Chinese garment industry encounters winter

Recently, Jin Xiaohua, general manager of Nanjing Golden Mango Garments Co., Ltd., said: “The previous year's annual sales have maintained an increase of 30%, but the growth rate in 2012 is only 15%.”

At the same time as the apparel industry, at the beginning of the new year, in the widely circulated letter of “Baima Menswear Chairman to employees”, “the performance of stores has declined, the inventory has remained high, and dealers have adjusted orders up and down at the order meeting”. For the "winter 2012 clothing industry," said it added a certain weight.

In the 2012 “double 11′′ promotion initiated by Chinese e-commerce Taobao, the sales of men’s clothing brand Jack Jones’ one day shop reached 127 million RMB***. The network seems to have turned into an "artifact" for the apparel industry.

According to statistics, in 2012, the retail sales and retail sales of China's 100 key large-scale retail enterprises both fell, which was 2.19% and 6.04% lower than the corresponding period in 2011. In addition to "macro-economic downturn, lower consumer demand, rising store costs," and other reasons, the "shop impact" has also been attributed to the media as one of the main crux of "clothing winter".

“Our products were also sold in online stores. Dangdang.com also talked about cooperation with us, but the results are not ideal. At present, it is mainly to supply the supermarkets.” Jin Xiaohua frankly stated that although the “e-commerce myth” voice is high, However, their company's main selling products, underwear and socks, are not satisfied with this piece of “gold rush”.

In 2013, Jin Xiaohua laid the expansion road or the terminal is the king's "store strategy" - to China Resources, Tesco, RT-Mart, Carrefour and other retail giants to expand the distribution of more stores, from East China to expand to all Chinese stores.

Yao Feng, the founder of Jiepai Women's Clothing, was also very calm about the attitude of online shop sales: “In my opinion, the sales of physical stores are more important, and consumers’ purchase of clothes in stores is also an experience. Although many clothing brands All of them have opened online stores, but the styles in the physical stores will be updated, and most of them are lagging styles with slightly lower prices."

However, in 2012, the sportswear brands Peak, Li Ning and Xtep closed more than 1,000 physical stores in China. The major apparel brands cannot ignore the “slimming exercise” of physical stores.

"Reducing the storefront does not mean that physical stores are not important. Optimizing channels and improving sales efficiency are the goals. The role of physical stores is not only to sell goods." Han Shunping, director of the marketing department at Nanjing University, said: "It is not implied by the impact of online shops." With regard to the Nuggets, online channels are not a paradise for all types of clothing."

Han Shunping explained: “Luxury products with high brand value and low-value and easily-consumed products mostly have poor performance in online sales. Just like underwear and socks, online shopping is not much cheaper than buying in physical stores, and it takes time to wait. The high value of the brand and the high cost of clothing make it even more important for customers to experience spending in the store.”