The Old Fast Fashion Meets The Crisis Of "Middle Age", And The Emerging Brand Hits

Foreign fashion is also in recession. In the first half of 2014, the turnover in China fell again by 6.1%, which is the performance of the first half of 2014 of Eger Garment Retail Group, which owns the Etam brand. However, the sales of Esprit and Edc, the former Esprit and Edc brands, fell by - 6.96% again in the first three quarters of fiscal 2014 to only HK $18.862 billion.

Under the background of the current in-depth adjustment of the entire clothing industry and the attack of many fast fashion brands such as H&M, ZARA, etc., the old fast fashion brands that used to advance rapidly in China encountered a "middle-aged" crisis.

　　 brand Aging and hard injury

Nandu reporter saw from the report of Iger that in the first half of this year, the realized revenue was 598 million euros, down 1.6 percent year on year Among them, the European (China Europe franchised store) market grew by 4.8% year on year to 4117 million euros, while the Chinese market lagged behind, with a sharp decline of 6.1% year on year to only 186.8 million euros.

As for the decline of China's performance, Eger pointed out that Eger had encountered difficulties in both products and business models. In 2013, Eger's sales had declined, especially in department stores.

"Aside from the impact of the overall environment, there are other reasons for the decline of EGGER's performance in China." Xiong Xiaokun, a light industry researcher at CIC Consulting, pointed out that on the one hand, its innovation ability has declined, and its design style has gradually weakened its appeal to consumers (attractive stores); On the other hand, the activity in the sales link is low, showing a slight fatigue; In addition, its brand publicity has not been further expanded, resulting in the weakening of brand influence and serious impact from other emerging brands.

EGGER is not the first old brand "fast fashion" brand to be impacted. From 2011 to 2013, Sijie Global [- 0.50%] experienced a three-year decline in sales in China, with sales of only HKD 2.67 billion, HKD 2.587 billion and HKD 2.41 billion, respectively. "The most problematic brand of Esprit Global is seriously aging," Cui Hongbo said.

　　 fact On the one hand, both EGGER and Esprit had a brilliant history in China. In 2008, the sales of Esprit Global once hit HK $37.2 billion, with a net profit of HK $6.4 billion.

Cui Hongbo, the founder and CEO of Shanghai Zhengjian Brand Management Consulting Co., Ltd., pointed out that this was related to the rough growth model of the entire clothing industry in the past. "In the past, to boost sales, opening stores and raising prices were two channels, but now the bubble brought by this development model has been squeezed out."

In Xiong Xiaokun's view, the emergence of the "midlife crisis" of the old brand fast fashion is caused by its own innovation and transformation not keeping up with the pace of market development. "Compared with the new generation of fast fashion brands, the old fast fashion brands have higher prices, slower clothing updates, low style innovation, and gradually weakened competitiveness." Xiong Xiaokun believes.

Shrink the channel of general merchandise

In terms of implementation, EGGER has long been aware of the development bottleneck of the Chinese market. It is understood that EGGER plans to end 200 sales counters and open independent stores in the shopping center to strengthen the development of online sales. According to its financial report for the first half of the year, EGGER has closed 88 stores in China in the first half of the year. At present, the total number of stores is 3080, 275 fewer than the 3355 stores at the peak in 2012.

Although this adjustment has some effect, it is still difficult to save its predicament. In the semi annual report, Eger pointed out that the growth of online sales and shopping centers was good, but it still failed to offset the impact of the decline of department store channels.

about future Eger pointed out that in the future, it is necessary to adapt to the diversity of consumption in the Chinese market, reduce the discount rate and operate in a new brand platform. This platform should emphasize the foundation of Eger's French brand and adapt to the taste needs of Chinese consumers.

"This adjustment needs a cycle," Cui Hongbo said. "It doesn't mean that you will become a fast fashion brand if you want to transform into a fast fashion brand. The most important thing is that consumers should think you are a fast fashion brand." Cui Hongbo believes that this needs new ways to drive. Whether these old brands can be adjusted depends on whether their style and design can be differentiated, whether they can keep up with the trend, and whether their brands have independent personality and appeal.

These old fast fashion brands were mainly agents before, and their store management ability was not strong. However, the current fast fashion giants mainly focus on direct marketing and have strong retail operation capabilities. "Old brands can actually learn their store management experience," Cui Hongbo pointed out.

In the semi annual report, EGGER revealed that it would launch a series of cosmetics for the European market. In an interview with Agence France Presse, its brand spokesman said that from now to the end of September, 600 cosmetics products, 32 accessories (paint, sponge, etc.) and bath products (shower gel, moisturizing lotion, etc.) will be launched. They will open up 15-25 square meters of "counter" sales in the brand stores of EGGER, and the products will also be sold on the official website. Although it did not disclose whether the cosmetics series would enter the Chinese market, Egger also disclosed in the semi annual report that it would focus more on strictly controlling inventory in the Chinese market and delegate power to the sales management, which would be closer to these 3000 stores. In particular, he mentioned that he would focus on building a platform that could accommodate more European brands, so the industry was full of reverie about whether EGGER would also introduce cosmetics into the Chinese market in the future to save the decline in performance. At present, in the Chinese market, EGGER has a total of EGGER, EGGER Weekend, E S， Underwear series, E-H om me and E&Joy series for shopping malls.