Ten International Fast Fashion Brands "Cool Down"

With the slowdown in sales growth of domestic garment enterprises, the international fast fashion brands represented by H&M and UNIQLO have always maintained a relatively high growth rate, which makes many domestic clothing brands envious.

However, recently, the China Commercial Daily reporter found in the interview that the international fast fashion brand is suffering from "growing up". The growth rate of the store has slowed down compared with the past. How will the international fast fashion brand develop in China?

Store growth slowed down year on year

Data released by Ying Shi group showed that the first half of this year included ten major international brands, including UNIQLO, H&M, ZARA, GAP and C&A.

A total of 95 new stores have been opened in China, and the total number of stores is over 1200. Although the data are still bright compared with the domestic clothing brands, compared with their own brands, the growth rate slowed down significantly, down 10 percentage points over the same period.

Does this mean that the international fast fashion brand, which has been maintaining a high speed growth, has ushered in the turning point in China's development?

In this regard, Wang Zhuo, vice president of the China clothing association, said in an interview that the core advantage of the international fast fashion brand lies in the advantage of first out. In the same market environment, some come early, some come late and come early to seize the market, but that's all.

"Fashion has no eternal spring. What will happen in the future? No one can tell.

Consumer preferences for fashion clothes change too fast, so fashion and fashion enterprises should always grasp the pulse of fashion.

Good habitat in Shanghai

Cheng Weixiong, general manager of limited company.

The expansion of international fast fashion brands in China is slowing down. On the one hand, the fast fashion brands are on the rise. On the other hand, the consumption habits of Chinese consumers are changing.

Cheng Weixiong said that in the past few years, the international fast fashion brand in Shanghai was very fast, and recently the layout of some new domestic brands in Shanghai has begun to be valued by many people.

Wang Zhuo also further indicated that in recent years, domestic fast fashion brands such as Taiping bird, U2, G2000 and so on have begun to catch up with them. Compared with H&M, ZARA, UNIQLO and other international fast fashion brands, these local brands have more advantages in industry chain and cost.

The increasing number of competitors has also affected the layout speed of international fast fashion brands.

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In addition, consumers also told reporters that she used to like international fast fashion brands such as H&M and ZARA. However, with the growth of age, consumption habits have changed. It is gradually realized that although these brands are more fashionable, but the quality is general, so nowadays, they have rarely visited the stores of International fast fashion brands.

These consumers are not alone. After fast development, the popularity of fast fashion brands in the first tier cities began to weaken.

In Wang Zhuo's view, the market share of fast fashion brands in the first-line market has dropped a lot now, because the living standards of consumers in the first tier cities are gradually improving, but the attitude towards the clothes with high quality will change naturally.

Against this background, despite the current situation in China

The overall development is sluggish, but it is still a bright color in the clothing market, and the future development is worth looking forward to.

Channel sinking into other brands

With the growth of the Chinese market slowing down and the rapid competition of fashion brands, where will the fast fashion brands such as UNIQLO, H&M and ZARA go? For these brands, it is inevitable for them to channel down channels, expand online channels, and force other sister brands to expand multi-level markets.

For the international fast fashion brands such as UNIQLO, H&M and ZARA, the Chinese market has clearly become a battleground.

Wang Zhuo said in an interview that although the growth rate of China's market is slowing down, the Chinese market is still the fastest growing and most potential market in the world.

If they abandon the Chinese market, these brands will not grow rapidly in the poorer European and American markets.

Taking the recent development of UNIQLO in the Chinese market as an example, according to the 2015 quarter financial report released by the fast marketing group of UNIQLO parent company, the revenue of the Greater China region increased by 42.5% over the same period last year, according to the third quarter financial report.

It rose 25.2% over the same period. In the first three quarters, Greater China revenue was 4818 yen billion yen, an annual increase of 47%, operating profit rose 55% to 51 billion 900 million yen, higher than group expectations.

For the Xun group, the role of the Chinese market can not be underestimated.

In the face of China's huge market potential, the international fast fashion brands such as UNIQLO, H&M, ZARA and so on have been gradually expanding to the three or four tier cities in China.

According to statistics from the China Daily, 2 new stores were opened in Beijing since August. They are located in Chongqing and Beijing respectively. There are 2 new stores in ZARA, which are located in Tai'an, Shandong and Dalian, Liaoning.

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UNIQLO's expansion in the Chinese market is the most rapid. It not only strengthens online ties with Tmall, but also opens several stores across the country.

According to statistics, since August, there are up to 8 new stores in UNIQLO, but the coverage areas are mainly concentrated in Qigihar, Shenyang, Hohhot, Shandong Dongying and Tai'an.

In addition, according to the recruitment notice released by H&M recently, the main outlets for recruitment are three or four tier cities such as Xuzhou, Tai'an, Liuzhou, Baotou, Jiamusi, Xianyang, Kaifeng, Zhuzhou, Dezhou and so on.

H&M responsible person told the China Commercial Daily reporter that H&M's current market expansion plan is to focus on consolidating a second tier city and developing it to three or four line cities, which is an inevitable trend of its development.

Wang Zhuo also believes that for international fast fashion brands, channel sinking is inevitable.

China's two or three tier cities have become the main force of consumption, and the price of fast fashion coincides with these places. The next step is that fast fashion brands will be more inclined to the three or four tier cities.

According to the data released by Ying Shi Group, in the first half of this year, five fast fashion brands such as UNIQLO, H&M, ZARA, C&A and GAP had more than 960 stores in China.

From the distribution of stores, the proportion of two or three tier cities has exceeded 69.2%.

In the first half of the year, the three line cities became the focus of the international fast fashion brand expansion, and the three line cities accounted for 37% of new stores, 20 percentage points higher than that of the first tier cities.

In addition, the development of existing brands, UNIQLO, H&M, ZARA's parent companies have also increased the intensity of other brands in China, or from the online, or offline, to seize the Chinese market.

It is understood that in August 24th, GU Tmall flagship store was officially opened, and GU's sister brand of UNIQLO began to accelerate its pace of development in China.

According to the introduction, GU brand is another parity fashion brand of the fast retailing group of UNIQLO parent company. Its target consumer group is younger than UNIQLO.

And the opening of the GU Tmall flagship store also means that the fast selling group has begun to accelerate its development in China.

Coincidentally, H&M announced the expansion of its COS Collection of Styles. China is an important part of its expansion plan.

It is understood that this year, COS in the original Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing and other 7 stores on the basis, has also opened Qingdao, Shenzhen, Shenyang three stores.

Zara parent Inditex group has also begun to foster brand development beyond Zara.