ZARA's "Three Sisters" defeated the Chinese market. Why did the European and American fast fashion brands disappear?

Recently, the fast fashion industry exposed a heavy news: Zara three sisters brands defeated the Chinese market together.

Produced ｜ NBS New Products n Author ｜ Wu Wenwu

01 ZARA three sisters brand defeated China

Recently, the three sisters of ZARA have announced the closure of Tmall flagship store. From July 31, 2022, online stores will stop selling goods.

These three brands are Bershka, PULL & Bear, and Stradivarius, which means that they will officially withdraw from the Chinese market.

The three brands show the closure store announcement and the clear points of the scores at the eye -catching position of the homepage of their stores. It is discounting the goods. Pull & Bear's original price of 129 yuan jeans is now only 70 yuan.

These three brands have already exited the Chinese market for a long time. The parent company Inditex announced at the beginning of last year that it has closed the offline stores of these three brands in the Chinese market and only retain e -commerce channels.

What is even more surprising is that in fact, these three brands have launched a store closing plan before the epidemic. Bershka, Pull & Bear, and Stradivirus Chinese stores closed about 50 in 2016 to 2019. In 2019, Stradivarius stores The number is only half of 2016.

The INDITEX Group has not yet issued a public statement on the closing store. Its Chinese Public Relations said that "Inditex will be as always, based on the customer's preferences, through the unique online and offline experience of the integration of Zara, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, and Zara Home. , Continue to provide high -quality fashion products for Chinese consumers. "

02 European and American fast fashion brands staged a tide

At present, the development of China's fast fashion industry is hot, but many European and American fast fashion brands are opposite. Choose: closing stores, reducing scale, adjustment, and exit.

After entering 2022, in addition to the three sisters of Zara announced the withdrawal from the Chinese market, on June 24, the British Tide Brand SuperDry (extremely boring) announced that it would temporarily say goodbye to the Chinese market.

In fact, SuperDry only entered the Chinese market in 2016, and lost money in the first year. By 2019, the cumulative loss reached 31 million. Later, when he encountered the epidemic, he could only choose to withdraw from the Chinese market.

Earlier in March, Monki, an affordable fast fashion brand of Swedish fast fashion brand G & M, announced its closure of Tmall flagship store and withdrew from the Chinese market.

In the past two or three years, many international fast fashion brands such as the British fast fashion brand New LOOK, Topshop, the American popular fashion brand FOREVER21, fast fashion brand Old Navy have officially announced the withdrawal from the Chinese market. Stir up heated discussion.

In addition to some brands announced the withdrawal from the Chinese market, there are also European and American fast fashion giants undergo market shrinkage and adjustment strategies.

H & M closed the first store in Mainland China on June 24 this year on June 24 this year. The news of "H & M closed China's first store" caused a hot market discussion.

Earlier, H & M official said that in 2022, it plans to open about 95 new stores, close about 240 stores, and net reduction of about 145 stores.

The Chinese market became the fourth largest market in the world in H & M in 2020. Soon due to the influence of the Xinjiang cotton incident in 2021, H & M's sales in the Chinese market declined. In the second quarter of that year, sales in the Chinese market plummeted 23%. In the third quarter, the Chinese market It has fallen out of the top ten markets in the world.

SELECTED, a men's clothing brand under the fashion, also confirmed to the media earlier this month that it will close 1,300 stores in the Chinese market in July and switch to online channels.

Many fast -fashion brands have changed the strategy of rapid expansion in the Chinese market in the past, and they are becoming more and more cautious.

03 Why did the European and American fast fashion brand out of favor?

In 2002, the Spanish brand MANGO and the Japanese brand Uniqlo entered the Chinese market, which has begun to start the prelude to foreign fast fashion brands entering the Chinese market. Subsequently, GAP, H & M, Zara, etc. have entered the Chinese market one after another, introducing fast fashion concepts into the Chinese market.

The prices of these international fast fashion brands are not cheap, but they still set off a wave of fast fashion, especially young people in the city are wearing these brands of clothes as fashion.

But in recent years, the wind direction of the fast fashion industry has changed. Recently, when the NBS new product has been slightly passed by a ZARA store in Shenzhen, even on the weekend, the passenger flow has been significantly reduced compared with the past.

Why are these European and American fast fashion brands "fell out of favor" in the Chinese market?

From the perspective of the new NBS products, it is necessary to understand why the European and American fast fashion brands have encountered the current situation. It is necessary to change from the three aspects of China's fast fashion brand, and young people ’s fast -fashion brands have risen. Essence

First, the Chinese clothing consumer market has entered a new era of diversified consumption from Volkswagen.

When the international fast fashion brand entered the Chinese market, the consumption of fashion categories was in its infancy. These international brands can directly copy the international market model to the Chinese market with their global advantages. The advantages of the other side. Nowadays, the Chinese clothing consumer market has already entered the stage of quality consumption and brand high -end. Consumers can selectively selectively, and new consumption characteristics will be present at the quality consumption stage.

This is not only reflected in the field of fast fashion clothing consumption, but also in the field of sports clothing consumption.

Secondly, the rapid rise of China's fast fashion brands, understand Chinese consumers, and more competitive.

In the past, the European and American fast fashion giants were the leaders, but now China's fast fashion brands have risen strongly. From the past followers and imitators to innovators and leaders. One of the representative brands is shein. The fire has spread all over the world, so that both H & M and ZARA and other giants have felt a lot of pressure.

According to the data of this year's 618 women's sales list released by Tmall, the local fast fashion brand Urban Revivo has surpassed UNIQLO as the biggest winner of the platform women's track. The top three women's brand sales are Urban Revivo, UNIQLO and MO & Co., and COS ranked seventh, while Zara ranked twelve.

Chinese fast fashion brands understand the Chinese market and know the needs of consumers better, and today's local brands are even faster to international brands in terms of updating iteration speed.

Third, a new generation of young people are abandoning European and American fast fashion brands.

When it comes to clothing consumption, you have to say that young people. Today, young people will not pursue wearing international brands as in the past, and pursue cost -effectiveness, quality and fashion.

In particular, the rise of the trend, tide play, and tide products, so that young people now have different consumption characteristics, and are more willing to buy domestic products and national tide brands.

Chinese fast fashion brands have better understanding new generations of young consumers in terms of e -commerce, digital marketing, live broadcasts, community marketing, and online celebrity marketing. Not only attracts the attention of young people, but also enhances the brand's favor.

The changes in the industry environment, the fierce competition brought by the rise of local competitors and abandoned by young people, so these European and American fast fashion brands are really increasingly anxious.

04 Are there any opportunities for European and American fast fashion brands?

Some fast fashion brands in Europe and the United States have withdrawn from the Chinese market, but in fact the Chinese clothing consumer market still maintains rapid growth, and the growth rate of China's fast fashion clothing market is higher than the overall clothing market.

The Foresight Industry Research Institute predicts that by 2023, China's fast fashion industry will maintain an average annual growth rate to 523.6 billion yuan by 2023.

Faced with such a large Chinese fast fashion consumer market, domestic and foreign brands are starting fierce competition, and many international fast fashion brands are still vigorously developing the Chinese market.

Not all international fast fashion brands have adopted a contraction strategy, and some brands choose to accelerate expansion strategies.

For example, Uniqlo is accelerating the expansion of the Chinese market. At present, Uniqlo has more than 850 stores in more than 180 cities in China. Next, Uniqlo will keep 80 to 100 speeds every year, and all of them are direct stores.

There is also an international fast fashion brand that has withdrawn from the Chinese market to announce the return of the Chinese market. The publicity channel for publicity in China is also the third time the brand has entered the Chinese market.

China's fast fashion market is large enough, and there are still market opportunities in the future. So how can these European and American fast fashion brands save the trend and achieve new breaks. From the perspective of the new NBS products, there are mainly the following four key market strategies.

Key strategies one: Make up shortcomings, accelerate new, changing, and fast, especially accelerate localization.

China's fast fashion industry has changed. In the past, Europe and the United States only needed to "copy and paste" the international market model to the Chinese market. It has been outdated. It is necessary to make up for shortcomings in social marketing and online channels.

The keywords of the fast fashion industry lies in fast, and they are required to change. They need to be new. They need classic models. It also needs to launch more products that meet the Chinese consumer market. Color and style should further accelerate the localization of the Chinese market.

Key strategy 2: Let go of the posture and seize and sink the consumer market opportunity.

The fast fashion industry in the first- and second -tier cities has been very saturated and fierce, and the key to future competition lies in sinking the market.

In the past, fast fashion brands focused on working hard in the first and second -tier cities. The future incremental market is in the sinking market. The European and American fast fashion brands should lower their posture and accelerate the layout to sinking areas and cities with consumer power.

For example, Uniqlo entered third- and fourth -tier cities such as Zhejiang Lizhou, Yueqing, Huainan, Anhui, and Jingmen in Hubei this year. Naturally, they wanted to bet on the sinking market.

Key strategy three: Accelerate the youth of the brand and win the love of the new generation of young consumers in China.

These European and American fast fashion brands have a wealth of global operating experience and brand precipitation advantages, but it seems a bit "old" in the new generation of Chinese young people. A young consumer of the post -95s told the NBS new product that he has not had a good opinion of H & M, Zara and other brands, and even feel very low.

The new generation of young people and post -00 consumption concepts are completely different from the post -80s, so these international fast fashion brands need to seize the new generation of young people and accelerate the youth of the brand.

Key strategy 4: Save the brand reputation and win the trust of Chinese consumers again.

This strategy is only applicable to very individual brands. For example, H & M was resisted by Chinese consumers because of the Xinjiang cotton incident. The brand reputation that has accumulated for more than ten years has collapsed. The conduction effect is obvious, and the sales volume continues to decline.

All fast fashion brands in Europe and the United States should respect the Chinese market and Chinese consumers. Do not challenge the bottom line and make low -level errors, otherwise it is a self -discipline.

The future development of China's fast fashion industry is good, the prospects are available, and the "money" scene is also very expected, but market competition will only become increasingly fierce. The European and American fast fashion brands will still have opportunities for development in the future.

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