Well Known Global Brands, Fast Fashion Brands Have Retreated One After Another. Who Is The Next Baton

Most people may not know the exact definition of the word "fast fashion", but when it comes to it, they can always come up with the logo of several big clothing brands: H & M, Zara or gap, sometimes including UNIQLO 。

This is, of course, right. Relying on the ability to quickly copy the latest high-end fashion design, over the past 30 years, the fast fashion giants represented by the above brands have always been able to supply fashionable elements to young people around the world in batches and rapidly. In the process, they have easily completed the capital accumulation and realized the global expansion.

In the global retail industry, the contribution of fast fashion is very important. Statistics show that in 2020, the global market output value will reach US $25.1 billion, and will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21.9%. By 2030, the output value will reach US $192 billion.

The other side of the beast is weak.

In recent years, 1.4 billion supermarkets have been seen to be shrinking in China.

Last month, the focus of the industry was the closure of H & M's first store in China; This month, three brands, Bershka, pull & Bear and Stradivarius, were closed at the end of the month.

The new retail business review also observed that dozens of gap stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong, Jiangsu and other provinces and cities are closing their stores and clearing their warehouses recently. Most of them will not renew their contracts due to the expiration of the lease.

When the old things leave, according to the conventional story logic, new things should be on the way. Unfortunately, the market is forming a hollow area.

In particular, more and more female consumers are aware that it is normal that the price is not directly proportional to the quality in hundreds of thousands of women's clothing stores; Turning to Taotao, they are faced with extra anxiety such as wrong goods, long pre-sale period and so on. The popularity of brands such as BM and ur can not get rid of the criticism of creating female body anxiety.

The withdrawal of large-scale fast fashion brands has not only brought confusion at the level of consumers, but also brought contradictions everywhere.

At the moment of the epidemic, commercial real estate people struggling to survive are also losing their stable investment promotion pillar. The golden shop occupied by fast fashion in the past has been scrambled by new brands when new consumption is hot. However, how to choose when the new consumption bubble is dispersed is a difficult proposition.

Unfortunately, after fast fashion retreated, no one was able to fight.

Fast fashion embarrassment

On the northwest side of the intersection of Sanlitun road and gonggonggongstadium North Road stands taiguli, a famous commercial district in China. It is a gathering center for young people and fashion trendsetters.

The South District of taiguli is prosperous. From the west to the East, H & M, Adidas and UNIQLO have occupied the three most golden shops in its periphery, and they have become the landmark existence respectively.

At present, UNIQLO is moving to taiguli West District, which has been renovated and upgraded to become the first global flagship store in Beijing. Adidas also wants to upgrade to build an Asian flagship store. Instead, H & M, which has been passed on for many years, has become the same one.

Consumer patience seems to be peaking. "When will h & M leave? It doesn't deserve to be in that position." "Its COS is better than it is now." On social media, some netizens complained.

As H & M's 200th store in China, it was once regarded as a milestone of the group's development in the Chinese market. When it opened at the end of May 2014, Wu Mochou, a popular singer, was invited to the scene. It's not a decade to be abandoned.

The Swedish fashion brand, founded in 1947, chose to enter the Asian market only after entering the 21st century. In 2007, it opened its first store in China at 651 Huaihai middle road in Shanghai. Last month, the store announced its official withdrawal and closure, which is regarded as a milestone in its decline.

H & M is, of course, a microcosm of an industry. Recently, Bershka, pull & Bear and Stradivarius, three brands of INDITEX group, Zara's parent company, have said goodbye at the same time and will stop operations in China in July.

It is generally believed that, The decadence of fast fashion is mainly attributed to the rise of e-commerce and the change of consumer psychology.

On the one hand, the development of online shopping makes it difficult for people to go offline, while e-commerce platforms can provide more high-quality and inexpensive clothing accessories, and fast fashion is no longer a must; On the other hand, from the post-90s to today's generation 00, young people are increasingly pursuing quality and personalized needs. Fast fashion seems no longer "sexy".

Naturally, each of them also has its own problems. For example, H & M involved in the "Xinjiang cotton" incident triggered a wave of consumer resistance, and Zara parent company repositioned its product line in order to transform.

Thus, back to the golden shop in taiguli, Sanlitun:

When consumers take the initiative to "abandon" or even think about Sanlitun's ideas and go directly to H & M, it is a matter of right and wrong about tonality.

In recent years, the core proposition of commercial real estate is transformation. In Sanlitun, how is it high-end.

According to taiguli's official statement, the goal here is to become a "luxury global flagship store cluster". After UNIQLO was transferred to the Western District, its original site, the facade building in this area, was taken over by gentle monster. A high-end fashion glasses brand from South Korea, it has a flagship store of over 3000 square meters in Huaihai Middle Road, Shanghai.

Interestingly, during the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Anta advertising contracted the exterior wall of the building, and even invited the spokesperson Gu ailing to appear on the platform, which also caused speculation, or Anta took it with a big hand. But people with different views firmly believe that Anta is not qualified

Old school and low-end, the shackles that brands fear most.

Commercial real estate is helpless

Not every piece of land has a good life in Sanlitun, Beijing.

"Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen may not be suitable, but in other cities, H & M and Zara are all the shopping malls want very much." Wang Han (pseudonym) told the new retail business review that she worked in a commercial real estate investment promotion department in Xi'an. At the moment of the epidemic, cooperation is difficult to talk about, and her recent work is to frequently visit intention brands.

Wang Han added that for general commercial real estate, large fast fashion brands are "the most able to bring passenger flow", but revenue is not the primary consideration. According to her understanding, last year, Xi'an city on negotiated a big deal, which was to sign a 16-year contract with Zara, and the rent remained unchanged during the contract period.

Usually, The brands in the shopping malls are divided into two categories Flow type Fast fashion and catering are the two most typical categories, which play the role of gathering popularity; One is for Rent type As the name suggests, it is a "big business" contributing revenue to shopping malls, focusing on cosmetics and brand women's wear, and is also a category recognized by the outside world as having a high premium.

Most of the contracts between brands and shopping malls are signed for three years. In order to guarantee performance or provide certain incentives, the former will face a certain elimination system within the contract period, that is, if it fails to meet the turnover expectation, it will be "dismissed" by the shopping malls.

Fast fashion obviously doesn't have to worry about this.

A commercial real estate site selection consultant told the new retail business review that for shopping centers, fast fashion brands such as Zara and H & m usually occupy the golden shops, i.e. the first floor of the shopping mall, which is also the place where the market tone can be most determined. Therefore, investment promotion will tend to be the first-line luxury or light luxury brands. Although the price of fast fashion is relatively low, because it is a large multinational group brand, it still meets the demand of "keeping tune".

There is no doubt that the surge of fast fashion store withdrawal is due to its own performance pressure and strategic positioning.

But after the withdrawal of the tide, fast fashion left the market with an urgent problem: who will digest these gold shops?

Strictly speaking, in a commercial real estate, fast fashion as the representative brand is the main store type, and Sephora and other brands have the same positioning. Nowadays, due to the decline of global performance and the demand of transformation, fast fashion is retreating in large quantities. Sephora people are also suffering from this, and the number of stores is reduced and it is difficult to add new ones, Facing a thorny problem at the industry level: investment promotion.

What kind of business are you looking for?

Wang Han's latest worry is to screen new consumer brands. In terms of volume and popularity, the shopping center she serves is among the forefront in Xi'an. With the saturation of the market in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the expansion and spillover of new consumer brands have been able to undertake many new brands in the head For this shopping mall, I would like to talk about the "first store".

"Regional stores or city stores." She hastened to add.

More than one person in the industry told the new retail business review that the discourse power of shopping malls only exists in the core business districts of first tier cities, because the renewal iteration is fast, and there is no shortage of new brand opening stores.

It takes two or three years to get a shop in Taigu, such as Beijing. Even so, brands sometimes have to queue up to get in.

The site selection consultant explained that in addition to offline sales, the greater demand of the first store is advertising effect, so it is more inclined to settle in the head commercial real estate. For example, many sub brands of mingchuangyupin have chosen Zhengjia Plaza in Guangzhou. According to their understanding, top toy has only 450 square meters of shop space, and the annual rent can reach one million, but correspondingly, the turnover is far higher than expected.

What's more, after many new brands have gained popularity in the first tier cities, they can take a good position at relatively lower prices in the second and third tier cities.

Obviously, the general commercial real estate is not as good as taiguli and Zhengjia square in Sanlitun. At present, they are caught in the embarrassment of "introducing new brands" and "new brands are difficult to do".

Wang Han explained that in the past, shopping malls really liked new brands, such as online coffee and beauty collection shops, but gradually found that the online popularity effect of such stores was only one or two years, and the ability to attract customers quickly dissipated. They had to find a way to get rid of them and find brands to take over, so as to prevent the vacancy rate from rising.

During the field visit of the new retail business review, it was found that even in shopping malls of the same level as Xidan Joy City in Beijing, there were also cases in which the world color left in a hurry after one year of opening.

Compared with well-known commercial real estate, which still emphasizes "tonality", for most investment managers, the current indicator has already changed to "stable". In many cities, the rental rate of shopping malls and shops has been required to maintain at 85%.

　　 Taking in new ideas and transformation is the game of adventurers, while keeping business is the basic dish of reality.

Consumer confusion

In Beijing, two gap stores, including Zhongguancun lingzhan shopping center and Xinao shopping center, are focusing on discounts and clearance recently. New retail business review visited Xinao store on the weekend. A clerk explained that because the lease term expired in August, the store would be directly withdrawn, and the same was true for lingzhan store.

In spring, summer, autumn and winter, clothes are piled up in the store, and most of them are sold at a discount of 3-5%. Customers are always curious to come in and ask, and they quickly join in the battle of buying and buying when they hear the news. A woman dragged a man beside her, constantly comparing the autumn sweater and winter down jacket, obviously trying to "buy enough" for her partner at one time.

Due to the influence of multiple factors such as strategic mistakes, outdated design, etc., gap has fallen into a cloud of shop closures all over the world in recent years, especially in the Chinese market.

But there are always sad people.

"Can you imagine, I am in gap shop M size pants casually pick, the general domestic women's clothing shop XL can not wear it?" Consumers can't help complaining before they make money. She is over 160 and weighs 60 kg.

Men have fewer choices. "UNIQLO, or... Hailan home?" When it comes to how to buy clothes, a male friend hesitated to answer, as if touching his blind spot of knowledge.

When consumers withdraw from the fashion and social networking platforms, where can they go to buy clothes in China?

Although it has been criticized that the design is outdated and the quality is poor, fast fashion has solved a large number of people's demand for clothes with more daily, more simple and lower budget in the past decade or so. In other words, fast fashion provides a universal choice for ordinary consumers.

"The baton can't be handed in," said the consultant

In his opinion, fast fashion has been a representative of cost performance, "if they can't work, others will not.". In domestic low-cost clothing trend brands, "in the past two years, Xiyu has basically disappeared, and hot wind has begun to close stores.".

For those domestic women's wear brands which lie on the second floor of the shopping mall, dissatisfaction is one after another. Women's clothing stores, as "eating flow" rather than "attracting customers", are the major contributors to the rent, and the premium is serious. However, the pricing, design and quality are not directly proportional.

"The bubble sleeves and floral dresses in summer are copied from each other. The material is the most common polyester fiber. How dare you sell hundreds or thousands of yuan?" As an ordinary consumer, money can't understand.

In fact, in the past two or three years, women's clothing stores on the second and third floors are indeed one of the most affected formats.

According to the site consultant, At present, people's consumption behavior shows a trend of polarization, that is, either buy luxury brands or buy online at low prices. For example, few women's clothing brands like only are willing to spend 1000 yuan on a skirt.

However, not all ordinary consumers like to buy clothes online.

In particular, some time ago, more and more e-commerce sellers rely heavily on the pre-sale mode in order to reduce costs. What's more, consumers can only receive goods after two months. This has become a persistent problem in the industry, not to mention the natural weaknesses of online shopping, such as wrong version of goods and difficult quality discrimination.

At the same time, women's clothing industry is also emerging a new style, namely the popularity of BM, ur and other brands.

Take ur as an example. This local fast fashion brand from Guangzhou was established in 2006. In the past two years, with the development of new consumption and new domestic products, it is facing double speed expansion. On social media, where female users are concentrated, posts about growing grass and exploring shops are constantly popping up.

even_uniqlo_ , _which_has_always_been_minimalist_and_comfortable_ , _has_been_greatly_affected_by_the_trend_ ._ In recent two years, part of women's clothing design is becoming more and more "BM" (brandy melaville, Italy's fast fashion brand, only sells size s).

Its "body" is always accompanied by the risk of social neglect. The brand constantly caters to the "white, thin and young" aesthetic, changes the size of clothes to small, and sets up dressing barriers. Who can deny that there is no risk of backfire.

The freedom of wearing clothes for ordinary people is obviously the big market demand.

Conclusion

According to the relevant report of forward looking Industry Research Institute, it is estimated that the retail income of China's clothing industry will exceed 4 trillion yuan by 2023. Among them, consumers prefer fashion clothing, and the overall growth rate of fast fashion is significantly higher than that of the whole industry. It is expected to maintain a sustained growth rate of 17.6% from 2018 to 2023.

　　 The known transformation direction of large-scale fast fashion brands focuses on incubating and expanding medium and high-end new brands.

Among them, H & M has successively promoted its three high-end brands, cos, arket and & other stories, into the Chinese market. In addition to pushing high-end brands such as Massimo dutti, Zara's parent company also tries to set foot in cosmetics and other retail formats.

Most of the domestic top revenue women's clothing brands do high-end lines, such as Desu fashion. Dazzle and d'zzit are common on the first floor of shopping centers, not popular products.

In any case, fast fashion can not stop the market demand and potential, there are always new players want to share the game. In the limited hollow area, consumers are waiting for a new brand whose price, quality and design complement each other.

Of course, for commercial real estate people, they are looking forward to the "stable and reliable" new brands like fast fashion, which is the direction of new consumption efforts.