well maintained in the early stage, she can quickly develop into a fixed customer group. In the past four years, the clothing store, which is not in a good position, can bring her nearly 10000 yuan of income every month.

She said that because she has been running the shop with great care, new customers have become regular customers. She often matches the clothes, published friends will be robbed, "every day a lot of city customers come to me, relying on large women's wear also made some money, bought a house and car." Today, Zhang Le has opened three large women's clothing stores, and the business is booming.

Not only are the online and offline blooming everywhere, but also the large women's wear industry is rapidly warming up online, and a large number of practitioners are also starting to make a fortune.

Big girls tend to have a stronger demand for live broadcasting than the average person. Because of their special body shape, they need to know what clothes look like on large models, and intuitively know whether the clothes are suitable for them. As a result, 90% of large women's clothing businesses on Taobao are doing live broadcasting.

"Large size category users are accurate, the repurchase rate is high, and the live broadcast market prospect is very considerable." Guo Qian said that because she entered the industry early, she also got a wave of dividends early.

Guo Qian said that because of her figure, girls with large sizes tend to show a more sensitive and less confident side and pay more attention to the effect of thin clothes on the upper body. In 2015, after the emergence of big size anchors in the market, Guo Qian also saw opportunities in the industry.

She believes that big size anchors can not only show the effect of clothes on the upper body through live broadcast, but also easily establish a sense of intimacy with consumers and make friends with them, so as to better serve users.

As a result, Guo Qian tried to be a big size anchor herself, selling large size women's clothes in the studio. "Maybe we have similar experiences, but it is easy to arouse emotional resonance among the minority groups. After buying our clothes, they all called me" treasure shop. "

Guo Qian revealed that her monthly online income has reached 130000 yuan, sometimes even 200000 yuan. Last year, she closed her offline store and focused on online.

It's not just entrepreneurs who get the bonus. As early as 2018, there were media reports that large models with a height of 1.7 meters and a weight of 170 Jin were paid 2000 yuan an hour and 70000 to 100000 yuan a month. "Even ordinary models earn more than 10000 yuan a month."

Some part-time women's wear bloggers can also have a good income.

Wang Fan, a media person who has been paying close attention to the development of large size women's wear market, disclosed that he has some friends who work as part-time bloggers in xiaohongshu. They usually share some big size clothes, and they can earn one or two thousand yuan a month by receiving advertisements. "If bloggers have good resources, they can make more if they are diligent in receiving advertisements."

Facts have proved that sometimes not perfect figure, may also become the source of the next super tuyere.

Category without brand

However, it is undeniable that the popularity of the large size women's wear industry not only intensifies the industry competition, but also makes it more and more difficult for entrepreneurs to make money.

It was already 10:00 p.m. when Guo Qian was interviewed, she just took a day's video in the company and matched the clothes to be displayed in the next live broadcast.

Guo Qian revealed that it is becoming more and more difficult to do e-commerce. Before, online business as long as a good photo, when customer service to respond to customer questions. But now not only do we have to take pictures, take videos and take tremors, but we also need to live in front of the camera in the best state for a long time.

It's not easy to do a good job in live broadcasting. Guo Qian still remembers the embarrassment of her first live broadcast. "If you really want to start the live broadcast, you can know the difficulty. For example, when you introduce a dress in front of the camera, I can say that two minutes is a wonderful thing. I'm short of words."

Moreover, fans will have a long time to inspect the anchor at the beginning. If the other party is not satisfied with the style of the clothes, the anchor doesn't wear it well, or the host doesn't have enough affinity, it may not sell out for a long time.

When the anchor is familiar with the audience, the daily work still needs to be carefully maintained.

The most obvious change is that Guo Qian used to sell clothes, as long as the size of clothes is appropriate, consumers can often have a purchase. But now, the styles of large women's wear are more and more diverse, and users begin to be picky. They have to wear thinner and have more novel styles to buy.

"The anchor of our shop has to get up early every day, make-up, select products, shoot daily video drainage, and often live for 5 or 6 hours at night." Guo Qian said, "almost continuous rotation, just fell asleep will get up."

Because the live broadcast is too time-consuming, and the body can't bear to eat, Guo Qian's shop's live broadcasting matters are all handed over to the hired big anchor, "although I don't need to live, I have to keep an eye on the selection every time."

Chasing hot money online is always extra lively, and offline physical store operation is not so simple.

When the reporter contacted Li Yue, it was more than 8 o'clock in the evening, but Li Yue's shop was still busy.

Li Yue revealed that it took a lot of time for Taobao to operate. Later, because she was pregnant, she couldn't manage the online Taobao store. Last year, when Li Yue was back online, he found that traffic competition was already very fierce. As a result, she chose to sell large women's clothes offline.

"In fact, there is no such thing as making a lot of money out of silence." For the large women's wear industry, Li Yue said that the industry is to earn hard money as much as you pay.

Zhang Le also said that it is really not easy to open an offline store. Offline stores are generally small business, in order to avoid the risk of pressure goods, as far as possible to reduce the loss, all the clothes in the shop are bought back from the wholesale market by Zhang Le. Each model dare not purchase more, after the style is sold well, go to the market to replenish.

"Generally, we have to buy goods at least twice a week. We have to go to the market to pick up the goods at 7 a.m. when we buy goods, we have to find 10000-20000 yuan worth of goods from several shops in the market with people coming and going. After we come back, we have to match and arrange them to meet our guests." Zhang Le said that this is not only a hard work, but also a test of the ability to select products.

In the purchase, the owner must also be very familiar with the market, understand and compare the prices of wholesalers in various markets. Because clothing wholesale "fleeing goods" situation is very many, often in one market 30 yuan goods, in another market 20 yuan can get.

The beautiful 10 billion women's wear track is not as easy as expected. Not only that, the large size women's clothing industry is also facing the problem of no head enterprises, consumers have not formed the inherent brand impression.

"Women's wear in large sizes has always been a state of" category without brand. " Wang Fan said that large size women's wear is only one of the vertical categories in the women's wear industry. Unlike the whole women's wear market and the women's uniform size market, it can only be regarded as a small number, and the unit price per customer is not high.

It is understood that the customer unit price of online large women's clothing shops is generally 150-200 yuan, and the return rate is generally not low. Some people in the industry said that because users can only buy large sizes online, although there are anchor wearing demonstration, but the height and weight are different, and the upper body effect is also different. As a result, it is not suitable to wear when you buy it back, and the return rate has been high, even reaching 15% - 25%.

Professional precipitation in the field of clothing, from fabric procurement, pattern design, to product testing and even after-sales disputes, every link of the supply chain needs to be polished carefully.

In other words, although large women's wear is a wind outlet, entrepreneurs still need to bravely "pass customs".