During The Epidemic Cycle, The Brand Cannot Deliver The Goods In Time. "Where Should Spring Clothes Go?"

"In early March, I bought two sets of spring clothes, but because of the epidemic situation, the brand did not deliver the goods in time. The epidemic period is too long, now the weather is gradually hot, and I have returned the spring clothes that have not been delivered." Mr. Xiong, a consumer, said of brand number reading.

Since March, online return orders of clothing brands have been increasing, which makes garment enterprises trapped in the downturn in spring clothing sales into a greater dilemma.

The stagnant logistics in many places, the closed shopping centers and the far-reaching turning point of the epidemic situation have become the heavy straw on the clothing enterprises. However, the impact is still growing.

On March 23, a research report on the impact of retail chain enterprises in Shenzhen during the one week suspension of the epidemic (March 14-20) was released. According to the data, more than 30% of the surveyed enterprises in Shenzhen lost more than 10 million yuan in revenue, and the highest loss was more than 100 million yuan. Among the nearly 100 enterprises surveyed, the average number of stores closed was 86.6.

As for Shanghai, China's economic center, according to the official data of Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, Shanghai has reported more than 10000 new infections for more than 10 days, and the epidemic is still at a high level.

Now, the time has come to the middle of April, and the first quarter of 2022 is over. The impact of the epidemic directly led to the failure of the first quarter planning of countless clothing enterprises, the sharp weakening of user stickiness, and a large number of goods became off-season products and unsalable products.

In the face of the current situation of the industry, a senior industry expert told the brand digital reading (ID: winlive 2019): "the epidemic is accelerating the clothing industry to go out of a new development trend, and a new retail era is coming."

Looking back at the beginning of the new year, when a number of clothing brands were full of hope to plan new products in spring and summer of 2022, no one expected that the first quarter of this year would suffer from such a serious epidemic.

The outbreak of the epidemic directly led to the closure of major shopping centers, the suspension of retail business under multi ground lines, and even the stagnation of logistics transportation in many places.

Under all kinds of heavy blows, clothing enterprises are in great trouble. At present, more than 40% of the direct stores in yifuli's stores and stores in this area accounted for more than 40% of the total number of Direct stores.

Faced with the current epidemic situation which is still full of uncertainty, Dong Jun, vice president of everie group and general manager of business development department, told brand digital reading (ID: winlive 2019) that the impact of the epidemic on the offline stores of Evely will extend to at least may, that is to say, half of the time this year will be wasted.

Offline closures and poor logistics directly lead to the accumulation of a large number of unsalable inventory and off-season goods of most clothing brands in this spring season.

In addition, the hoarding of unsalable goods is not the first time that it has occurred on a large scale. According to ID: winlive 2019, the clothing sales of most brands in the third and fourth quarters of last autumn and winter were generally not up to the standard due to the epidemic at that time, and there was already a huge stock.

Under this kind of phenomenon, many brands fall into the backwardness crisis. This inventory crisis is likely to further crush some already overburdened brands.

In addition, the number of brands read that the new product plans of most brands are significantly reduced. A senior industry personage disclosed to the brand digital reading: "because most brand new product plans are reduced, the number of brand orders is greatly reduced. This problem will lead to many factories' unsustainable, and the side effects are more serious."

In addition, according to the survey of brand digital reading, there are more phenomena in the clothing industry under the influence of the epidemic.

For most brands, most of them hold brand ordering meetings in March and April, and release brand new samples to the company's customers before the arrival of the next quarter, so as to determine the production volume through the order quantity. When the actual delivery date of the goods is approaching, the company will deliver the goods to the customers who have ordered them.

At present, the two practical problems faced by enterprises are that it is difficult to hold the order meeting of most brands. One is that customers cannot arrive at the scene; the other is that it is difficult to collect all the sample clothes of the brand.

The difficulty of holding the order meeting will also affect and produce another industry phenomenon, that is, the e-commerce direct selling self-help of major factories. Because of the reduction of brand orders, factories and supply chains need to save themselves to survive. The most direct way to save themselves is direct selling by factories.

In the same way as in 2020, there are a number of direct broadcast rooms for clothing factories on the shaking sound live broadcasting platform, which can guarantee the quality of clothes and at the same time give them more favorable prices.

However, this phenomenon will make the price of goods more transparent and the space of brand premium will be further narrowed. In this case, it will also force enterprises to further reduce costs and control internal management costs, which may also lay the groundwork for a series of chain reactions.

Facing the hoarding of large quantities of unsalable goods, clothing enterprises have launched self-help. A wave of price reduction and preferential treatment war started first.

MUJI launched the activity of "saving the shortage of spring clothes and buying comfortable spring clothes at preferential prices", which covers a series of clothing categories of men and women's styles, such as shirts, coats, sanitary clothes, pajamas and trousers.

Woodpecker launched the "spring outing season special discount second price cut", selling short sleeves and shirts at the Ginza store in Guangrao for five days.

However, such blindly reduced prices are not applicable to all clothing enterprises. In this regard, the brand digital reading reporter learned that many brand enterprises' countermeasures are "off-season sales" and "secondary sales".

For example, some brands will be put on sale in the spring. There will also be brands that will be out of season old style, after adding new design elements, for secondary sale.

Under the influence of the epidemic situation, many clothing enterprises are now operating difficultly. However, it is undeniable that from the perspective of the industry, the clothing industry is moving towards a new turning point of development.

On the one hand, it is urgent for traditional clothing enterprises to be online. In the face of the severe epidemic, the contrast between different online clothing brands is very distinct.

After the outbreak of the epidemic, companies mainly engaged in offline development were faced with various anti epidemic measures to close down their stores, which obviously had no power to parry and save themselves; In the face of the crisis, a group of offline companies combined with private domain traffic timely launched customer operation measures, CRM customer relationship management system and continued to activate private domain traffic group.

However, the enterprises that have a high proportion of non entity penetration rate of e-commerce sales in combination with off-line private domain have relatively low negative impact.

In the face of the current crisis in the clothing industry, Ms. Peng Feili, founder of Feili shangxue, interpreted the brand number reading: "the epidemic is accelerating the clothing industry to go out of a new development trend, and each clothing brand should be aware of the coming of a new retail era."

First of all, shopping centers and department stores are generally short of customers, but the rent is still expensive, which leads to the increasing cost of physical customers for brand stores. This phenomenon forced enterprises to deeply realize the importance of the combination of online and offline, and inspired more enterprises to embark on the road of optimization and iteration. Combining online and offline alternation to win customers has become the ability that clothing brands must have and improve.

Wang Rongze, the manager of Boni Boni men's plastic clothing brand, is also thinking about how to better carry out online service experience of high-end men's wear. Wang Rongze said that in the past few years, bunny did not pay special attention to the e-commerce field. However, a series of adjustments will be made to make good use of the e-commerce platform similar to tremolo, which can be based on the local service interest e-commerce platform, better reach and service with users, transmit brand culture and concept, and improve business efficiency.

Secondly, under the influence of the epidemic situation, clothing enterprises have to pay more attention to the change of consumer attitudes.

"After this epidemic, I think consumers will be more rational and it will be very difficult to have large-scale retaliatory consumption," Ms. Peng said. According to this, brand digital read interviewed several consumers. When it comes to the demand for clothing, most consumers think that they will pay more attention to the practicability and versatility of clothing in the future.

"The design of a piece of clothing can enhance my desire to buy, but its quality is the biggest factor in enhancing my buy back rate," Mr. Xiong, a consumer, told the brand

Consumers, Ms. He, said that affected by the long-term isolation of the epidemic, they will pay more attention to the categories of household clothing in the future. In addition, high quality and strong practicality will be the key factors for her to make purchase decisions in the future.

Ms. Peng Feili believes that when the concept and attitude of consumers change, it is also the time for clothing practitioners to think and change. Mining the new needs of loyal customers is a reform measure that must be carried out by the clothing enterprises.

For example, at present, most consumers do not have a large demand for business wear, so can enterprises focus more on exquisite leisure products?

People can't travel far away now. Does that mean that clothes for three kilometers around will become a popular category in the future?

More and more people at home will not be able to adapt to the epidemic situation for a long time?

After all, clothing, food, housing and transportation are always the consumers can not abandon, but a new era of retail is taking shape, and it is inevitable that the structure and development trend of the clothing industry will change.

"After the epidemic, there will be a round of reshuffle in the industry. But in the long run, it may not be a good thing," Ms. Peng said. "To be a brand, we must calm down, think about its essence, think about the real needs of the customer group, and think about what the brand really wants to do. This is the final key."