Zara Speeds Up Exit And Adjustment

After the three sister brands of Zara announced the closure of stores in China, Zara, as the main force, also accelerated the pace of exit.

Recently, the upstream news reporter learned that Zara's store in Nanping Xiexin Xingguang times has been closed, and its store in Aegean Sea shopping park is also closed. So far, Zara has only three stores in Chongqing.

In recent years, many fast fashion brands, such as new look, Forever 21, Old Navy, ESPRIT, have been defeated in China. On the one hand, the rise of e-commerce provides consumers with more cost-effective fashion choices, and fast fashion is no longer irreplaceable; on the other hand, fast fashion brands from abroad also have their own problems of acclimatization, and the emergence of the epidemic has accelerated the shuffling process of the market.

Zara speeds up exit and adjustment

On January 10, the reporter went to Zara Nanping store, and there was no sign of the store at that time. On January 11, netizens commented on the website that most of the shelves in the store were empty. The reporter learned from the shopping mall that Zara was completely removed from the venue, rather than closing and reloading. On January 20, the reporter went to the store again and saw that the door was surrounded by a fence, and other brands of clothing were put in the glass window.

Soon after the closure of Zara Nanping store, Zara Aegean store also showed a suspension of business. Up to now, Zara has only Beicheng Tianjie store, Vientiane City store and time Tianjie store in Chongqing.

Zara's store closures are not without trace. In June last year, INDITEX group put forward a plan to close 1000-1200 stores in the world in the coming year, mainly for stores with profitability less than 260000 euro, including small stores such as zaraa, Massimo dutti and pull & bear. Shortly after the proposal, the group achieved a net of EUR 866m, but still 26% lower than the same period in 2019. It is clear that closing unprofitable stores will help INDITEX turn a loss into a profit.

Previously, INDITEX group, Zara's parent company, announced the closure of all its Chinese stores of Bershka, pull & Bear and Stradivarius, which is expected to be completed by mid-2021. This move has been significantly accelerated recently. Shortly after the news was released, Bershka and pull & bear, the last companies in Chongqing, carried out warehouse clearance and completely withdrew from Chongqing from January 11. At the same time, Zara began to retreat, as quickly.

Not only Chongqing, but also the three sister brands of Zara have closed stores in Jinan, Zhengzhou, Nanjing and other cities recently. Some Zara stores in these cities are also closed and the overall number has decreased.

Fast fashion style, quality and other short board outstanding

Fast fashion, famous for its fast update and low price, once occupied many young people's wardrobes. However, with the passage of time, fast fashion has been declining, not only becoming less and more "fashionable", but also obvious homogenization between brands, and the disadvantages such as poor quality, low cost performance and inadequate fit are gradually prominent.

"In the past, I would visit many fast fashion brands, such as Bershka, pull & bear, mango and so on. Now I don't read any other brands except occasionally buying Zara. " She said that fast fashion not only failed to keep up with the trend in style, only fast, no "fashion", and the quality was getting worse and worse. "There are many choices to buy clothes online. They are cheap and good-looking. Isn't it fragrant?"

The reporter noted that in the major business circles, the number of fast fashion brands that used to be the main drain is also decreasing, and discount activities are becoming more and more frequent. In addition to Zara, some H & M stores have been temporarily closed for many times, and the discount is strong; gap has not only closed some stores in recent years, but also quietly increased the tag price. And more fast fashion brands, such as a flash in the pan, have disappeared in the vision of consumers.

According to statistics, since 2016, some fast fashion brands have withdrawn from the Chinese market. From 2018 to 2019, well-known foreign fast fashion brands such as new look, Topshop and Forever 21 have withdrawn. By 2020, the scope will be more extensive. Gap's Old Navy and Esprit will announce the complete closure of stores, while Bershka, pull & bear, Stradivarius and H & M will close some stores. In 2021, a number of brands have significantly accelerated the closing speed, ushering in a wave of fast fashion store closures.

It is worth mentioning that while closing offline stores, many brands still retain online stores and regard e-commerce channel as the main battlefield of future operation. For example, INDITEX, Zara's parent company, announced that its young brands would focus on strengthening its e-commerce development.

Who will catch up with fast fashion

The rise of fast fashion is closely related to its closely following fashion trends and fast updating. Nowadays, with the rise of e-commerce, these advantages are no longer prominent. A number of respondents said that they did not feel sorry for the withdrawal trend of fast fashion, and the reason mentioned most was that "online shopping can be replaced".

There are countless choices for clothes with the same price as fast fashion on the e-commerce platform. Many well-known clothing brands, such as taipingniao, Adidas and Li Ning, have also opened up online channels and actively participated in live delivery of goods. Consumers' prices have been greatly reduced and the quality is guaranteed. In this wave of trend, many of the main cost-effective designer brands, Internet red private brands have also come to the fore.

Under the impact of the epidemic, in order to accelerate the recovery of consumption, many consumer festivals were held in offline department stores and shopping centers last year to issue shopping coupons to consumers, which virtually lowered the threshold of offline shopping. In addition, the anniversary, double 11, double 12 and other nodes, offline counter brand does not lose the strength of online activities, also become a good time for many people to purchase.

It is worth mentioning that not all fast fashion brands have fallen into the tide of withdrawal, and UNIQLO has not seen an obvious phenomenon of closing stores. In recent years, UNIQLO is more and more like a basic collection store than a "fast fashion" brand. Especially in terms of quality, UNIQLO has been at the forefront of the industry. The style is simple, most of them are basic, which can be personalized for customers. The launch of a number of black technology material clothing, joint clothing, is out of the characteristics of differentiation, but also for this brand has attracted many fans.

According to the analysis of insiders, the ebb of fast fashion has something to do with the upgrading of domestic consumption and the impact of e-commerce. First, under the background of consumption upgrading trend, consumers have higher requirements on style and quality, while most fast fashion brands have not followed up in time. Second, fast fashion mostly comes from foreign countries. They don't have a deep understanding of domestic consumption trends and domestic consumers. The styles are not practical and the clothes don't fit the body. Third, the phenomenon of homogenization is common in fast fashion, and some head brands are more deeply involved in the storm of plagiarism, which also affects the choice of consumers. Fourth, the e-commerce platform provides more consumers with cost-effective choices. At the same time, consumers are becoming more rational, which also accelerates the industry reshuffle.

Fast fashion needs to accelerate innovation

And highlight the advantages of differentiation

Fast fashion brands rely on "fast pace" to keep up with fashion trends to please consumers. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Once they fail to keep up with the so-called "trend", they will soon be eliminated by the market.

Previously, the closure of Zara's three sister brands in China is very typical. In the minds of many young consumers, these brands are always associated with "average quality", "low price" and "discount goods". Under the background of poor overall performance, it is INDITEX's "timely stop loss" to choose to close these brand stores with poor performance and influence.

Compared with the golden age of fast fashion more than a decade ago, Chinese young consumers are becoming more rational, and their tastes and preferences are more diverse and picky. The rise of local fast fashion brands and the more grounded marketing mode of online Taobao brands have taken a lot of original market share of fast fashion.

Foreign investment fast fashion can only innovate and change constantly, reflect market changes quickly in design, quality, pricing and marketing, and cater to the needs of target customers. At the same time, we also need to find the differentiation advantage to survive in the increasingly fierce competition in the Chinese market.