Why Designer Brand By Far Plans To Open Stores In China

According to a source, following the opening of the world's first offline flagship store in Los Angeles, the Bulgarian designer brand by far plans to open its first store in Shanghai in September this year, and plans to move to Beijing, New York, Miami and other cities in the future.

　　 By far's popularity

If you count the shoes or bags brands that are most frequently exposed in the global female star street shooting in the past year or two, by far must be on the list.

The Bulgarian niche brand was founded in 2016 by three young Bulgarian female designers Valentina bezuhanova, Sabina gyosheva and denissa bumbarova. Its star pieces, underarm bags and Muller shoes, have been in circulation in the past two years and frequently appear in Street Photos.

Inspired by the fashion of the 1990s, by far is deeply influenced by TV dramas such as sex and the city, friends and so on, and advocates the interpretation of nostalgic fashion from a modern perspective.

At first, the brand only sold shoes and shoes, and the more classic products include Sofia, Tanya, etc.

It was only after the success in word-of-mouth and sales of shoes such as Sofia that the bumbarova sisters decided to continue to dig deep into the style of the 1990s as they expanded their product line to bags. The first bag under the name of "lady's bag" was named after Rachel.

Deeply rooted in the fashion style of the 1990s, and constantly tapping the potential of each classic product through color matching development and detail redesign, by far has found a differentiated positioning in the accessories market, and successfully made consumers pay attention to and remember it.

The product pricing strategy of the brand also focuses on differentiation. The bumbarova sisters chose between $200 and $500, the price gap in the European and American shoe market, which brought the product pricing.

Such pricing can match the purchasing power of young consumers who pursue personalized design rather than fast fashion products. At the same time, to a certain extent, the brand can also strengthen the positioning of its independent designer brand through such pricing, and establish a sense of high-level.

　　 Besides good design and good price, another factor that makes by far popular is "social network". By far is a typical brand popular through social marketing, among which instagram can be said to be one of the most important marketing positions of by far.

On its own instagram account, in addition to shooting hard photos of retro style brands, by far also better conveys to consumers the connection between the brand and classic dramas such as friends, sex and the city, and the concepts of environmental protection and women's rights. By far wants to create a vanguard, advanced image without a sense of distance, so that smart fans have more motivation and reason to pay attention.

"Word of mouth marketing" of fashion KOLs is a more important way to reveal. After all, it is a long-term job to create a brand through active communication concept, but if the product can become a hit, brand building will achieve immediate results.

Through the deduction of different styles of KOL, it is enough to attract the eyes of the most cutting-edge fashion lovers, so as to win the second wave or even more waves of word-of-mouth marketing formed by wearing pictures for the single product and the brand behind.

Of course, it was not until Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid's Street Photos of "the red sister flower" that there were by far's pieces in the street photos, and by far did not really start to "circle". If by far had been just an "outcast" for fashion insiders before, it had become a name on the shopping wish list of young women around the world after being carried out several times by Kendall and Bella.

It is worth mentioning that although only a small number of Chinese consumers use instagram, fashion bloggers active in social networks often "carry" the information on instagram to platforms such as microblogs and little red books. Therefore, even if the brand focuses on the marketing promotion of instagram, it can also radiate its influence to the Chinese market more or less.

Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and other Hollywood stars can attract Chinese consumers' attention and follow the same communication principle. That's why, as soon as by far had a small reputation in the European and American markets, there were already a number of its supporters in the Chinese market.

A small number of bags come to China

Before by far has entered the Chinese market, Chinese consumers can only purchase by far's products through overseas e-commerce platforms such as shoppop and farfetch, as well as by far's domestic buyers' shops.

In the face of the enthusiasm of Chinese consumers and the strong demand of the market, by far, which has always focused on digital marketing, can smell the huge business opportunities in the Chinese market faster than other foreign niche brands. In 2018, it entered the Chinese market with a high profile through Lane Crawford.

Although by's strong desire to buy luxury goods in China's middle class, it's also an important factor to weaken the desire of the majority of the middle class to buy luxury goods fast.

Since 2020, by far has successively opened Jingdong's official authorized flagship stores, wechat stores and tmall flagship stores, which have gained positive market response when they opened. The brand also announced Zhou Yangqing, China's online star, as the brand's spokesperson, reflecting by far's amazing local smell in the Chinese market.

　　 By far's sales are still doubling in 2020, with 30% of its business coming from the Chinese market. The plan to open the world's second physical store in Shanghai in September this year undoubtedly reflects by far's great confidence in the Chinese market.

The success of by far also shows that in China, the sale of bags with niche brands has become a big business, and young consumers are the main force in this wave.

In March last year, when manu atelier announced its access to the Alibaba platform through the net-a-porter flagship store, it disclosed the sales performance of the brand in China: in 2020, the sales share of the Chinese market increased by 70%, and surpassed the United States to become the largest wholesale market in the first quarter of 2021.

Apede mod, an American handbag accessory brand, opened its first store in China in May last year at iapm mall of Shanghai World Trade Center to sell the brand's new products in the current season. Apede mod was founded by Claudia Lin in Soho, New York, USA. in the past, it was mainly sold in high-end department stores and buyer's shops such as shoptop, Lane Crawford and foyer. ??

This is also the first small number of handbag brands dare to try their own physical retail. This apede mod independent shop marks a brand-new 2.0 stage for the online red handbag brand in the Chinese market. The industry was surprised by the promotion of the brand in physical retail, and it was also surprising that its first store could be located in Shanghai iapm.

Apede mod's step may be due to the strong sense of crisis of popular design brands. On the one hand, the brand iteration speed is faster and faster, and the preferences of the younger generation are also rapidly updated. If the brand does not have distinctive features and characteristics, it is easy to be quickly abandoned by consumers.

Therefore, the brand will also consider that in addition to the previous social platform, e-commerce DTC and buyer's shop channel, the concept store can better form stronger contact with users, transmit a more complete brand image and establish stronger user stickiness.

However, with the continued popularity of niche bags, China's local niche bag brands are also rising, such as offnen, which focuses on contemporary thinking, and many new niche design accessories brands with a price of 1000 yuan on Taobao. However, how to walk among the hungry capital, make social media marketing with style, and learn from the growth path of successful brands is an important issue to improve the brand image.

The success of new niche brands such as by far and apede mod emphasizes the eternal core of fashion business, which is "style iteration". If a brand can establish a new style, it is equivalent to having the best competitive advantage.

If a small number of brands want to survive in the cracks, they should be familiar with the dual needs of consumers for versatile basic styles and identity differences. For China's fashion market, the ubiquity of well-known brands and the growing fatigue of mainstream aesthetics have opened the door for the dissemination of this new fashion information, This shows that the differentiation and personalization of the psychological needs of Chinese consumers are becoming more and more mature.

For brands, whether it is to open online or offline physical stores, it is still necessary to maintain a sense of authenticity and crowd identity. Whether it's niche brands or other brands, the chance for these brands to stay in the battlefield is to break away from the identity of online celebrities and seek long-term value.