Ten key issues that must be seen in the apparel industry

The practitioners clearly see that the apparel industry is declining, but the industry is not without bright colors. The growth rate of maintaining more than 20% of performance is due to the fact that the seasonal out-of-sales rate has reached more than 90%, and the high-end brand's low-end brands are both strong. Is it true that the birth of myth is really only luck? In fact, these brands just want to clear ten issues.

Overview of the apparel industry trends, in the past four or five years, despite the continuous expansion of the urban market capacity, performance is not bad compared with other industries, but practitioners still clearly see the garment industry is declining. why? Before 2010, brand companies were most worried about two sources. As long as you find shops and factories, cash rolls in.

Nowadays, it is good to be able to do the spot billing. In the midst of various difficulties in various development strategies such as inventory pressure, e-commerce impact, brand positioning, and design inconsistencies, the practitioners suddenly found that the experience accumulated for decades or even decades was not working. Everyone is tied up in stocks, tangled up on how to do e-commerce, hesitating to continue to develop franchisees, positioning and investment in new brands, product planning and design are irresponsible, and all look forward to are problems.

However, the industry is not without bright colors. There are also those who maintain more than 20% growth in performance. Those who have consecutively sold more than 90% of the sales in the quarter have had it. There are also high-end brands with low-end brands who have both hands. The birth of myths is really only a matter of luck. ? In fact, these brands just want to clear ten issues. Look at these questions, do you think it easy?

Dilemma a channel to expand: deep plowing or wasteland?

This is actually two questions: How deep can the channels sink? Is offline or not the driving force for future growth? There are different practices in the industry, and it seems that the effectiveness cannot be generalized.

A foreign popular clothing brand entered China less than ten years ago. It has always adhered to the first and second tier cities and never sank to a third-tier city. Up to now, with nearly 200 stores, the year-end effect and year-end efficiency make most domestic brands untouchable. Persistence does not seem to sink for the time being, but it is actually a luxury line, but in fact, the SKU of the brand's unit price is very small. This persistence stems from concerns about the different fashion tastes of low-level market consumers and concerns about the management problems caused by expansion. This approach is thought-provoking when almost everyone emphasizes low-level market opportunities.

Of course, there are also successful cases of counterproductive sales in various markets throughout the country. A foreign popular clothing brand that has been in China for more than a decade has already shopped in third and fourth-tier cities, and announced that opening a physical store is still the focus of its development strategy. The brand's store performance and peace of mind performance do not belong to the brand in the previous case. This strategy of extensive shop-shops comes from the confidence in the Chinese economy, confidence in the apparel industry, and confidence in its own brand, whether it applies to all brands.

Puzzle two brand extension: specialization or more?

More resources can be seized, but the positioning of new brand differences is difficult to implement, there seems to be a bottleneck in scale development, while fine can concentrate, but when the growth of the main brand is weak, opening a new brand seems to be the most convenient way to quickly reverse the situation. select.

"To do it is necessary to do the first brand well, do fine, and then open a second brand." A public mass women's clothing that adheres to the development of a single brand has no doubt about this. They believe that as long as the brand is done well, channels and suppliers will naturally take the initiative to keep up. At present, the brand's sales are nearly 2 billion, and it still maintains a double-digit growth. It can also be considered a myth.

Those who have chosen to follow the multi-brand development road are relatively more successful. A total of only four or five brands of a domestic popular clothing brand group cover men's wear, women's wear and children's wear. The rare thing is that each development has a scale, and there is a growth rate, and consumers have the recognition and reputation of all their brands. They are also among the best.

And there are more than a dozen other brands in the domestic public clothing brand group that are more sub-brands, and are still expanding. Although many people have been persuaded by their "uninterested expansion brand," the brand's performance in the five or six years of growth of 10 times is an answer.

Puzzle three advertising campaign: high-profile or restrained?

The clothing industry is different from other consumer products. The store is not only an advertisement, but also a mandatory advertisement. In other words, if you don’t fight, you have to fight, you have to fight, and you have to fight. Otherwise, it’s a negative propaganda. Then the question arises. Since the store itself is an advertisement, does it have to spend money on traditional advertising?

The general awareness of the women's apparel industry is that they do not advertise. As for the money saved, they can be used to open new stores, make window displays, carry out renovations, or simply use them for promotions. Of course, there are also cases where it is counterproductive. A domestic popular women's clothing brand tried to advertise when its performance growth was frustrated. From online to offline, marketing expenses increased exponentially, and the effect was better than expected. Sales growth has been rapid since the fall of 2013, which is quite rare in the industry.

Menswear is another consideration. A certain domestic high-end men's wear brand insisting on CCTV advertising for more than ten years believes that male consumers need advertising because men have higher brand loyalty than women, and the picky level of clothing itself is lower. In some regions, face-to-face Pursuit is still the main driving factor in buying high-value apparel, so the effect of advertising is better than that of women.

Puzzle four product model: more money and less money?

In simple terms, the product model is nothing more than the relationship between balance number (width) and order quantity (depth). During the rise and fall of brand development, companies will pay more attention to the development of new styles and new categories. In the period of steady development, this problem is easily overlooked. Enterprises should establish relevant mechanisms to immediately adjust the dynamic balance between the two in brand development.

A domestic high-end women's brand is a successful representative of "a small amount of money." The brand stores are large and the product styles are sparse. They strive to create a sense of “everything is carefully selected”. In fact, the brand has a high rate of magnification, high premium, and focus on improving the consumer shopping experience. A small amount of money, in fact, is the story of unlimited service.

In contrast, the small amount of money may be more suitable for attracting fashion-conscious consumers. A foreign popular clothing brand follows the fashion trends of the major fashion weeks and street shooters, and has a wide range of styles. Consumers sometimes complain that the brand often breaks the stock code, but they do not know this is the hunger marketing strategy. But the key to this model is the support of the design team, the scale effect and the maturity of logistics. Without these supports, we will eventually learn a bunch of high-cost inventory.

There are many product models that are prone to inventory risks. Some domestic women's wear brands have benefited from the deep penetration of the third and fourth tier markets, and have adopted models with many models to speed up the market response. They are close to the speed of refurbishment of international fast fashion brands and are privileged to be close to the people. The rate is not high, and the results are not bad. . However, once business needs are reduced, inventory risks will follow.

Contrary to popular “fast fashion” nowadays, a foreign popular clothing brand takes the “slow basic” approach and adopts a small amount of models. The total number of SKUs in a year is only 800, of which a large proportion is the basic one, that is, those with a large consumer group and a large number of consumer repurchases. The brand has already done product planning in the past two years in advance, and the previous market research, consumer research, and product planning are more meticulous and leading in the industry.

Every 3-4 years, the company's R&D team will develop a series of new products with key concepts, or make breakthroughs in functionality or in fabrics. Such star products can sell well for more than 5 years and do not need brands to follow the trend. In addition to the product model, the brand's internal management capabilities are very strong, and the corporate culture is also very unique, resulting in no one can copy the model so far.

Difficulties Five Product Leads: Planning or Design?

Commodity planning and design seem to be natural couples, especially in domestic companies. In fact, to a certain extent, the importance of design development and product planning will vary according to the design and commodity characteristics of the clothing brand.

A domestic high-end women's brand group is created and owned by the brand's chief designer and has sales of more than one billion yuan. The fact that outside investors bring in funds and new business ideas has made the importance of product planning increasingly prominent. Now, the key nodes such as the pace of the withdrawal, the increase or decrease in the number of styles, the final decision on style selection, and the order placement are still dominated by designers, but the newly established product planning team still brings the gospel to the direct and distributor teams, based on rationality. The analysis of the commodity planning framework gives both teams an unprecedented level of efficiency and clarity.

Another domestic mid-to-high end women's brand group is basically not a molded product planning team and is a typical design-oriented type. From the display to the structure to the pricing of the owner, the owner of the product is completely determined by the owner's grasp of his own brand and product. With no product planning, the efficiency of the store has grown steadily. In the entire industry, more and more attention is paid to commodity planning today.

The product planning team of a women's clothing department of a domestic popular clothing brand belongs to the leading representative of similar companies in China. The company believes that the product planning and design and development teams should work together to ensure that the design of the apparel is consistent with fashion trends and brand positioning.

In the process of collaboration, product planning is the input of rational market demand, and design and development are emotional product development outputs. The two complement each other. The company is led by commodities in the front-end and combines with the design team to interpret the fashion efficiently and accurately, interpret the brand, and finally become the industry-leading benchmark in just a few years.

Puzzle six sales model divergence: order or distribution?

The essence of the sales model is who should ultimately be responsible for understanding the product and the market. Different methods produce different roles at different stages and also cause different problems. The distribution system is low in threshold and easy to manage, but it is widely criticized for the long period of response to the market, resulting in product accumulation or shortage of goods; the mode of the ordering system is more flexible, dealers can adjust according to the situation, but lack the distribution of funds and experience. Businesses will surely take more risks. The choice of ordering mode is the long-standing problem in the garment industry.

The order-gate model does not require companies to take inventory of the channels, and it is the easiest way to make money when the cash flow is sufficient. However, the timeliness of clothing is very strong. The fashion trends over the years are not the same or even fleeting. The ordering time is often longer than the listing period. Once new changes in market trends occur, it will be difficult for dealers to meet consumer demand in the sales season. A large number of current year inventory will limit the orders for the coming year, further hindering the development of the brand.

As the most common sales model in China, the ordering conference can be described as a double-edged sword. It is not only the fundamental reason for the high profitability and adequate cash of the apparel industry, but it is also an impediment to limit the everlasting industry.

Although a domestic Volkswagen menswear brand is dominated by the franchise model, it adopts the “headquarters uniform distribution” model. At the beginning of the product launch season each year, the brand conducts analysis and forecasting based on the collection of store sales data and carries out unified allocation of goods. Therefore, the brand can realize the overall management and distribution of the entire inventory. The display of a single shop can display the brand's unified image, and it is conducive to rapid response to market trends.

However, the related inventory risk is borne by the brand's headquarters. Therefore, higher requirements are placed on the brand in product analysis, market trend control, and other aspects. There was a lack of capacity in brand planning, product distribution, and terminal retailing of brand companies. As a result, the information between the headquarters and the stores was asymmetric. To build a brand on this model, it was necessary to increase the number of consecutive years. Inventory for the price.

A foreign popular clothing brand is implementing single store ordering. The essence of this is that the main responsibility for comprehending the product is given to the manager, that is, the store manager orders directly to the head office according to changes in consumer demand and the market. The main basis is that the official director of the brand's sales said "store manager can better identify and match customer demand changes, help to promote the supply chain to the market, rapid response to upgrade." This model for the store manager's comprehensive The ability puts forward very high demands. In the industry where the average annual turnover rate of front-line personnel is above 50%, how to recruit, train, and retain front-line personnel is also a matter of learning.

Conundrum Seven Supply Chain: Cost, Speed ​​or Quality?

There are three to fifty sewing machines that can become factories, but they can also take care of their breasts and promise to say, “I am familiar with the products of your family and will surely help you to drive them out in 10 days!” Should such a small supplier be developed, it should not be appropriate. Not suitable for training? The cooperation of small factories but I do not see, I see the big plant but do not cooperate, this is a long-standing problem for many garment companies. If you want to understand how to balance costs, speed, and quality, it's not difficult for suppliers to choose.

A foreign popular clothing brand highlights "fast." It usually takes about half a year from the design and development to the product launch in the industry, and the brand can even complete the entire process from design to newness in two to three weeks. In order to achieve such "fast", the brand attaches importance to speed in all aspects of the supply chain, and the corresponding sacrifice in quality and cost.

The cost sacrifice is mainly reflected in the air transport, and the quality sacrifice is mainly reflected in the quality inspection. However, the brand is still well-known throughout the world, and consumers can also understand that such a low price cannot be purchased in high quality and style. Although quality is often criticized by people, the pursuit of style without pursuing quality is already the brand's positioning.

Another foreign popular clothing brand takes into account both cost and quality, choosing to sacrifice speed. In terms of cost, through the "small amount of money" category strategy, and simple style design requirements, through the scale effect in the bargaining process with suppliers to gain an advantage; the other hand, emphasis on supplier processes, processes, equipment, improve, reduce The waste of suppliers in the production process.

In terms of quality, we first cooperate with external fabric suppliers in R&D, continuously upgrade the quality and functionality of fabrics, control the quality of products from the source, and gradually build core fabrics with core competitiveness and brand identity; secondly, in the design development stage, Provide detailed and detailed parameterized data to suppliers; then, in the production process, employ professionals in various fields to conduct on-site guidance and management of suppliers' processes and quality; and finally, in the quality inspection process, the company’s own inspection company strictly controls the products. Quality inspection, product quality failure rate is controlled at 0.3% level.

Under this operation, the brand is not very quick for the production of newly developed products in the quarter. It will take 90 days for orders to be delivered after the order is placed.

Puzzle eight asset model: self-built or outsourced?

Again, it is a typical selection proposition, but its derivative topic is not so simple. If you choose heavy asset mode, it must mean to build a factory? Investment may be a more popular one. If you choose the light asset model, how can suppliers' concentration be controlled?

A domestic high-end women's brand own factory is responsible for about 70% of the production tasks, mainly producing products with high quality requirements and brand characteristics. With its own factory, on the one hand it is easy to improve the cooperativity in the execution of the production plan, and the orders for sudden changes can be quickly adjusted; on the other hand, the brand owner builds a specialized flexible production line by taking part of its own factory as a pilot. Responsible for quickly responding to mid-season demand for recovery orders. However, at the same time, the operation of its own factory will bring a large amount of initial investment and mid-term operation and maintenance costs, which will bring pressure on the company's asset liquidity.

A foreign public clothing brand has a highly centralized and integrated supplier echelon. 70% of global revenue orders are contributed by about 100 suppliers. The brand has also formed a supplier management system that meets the needs of its own products, and the supplier has grown by working with the brand.

The strategy that looks beautiful brings some hidden risks: how to ensure that suppliers do not shop away? How to ensure that the core supplier does not flow out? To maintain the long-term stability of this model, the buying and selling relationship has already broken through the simple relationship between supply and demand, developed into a true partnership, and shared common prosperity and shame. In the current business environment where the fittest is a viable option, it is easier to build such a relationship.

In contrast, a certain popular clothing brand in China has a variety of styles and demands for rapid response. Therefore, the suppliers are scattered, and nearly half of the suppliers are smaller, giving the brand more selectivity in order allocation and leading position. The advantages of small suppliers in terms of plan flexibility can also support the implementation of quick recovery orders. In summary, the suppliers are concentrated for low cost and stable quality, while the decentralized suppliers are more able to bring speed advantages and avoid the risk of placing eggs in a few baskets.

Challenge 9 electricity supplier O2O: Do or not? How to do it?

This is probably the most controversial topic. Since 2010, almost all apparel companies are constantly asking whether they should vigorously develop e-commerce. How to develop? The difficulty of the previous issue is how to achieve the balance between online and offline. The latter problem is nothing more than the unification of online and offline sales channels. In general, the selection of e-commerce models by middle-to-high-end brands is relatively easy, ie, e-commerce is mostly clear inventory, while the choice of popular brands is not so obvious.

A certain domestic public men's brand in China was earlier in the industry and set up a complete e-commerce business department. There are independent teams from the merchandise group to the sales channel. The company treats e-commerce as it treats customers and implements an ordering system to ensure e-commerce's strategic position. At the same time, through the liberalization of online distribution rights and the development of online funds, some of them solved the problem of online and offline channel conflicts. In this way, the nature of its e-commerce has evolved from pure sewerage 10 years ago to today's strategic focus. The business model has changed from generation to autonomous operation, and the performance has also improved from zero to more than 500 million today, which is considered by the electricity supplier in the industry. Higher scores.

While a certain domestic mass-market women's brand is cautious, it has recently settled in Tmall and is interested in controlling the scale. For the e-commerce positioning problem, the brand conducted a consumer survey. The results show that consumers still think that clothing needs to be tried on, even if it is popular low-priced women's clothing. They think that “the pictures on the Internet are all very good looking, but it’s not the same thing in the hands of others.” This view was received by most consumers in the survey. Accredited.

It can be seen that deliberately shifting the business focus to the online does not meet consumer behavior trends. Since they are reluctant to go online for new discounts, and are even less willing to clash with prices, it is a conservative but sure way to ensure steady development of e-commerce and wait for further changes in the industry.

Difficulty 10 How do garment companies achieve change in the era of big data?

This is a new proposition that there is no successful case in the industry. Big data has gradually become a new exciting point for people. The people in the fashion industry are beginning to wonder. What does the clothing company mean in the era of big data? What unexpected changes will happen in the future?

An important point highlighted by the big data wave is data analysis. Like most consumer goods industries, there are a lot of data and information in the apparel industry, but the motivation behind these data and information is often emotional. Even with rational data, most of the companies still have no answer to how much help the fashion and emotional industry has.

We believe that if we want to clearly understand the three issues, we must grasp the basics of big data: First, what data are needed? Do not blindly collect, resulting in redundant information, overwhelming. Second, how to get data? This is not due to the fact that more and more apparel companies are using the ERP platform to collect the data they need.

Data analysts often find that the accuracy of many data is poor. The obvious example is that many companies have problems such as non-standard product data, inconsistent data entry/exit paths, or data upload system delays. These problems are so small that they only affect the accuracy and timeliness of data analysis, and they may affect the factual judgment and even major strategic decisions. As a result, the formal data of clothing companies has become more urgent than ever.

However, regular data does not come overnight. The related departments of garment enterprises can continuously feed back and improve data calibers in the course of practice. In the course of continuous regulation, establishment of norms and corrections, it gradually accumulates a reliable database that facilitates internal analysis and judgment. Third, how to deal with data? Many companies do not lack data, just do not know how to use the data.

Many companies, after getting precise flow data every day, will ask how these data should be used. Many companies are also pursuing excessive data analysis templates. In fact, all data analysis serves the topic, and the topic should be flexibly derived from the different requirements of the company at different times. A rigid set of data analysis templates can only reflect the loss of thinking.

The trend of the economic environment and the clothing industry is changing with each passing day. The above ten problems may only be the key propositions in the apparel industry in the near future. With the arrival of new situations, new problems will inevitably emerge. As there are no universal data processing templates, these questions have no standard answer, but for businesses, they must have answers. The so-called A honey, B **, just, do you know how to distinguish between honey and **?