Discount, Clearance, Closing, Withdrawal, Fast Fashion In China Can Not Run?

Discounting, clearing, closing stores, evacuate... The fast fashion brand, once popular, is undergoing a big shuffle. It is undeniable that the fast fashion industry is facing the dilemma of continuously reducing the offline channels and declining performance in recent years. What happened to fast fashion?

　　 Once full of scenery.

Although today's fast fashion brands have their own pain points, they still have a lot of scenery when they first enter the Chinese market. According to media reports, in 2006, ZARA entered China for the first time. The day of its opening in Nanjing West Road, Shanghai, fanatical fans lined up 200 meters long. This incident has also been seen as the starting point for fast fashion in the Chinese market. In the short term, ZARA, H&M, UNIQLO, GAP, C&A, Forever 21 and other fast fashion brands are developing rapidly in China's second tier cities.

In the eyes of the industry, the five year is a cycle of fast fashion development. When the time axis entered the 2011, the fast fashion brand represented by ZARA entered the stage of rapid expansion in the Chinese market. At that time, the expansion speed of the fast fashion brand was maintained at about 60% to 70% a year, and H&M even opened a new store on average four days.

First class design, second class quality, three price, like fast food, fast fashion clothing once triggered young people's pursuit. Many consumers told the China Commercial Daily reporter that when shopping, ZARA, H&M and other brands were bound to go.

In fact, fast fashion, as the name implies, is "fast fashion", which means that clothing enterprises can launch fashionable products timely in accordance with the changing demands of consumers. The short production cycle and fast delivery time are the distinctive characteristics of fast fashion brands. In the clothing industry, from design, purchase to production, the whole process usually takes six to nine months, and only the design link takes two or three months. ZARA only takes two weeks to complete the whole process. Under the fierce impact of fast fashion, domestic clothing brands hardly have the strength to fight back. Fast fashion brands easily occupy the Chinese market.

Because of this, domestic garment enterprises have followed the fashion of fast fashion, accelerating the speed of commodity circulation. It is reported that Taiping bird reaction is fast, and quickly transformed into fast fashion. In recent years, the Pacific bird transformation supply chain, introduced the TOC management mode, according to the sales situation to formulate production plan, in addition, Semir, Jiangnan Buyi and other brands are following the fast fashion, accelerating the speed of commodity circulation.

The collective is bogged down.

Recently, the US fashion giant Forever 21 revealed that it had hired a restructuring consultant to help negotiate with creditors, hoping to improve the company's operating condition by shutting down stores and loans and avoiding filing bankruptcy protection applications. Once the fast fashion giant, now faced with the crisis of bankruptcy, can not help but let people sigh. But this is not a case.

Last year was the most difficult year for fast fashion brands in the Chinese market. Topshop, New Look, Forever 21, Esprit and other fast fashion brands are facing a crisis. In August last year, Topshop announced that it would terminate its cooperation with China's franchise partners, and then shut down Tmall's flagship store. Since then, Arcadia group, the parent company of Topshop, has filed for bankruptcy and closed all American stores. Last December, New Look announced its closure of Chinese shops and Tmall flagship stores in its official WeChat public, official micro-blog and Tmall flagship stores. It is worth mentioning that New Look lost 74 million 300 thousand pounds last year. By the end of April this year, Forever 21 announced that it had stopped operation of China's official website and online channels, and began to clean up offline channel inventory.

In addition to the above fast fashion brands that have withdrawn from the Chinese market, the fast fashion brands that are still "struggling" have been slowing down in recent two years. The initial results of the 2018 fiscal year announced by Spanish group Inditex, the parent group of fast fashion brand ZARA, show that group net sales increased by 3% to 26 billion 145 million euros, slower than the 7% increase in net sales in the 2017 fiscal year, while net profit rose 2% to 3 billion 444 million euros, but it was also the worst growth rate in nearly five years. UNIQLO has also experienced the first time in the past ten years that the local market has lost its profits and profits. The Swedish fast fashion brand H&M plans to close 160 stores in fiscal year 2019, and the number of new shops is controlled at 335, which is the lowest level in recent years.

What's up with fashion?

Fast fashion brands once dominated the domestic clothing brand, but now why collective "fall"?

China Daily News reporter found that fast fashion in the period of rapid development, the business model is not perfect. From the product, the fast fashion brand has strong sense of design and the price is more affordable, but it is precisely because the turnover speed is fast, and the quality of the goods is difficult to guarantee. Some consumers say that ZARA, H&M and other fast fashion brands are of high quality, and may wear problems several times. Fading and pilling problems are common. With the upgrading of consumption, people have more requirements for clothing quality, design style and even the uniqueness of clothing.

In addition, "the popularity of the Internet enables consumers to compare prices, styles and quality of goods in a wider range, making the competition of fast fashion brands more intense than ever before. People in the industry say so.

It is undeniable that with the rapid development of e-commerce industry, consumers can choose more and more brands. More and more original brands are on Taobao platform. The price of fast fashion brands has no advantage in front of these small shops.

Moreover, inventory problem has always been a "heart disease" for garment enterprises, and fast fashion brands are inevitable. With the increase in the number of people entering the domestic market, the number of fast fashion stores has been greatly reduced, and the backlog of inventory has led to fast fashion brands having to make discounts and liquidation activities. The Chinese Commercial Daily reporter learned that on many social platforms there is a sharing of discount time for all fast fashion brands, and consumers have long been accustomed to the discount of fast fashion brands. However, year-round discounts and liquidation have greatly reduced the image of fast fashion brands.

In addition, fast fashion brand design has always been suspected of plagiarism. As more and more fashion brands, especially luxury brands, continue to strengthen their awareness of rights protection, fast fashion "copying big names, fast moving money, low prices and lack of innovation" is no longer a good idea. It is reported that in July last year, Diesel (Diesel) parent company OTB sued Inditex group to plagiarize Diesel jeans and mani (Marni) sandals design case, and the judge asked the Inditex group to recall the infringements immediately and stop the sale, and to pay $235 for each product. "Plagiarism" means ineffective, and the weak design ability of fast fashion is not enough to support the changing consumer demand of consumers.

The rise of domestic clothing brands has accelerated the fall of fast fashion brands. As a matter of fact, domestic clothing enterprises are in the warmer and warmer stage after experiencing a low period. On the other hand, with the increasingly fierce competition in the domestic apparel market, domestic garment enterprises have to make efforts to transform and actively look for new business models and profit growth points.

Compared with imported fast fashion brands, domestic clothing can penetrate into the local market more deeply from products, channels and marketing. Lining, for example, has entered the international fashion week three times with the trend of the country. Semir upgraded the store image to reduce homogeneity and increase differentiation; UR adopted the development mode of the buyer LED product design, updated two times a week, and launched many sub brands to meet the purchase needs of different groups. It is not difficult to see that the rapid development of domestic clothing brands speeds up the departure of fast fashion brands.

The Chinese Commercial Daily reporter learned that in addition to the fast fashion brand that has withdrawn from the Chinese market, the existing fast fashion brand still faces enormous challenges. Guo Jin securities analyst Wu Jincao believes that the fast fashion brand is entering a new stage. No matter it is the understanding of commercial culture, the degree of brand grounding, or the advantage of channel, the domestic brands have natural advantages. For fast fashion brands, it is necessary to make efforts in these areas, enhance their competitiveness, and find a more suitable way of innovation. Author: Wang Yue