According to media reports, H&, located at No.651Huaihai Middle Road, Shanghai; Store M was officially closed on June 24th.
This shop is H&; M brand opened its first store in Chinese mainland market, which lasted for 15 years.
Huaihai Middle Road, one of the most prosperous commercial streets in Shanghai, was once the base camp of major fast fashion brands because of its dense crowds.
There is not only the world's largest flagship store opened by Uniqlo 20 13, but also the first domestic concept store opened by ZARA 2065 438+08. In addition, Hermes House, MUJI, Victoria's Secret and other brands, the first domestic specialty store or the first flagship store have settled here.
As you can see, H &；; M closing the store is not a bad geographical location, except for the impact of the epidemic, which is mainly related to its own business situation. In the past two years, H& has experienced a significant decline: according to its financial report, by the end of 20021,H & ampm had closed 60 stores in China, accounting for 65,438+02% of the total number of stores.
The company's financial report also shows that from June to August of 20021,the performance in China dropped by 40% year-on-year, and China is no longer one of the top ten markets in the world.
International brands are increasingly feeling the cold of the market. At the same time, the market value of another international brand, Nike, is also plummeting. According to media reports, as of the closing of the US stock market on June 28, Nike fell by nearly 7%, and its market value evaporated by 654.38+02 billion US dollars a day, about 80.5 billion yuan. At the same time, Nike's share price once fell to 102.48 USD/share, setting a new low since August 2020.
On June 27th, the day before the market value plummeted, Nike announced its financial report for the fourth quarter and the whole year of fiscal year 2022 as of May 3rd1this year. This is an ugly financial report. In the fourth quarter, the performance of Greater China declined at an accelerated pace, achieving revenue of 156 1 billion USD, down 19% year-on-year. Greater China's annual revenue was US$ 7.547 billion, down 9% year-on-year. Excluding the impact of exchange rate changes, it fell by 13%.
Dramatically, just at the beginning of last year, "fried shoes" were popular among young people. Nike's shoes were fired to the sky-high price of 10 thousand yuan. By this year, this "shoe speculation" has long since ceased to exist.
It is not that young people no longer speculate, but that their attention has changed. What attracts them now may be more domestic products with better cost performance or better international brands.
Actually, it's not just H &；; M, other fast fashion brands are also making adjustments.
Uniqlo, a well-known clothing brand, recently closed an iconic store in the bustling business district of downtown Tokyo. This Uniqlo store is located in Shinjuku business district of Tokyo, which is also a prime location in the center of Tokyo, surrounded by many well-known department stores and fashion brands.
Although the explanation of Uniqlo's parent company Fast Retailing Group is that the development plan has changed, the new development plan of Shinjuku business district will affect the passenger flow and the store lease contract expires, so the decision to close the store has been made.
But in fact, a more reasonable explanation may be that Uniqlo is unwilling to pay higher rent in the bustling business district, and closing the store is more like a "painful cut" to save costs.
After 2000, domestic clothing consumption demand is strong, and many foreign fast fashion brands are fashionable in design. Due to the rapid response of the supply chain and the speed of new products, at that time, Chinese people spoke highly of foreign products, so Uniqlo also achieved high growth.
In its heyday, even domestic brands such as La Chapelle, Taiping Bird and even Anta and Li Ning were learning Uniqlo's supply chain.
However, in a few years, the wind and water have turned, and once fast fashion brands are now facing the pressure of loss, and the star aura is gone forever. In the final analysis, it is still an important issue and cannot be favored by consumers.
Disadvantages are reflected in many aspects. From the channel access, it is difficult to take into account both online and offline channels.
For H&; M and other fast fashion brands, the initial feature is to open stores, but also in the bustling business district to open big stores, often two or three stories high. This method is feasible at first, especially before the rise of online shopping, brands can really eat a lot of market share by relying on capital power to attack the city.
However, with the popularity of online shopping in China, the geographical advantages of many stores have been eliminated and become an important channel for clothing sales. Too many offline stores have become a burden, especially during the epidemic in the past two years, the frequency of people staying at home has increased. The bigger the stores of these fast fashion brands, the heavier the rent, and the more they can't make ends meet.
E-commerce could have saved H&, but many fast fashion brands failed to seize this opportunity. H & ampm is one of the enterprises that failed to keep up with the channel changes. The company didn't open the Tmall flagship store until 20 18, and didn't cultivate people's habit of online shopping in time. Moreover, its marketing actions in e-commerce channels are also very limited, and there are hardly many marketing events. E-commerce has not opened up a traffic avenue, nor has it become an antidote to ease its sales.
Secondly, from the perspective of brand effect, the brand aura is gradually fading, not only because of product problems, but also because of the impact of the Xinjiang cotton incident.
In the past two years, fast fashion brands have not completely reversed the negative comments of domestic consumers on their quality. On the contrary, the negative news about brands only increases.
H & ampm frequently makes hot searches due to quality problems. The national enterprise credit information publicity system shows that from 202/kloc-0 to 2022, H &；; M (Shanghai) Commercial Co., Ltd. (I * * *) has 7 pieces of administrative punishment information, and the reasons for punishment include passing off unqualified products as qualified products and false propaganda.
On social media, many users reflect on H&; The clothes bought by m have been deformed after several washes. "The fabric looks like a bargain, and there is no sense of high quality at all." "/kloc-more than 0/00 pieces feel expensive, not as good as the texture of domestic products."
It's not that these fast fashion H&n didn't want to save themselves. Since last year, there have been media reports about Uniqlo and H &；; M layout high-end strategy, however, the first thing reflected is not the obvious improvement of quality, but the improvement of price.
In April this year, the chairman of Fast Retailing Group said that Uniqlo would not raise prices easily, but even the giant Uniqlo could not bear the cost pressure, especially in mid-June, in the face of the sharp rise in the prices of raw materials such as chemical fiber and logistics costs, and the impact of the depreciation of the yen.
A number of clothing brands have recently announced price increases. According to UBS research report, since June 65438+ 10 this year, the initial price of ZARA has increased by at least 10% compared with the previous year, and the initial price has increased by nearly 20% in April this year.
Some consumers have reported that although the price has gone up, the material is still the same, and the wrinkles and curls are still the same as before. "I didn't want to buy it at first, but I didn't want to buy it when the price went up." The practice of raising the price of fast fashion without mentioning the quality can only further damage the brand reputation.
There are also geopolitical factors, such as the cotton incident in Xinjiang last year, H&; M, Nike, Uniqlo, etc. Standing on your own high ground, this is obviously opposite to the attitude of domestic consumers. Many overseas brands have offended many consumers in China, and many people in China don't like these arrogant brands.
During an avalanche, not a snowflake is innocent. Various reasons that are difficult to adapt to China's national conditions have accelerated the decline of fast fashion brands, so closing stores has become a constant choice for these fast fashion brands.
In recent years, a large number of fast fashion brands have withdrawn from the China market. ZARA's parent company, Inditex Group, announced that it would close all the physical stores of its three brands, Bershka, Pull&Bear and Straparius, in China. Forever2 1, Topshop, Old Navy, New Look and other European and American fast fashion brands also withdrew from the China market.
In China's current consumer market, the tide of the country is increasing day by day. From cars, mobile phones and other digital 3C to fast-moving consumer goods clothing, many categories have challenged the traditional position of foreign giants. With the generation after 00 becoming one of the main consumers, these young people's definitions and views on domestic brands have quietly changed.
Now, perhaps only some elderly people will stick to the concept of "foreign goods are of good quality and can be obtained", and the concept of young people has long changed. For domestic brands with high cost performance, high positioning and diversified product functions, young people will flock to them.
There are also data to prove that foreign fast fashion has been overtaken by domestic products. For example, in the underwear category, at the major shopping festivals of 6 18 and double 1 1, the domestic brand ubras has already surpassed Uniqlo to top the list, and bananas, both inside and outside, are also dark horse players surging in recent years.
There are several reasons for the rise of domestic products. One is to seize the online e-commerce channel dividend, be good at using online celebrity KOL word-of-mouth marketing, short videos and self-broadcasting, and actively interact with consumers.
The second is to satisfy the psychology of upgrading the quality of Chinese people. The core selling points are unique design style and excellent product quality. The sunscreen black umbrella under the banana and ubras underwear are all explosive products with extremely high sales in the past two years and basically no bad reviews. To win the favor of consumers, quality is always the first.
Third, the brand image is friendly, and it can communicate with consumers in an equal and respectful manner and actively accept market feedback, instead of ignoring consumer public opinion. These are exactly what some foreign brands have not done well.
As for fast fashion brands or foreign brands, it will take time to test whether they can really pay attention to and respect a wider range of China consumers.
Maybe we can look at it from two aspects. First, brand marketing can maintain the original characteristic positioning, consolidate the fixed core population, and superimpose some elements that Chinese people like on this basis; Second, in terms of quality, or in terms of technical components of some new products, we can develop some new elements, win some goodwill in the market and gain some premium.
Of course, in these two points, domestic brands do not have disadvantages, and the future competition is a drama of learning from each other and catching up with each other.
References:
"H& offended this young man", the city boundary; Uniqlo began to fall out of favor in China? ",tiger sniffing.