What Has Happened In Recent Years To Make The British Fashion Look Bleak?

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, in March 2018,

Signed a voluntary bankruptcy agreement, announced the closure of 60 stores in the British market, thereby reducing rental costs.

In January 13, 2019, the Brait group announced that it would complete the debt swap paction to reduce the huge debt of about 1 billion pounds. The ownership of New Look will be pferred to the creditor, and the Brait group's original 90% New Look company's share will be reduced to 18%.

Topshop, the UK's high street brand, announced its early termination of cooperation with Chinese agents in August 2018. It announced the closure of Tmall's flagship store in 11, which has also been interpreted as a sign of brand or temporarily withdrawing from the Chinese market.

At the same time, the performance of Arcadia group, the parent company of Topshop, has declined since 2017, and plans to close 1/3 of the 500 local entity stores.

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The performance of Asos is not very satisfactory. In October 2018, the group released its 2018 financial year performance report, when its sales exceeded expectations, and its share price had surged 15%.

But only a month later, Asos sales suffered heavy losses in November, and in December issued a profit warning, the 2019 fiscal year growth forecast from 20%-25% to 15%, to December 17th share price has dropped 40%.

Whether the Chinese market or the British mainland, the fast fashion in Britain is bleak. What has happened in the past few years?

Fast fashion pioneer period is over.

In 2006, Spain's fast fashion brand.

Starting from the first store in Shanghai, it has been more than ten years since fast fashion entered China.

Over the next few years, the Swedish fast fashion brand H&M, the Holland fast fashion brand C&A, the American fast fashion brand Forever21 and Gap have set up shop and seized the market in China, but they do not see the shadow of the British fast fashion brand.

After their entry into China in 2012, Zara and H&M have already expanded rapidly, occupying the core business circle of major cities, and Chinese consumers' enthusiasm for fast fashion is also gradually increasing.

Late admission, the fastest fashion brand in Britain first lost the best time to seize the huge Chinese market.

In several fast fashion brands in Britain, Topshop is especially cautious, and can even say that some traditions are sluggish.

In May 2012, Topshop opened an authorized agency flash store in Shenzhen golden Guanghua square. After three months, it turned into a permanent shop. After that, it opened second authorized agencies in Beijing Yau Tang square in 2013, but these two stores are not direct outlets.

China's mainland stores are late, and Topshop's first store in Greater China opened to Hongkong in 2013, and Topshop has been very careful.

At that time, the store was opened by Topshop in collaboration with Lane Crawford, and Arcadia did not personally manage the business on the big side. Even the shop berths, staff and logistics were initially provided by Lab Concept, a subsidiary of lac.

The entity has not yet entered China. Topshop first opened shop on China line, and has since then launched cooperation with China's Shang Shang pin network.

Cooperation began in 2014. At that time, Topshop and Arcadia's other women's clothing brand Miss Selfridge entered the Shang pin network. Then Topshop was also on the line of Tmall flagship store, and also operated by Shang pin network.

Although it has been a bit late, but the entity shop still wants to open, and according to a foreign investment bank in 2016 told reporters that several Chinese clothing groups have been in contact with Arcadia group in the past few years, hoping to cooperate with China to open a store, but Topshop has not been looking for a suitable partner.

By the end of 2016, Shang pin finalized exclusive cooperation with Topshop and released news to help Topshop open hundreds of stores in China and opened its first flagship store in Shanghai or Beijing in 2018.

But has there ever been any experience of real estate stores that can still support such a large volume of business?

Topshop stores in the mainland have been dragging on for a long time. In 2017, they did not open a store. In January 2018, they announced that the first entity store would open in the middle of Huaihai Road in Shanghai in August, but the store has not heard of it yet. Shang pin has fallen into the capital whirlpool. The 90% stake in Beijing's Shang pin Bai Zi Agel Ecommerce Ltd has been bought by Herme group. After the change of equity interest is 90% of Beijing's Herman Shang pin Technology Co., Ltd., the Topshop related businesses will be stripped.

Looking back, Topshop did not find the most suitable Chinese partner in addition to the late admission.

In August 4, 2018, Topshop issued a statement to terminate the cooperation agreement with Shang pin network. It said it wanted to find new partners in China.

The Asos retreat earlier than Topshop entered the Chinese market earlier.

In 2013, Asos released China's e-commerce platform, and entered Tmall in 2014. However, it just encountered many obstacles when it first entered.

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Asos has hundreds of fashion brands besides its own brand.

China's clothing needs specific standard water marking, display materials and washing instructions, etc. the hundreds of brands of water washing labels need to be reproduced, resulting in a lot of additional expenses.

In addition, Asos positioning as a fashion business, focusing on online, but China's electricity supplier market has Ali and Jingdong two major players, the latest data show that Ali Jingdong two platforms have occupied 70% of the electricity supplier market share.

Under the pressure of the two giants, Asos's living space in China is narrowing.

In June 2016, Asos, which was not convinced by China, withdrew from the Chinese market. In the past few years, China's regional business has lost nearly 8 million 600 thousand euros.

In China, it is not acclimatized.

Whether Asos or Topshop, there are similar problems when entering the Chinese market.

First of all, it is not to play the advantage of the rich brand products. In China, the number of goods on the shelves is less and the new market is slower than that of the British market.

In addition, the localization of these two brands is not enough, and the design of the European and American styles of continuity and unification can be said to be in many consumers' blind spots, even the clothing sizes are consistent with those of Europe and the United States, which are too loose and unfit for Chinese consumers.

Although some of the products of Topshop have a small version of petite, the overall size of the product is still not satisfactory to many consumers.

No matter in the brand micro-blog or Tmall flagship store, these problems often have consumer feedback. Even when Topshop cleared, some netizens said in the comment area of the reporter that the clothing version and style were not suitable for Asians.

There are other reasons for the frustration of New Look in China.

If Topshop tradition is slow, then New Look is too radical.

New Look group's former CEO Anders Kristiansen has chosen to open stores and expand rapidly with a more direct consumption mode. In just a few years, China has become the largest overseas brand.

At this time, good bunk has been separated by Zara, H&M and UNIQLO, but the performance is not satisfactory.

And the marketing of New Look has not kept up, leading to a small number of stores. Many Chinese consumers are not familiar with the brand.

In addition, the group itself bears huge debts. The Brait group boss Christo Wiese broke out a lending scandal in late 2017. As of the end of March, in the 2018 fiscal year, the group net debt has reached 1 billion 265 million pounds, and the cash flow is seriously insufficient, and China's expansion plan is also difficult to sustain.

When New Look announced its withdrawal from China in October 2018, the group did not receive sales and profits in support of its subsequent investments and daily operations in the Chinese market.

And when the video of New Look clearance sale was forwarded to micro-blog for thousands of times, the voice that appeared most in the comment area was "no announcement of withdrawal, I don't know the brand."

In fact, fast fashion brands are only a microcosm of the British retail industry.

Almost in the same period, the performance of Marks Spencer in the UK and House of Fraser in high-end department stores in the Chinese market were also mediocre, and the cities such as Beijing and Nanjing were introduced. This shows that they lack understanding and positioning errors on the one hand, and on the other hand, they are affected by the British retail industry inside the Spencer.

Martha stores entered China in 2008 and announced their withdrawal in 2016 after opening 15 stores.

Martha left his front foot and HoF came back to China again.

In 2014, this high-end department store bought by Nanjing Sanbai group, a new listed company in China in 2014, has been seeking external financing to gain a low profit in recent years. In May 2018, it was pferred to C, a Chinese women's shoe retailer, after several twists and turns.

If it were not for the gloomy British market, the failure of fast fashion brands and department stores in Britain might not be so thorough.

New Look group CEO Alistair McGeorge said in its announcement that the retail environment in the UK is extremely challenging and that it is impossible to raise revenue overnight.

Martha's department store is also not very good in the UK. In recent years, its profits have been declining. The profit in the fiscal year ended March 2017 dropped 64% to 176 million pounds. The profit in the fiscal year ended March 2018 dropped 62% to 66 million 800 thousand pounds, and announced that more than 100 stores could be closed by 2022.

HoF is in deep trouble. In August 2018, it declared bankruptcy, and 37 stores in 59 stores may be closed. In October, it was bought by British billionaire and entrepreneur Mike Ashley at a price of 90 million pounds. But recently, Ashley said that HoF lost another 30 million pounds in three months.

The crux of the problem is not in China, but in Britain.

In the past year, many of the British retailers who were in deep mire said that the instability brought by Britain's instability from Europe was the main reason for poor performance. The economic downturn and geopolitical risks posed severe challenges to the growth of retail industry.

The first consequence is the weakening of consumer confidence in Britain.

In mid November 2018, closer to the official European departure, Gfk, a market research firm, showed that the UK consumer confidence index had fallen to its lowest level in the year.

However, Paul Martin, head of British retail sales at KPMG, an internationally renowned accounting firm, pointed out that it would be too easy to push all the chaos to "off Europe". The British retail cold winter was actually caused by multiple causes for many years, and the situation in 2019 will continue to deteriorate. "Paul"

As far as fashion is concerned, the fall of Topshop is probably the most representative. The British guardian also said that the decline of Topshop marked the end of the British high street fashion golden age.

The clothing of high fashion brands will take 6 months from publication to shelves. Topshop's high street brands will decode the latest trends after the fashion show, and quickly design and make garments, and sell them to consumers at more competitive prices.

In early 2000, Topshop was the model brand that brought the latest trend of the T platform to consumers in a fast and fair way.

With the continuous upgrading of information dissemination technology, the fashion industry has been called a secret information. Now it has been very open. Consumers no longer need fast fashion to tell themselves what popularity is in the way, and Topshop has gradually lost control of the trend.

Topshop has helped the latest trend to reach consumers quickly, but it has also begun to "depreciate". People are looking for new fashion incentives and starting to invest in street brands.

At the same time, as the main consumer group of Topshop, young consumers are no longer so fond of shopping in physical stores. Online shopping has become their new choice.

Topshop, of course, also has a wired platform, but on the Internet it is inevitable to compete with more new brands.

Asos is the biggest competitor on the Topshop line. As a fashion business, Asos rose 26% in the 2018 fiscal year, with a lot of results than Topshop.

However, Asos soon went through the worst November of CEO Nick Beighton, and had to cut its profit forecast for the 2019 fiscal year.

The British media, including BBC, the guardian and the independent, are lamenting that the downturn has finally begun to spread online.

In addition, fast fashion is still experiencing various public opinion crises.

Philip Green, chairman of the Arcadia group of Topshop parent company, was charged with sexual assault and racial discrimination in October 2018. Although Green denied any accusations, the incidents continued to ferment and catch up with the public's concern about social issues, especially the rice rabbit movement. Topshop's reputation also declined rapidly.

After Green got caught in the scandal, many celebrities also made a clear distinction with Topshop. Beyonce came back a month later, and then bought the entire Ivy brand of sports clothing brand Ivy and Topshop co founded by her name, Parkwood Entertainment.

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Simon Cowell, a British music consultant and an American Idol Judge, bought back Green's stake in her Syco Entertainment company and said in an interview with the British sun that she put the principles before profits.

In the early November, the British fashion brand Halpern also cancelled the launch party of the brand and Topshop cooperation series.

However, the public opinion rebounding brought about by the sex scandal is just an accident in the fast fashion industry of England. The pollution problem is a big test that the global fast fashion brands are facing.

According to AlterNet, fashion industry is the second largest pollution industry after the oil industry in the world. Fast fashion is the most polluted category in the clothing industry.

The latest report of ShareCloth, a retail software company, shows that in 2018 the fashion industry produced 150 billion garments, of which more than 50% of fast fashion products were abandoned after a year of production.

Although Asos and other brands began to engage in environmental protection a few years ago, for example, 2018 announced the whole platform to buy and sell clothing such as cashmere, feather and other materials, and set up a company's internal sustainable fashion training course, requiring the designers of the whole company to learn, but it still Dodge the public's doubts.

The British Parliament also voicing its voice in October 2018, saying that the fashion industry harms the earth.

More and more consumers are beginning to rethink fast fashion.

A recent report by Thredup, a fashion resale website, showed that 1/4 of female consumers decided to abandon fast fashion apparel in 2019, mainly in the millennial generation and Z generation consumers.

Of the more than 1000 women surveyed by Thredup, 58% wanted to become more environmentally friendly in 2019. 42% of respondents wanted to reduce waste by buying second-hand goods, while 54% of Z generation consumers decided to buy higher quality products in the coming year.

It is foreseeable that changes in consumer behavior and low retail industry will make the situation of fast fashion more severe in 2019.

For the fast fashion brand in Britain, the cold wave is far from the end.

This fast fashion cold wave will not only attack the depressed British retail industry. Zara, H&M and other fast fashion brands also feel the chill coming from all sides.

Starting from the 2016 fiscal year, the gross profit margin of Inditex group, the parent company of Zara, continued to decline. In March 2018, Morgan, a well-known investment bank, pointed out that the market value of Inditex group had dropped to the level of 2015.

H&M Group sales growth in fiscal 2016 was only 7%, and sales in fiscal 2017 increased by 4%. In the 2018 fiscal year, while the overall performance increased by 5%, detailed content has not yet been released. Some analysts believe that growth does not necessarily mean a big increase in profits, because the H&M group has made a huge discount before promoting sales.

Morgan chase and other investment banks have been singing down the fast fashion industry, and fast fashion continues to look for new outlets.

H&M group's attempt is to launch multi brand discount stores AFound and high-end concept stores. The former can give the group a share in the market of the now discounted discount retailers, and the latter is a test for the pformation of the brand to the high-end line.

People can buy 30 percent off of Louis Vuitton handbags in AFound, but also buy Colette clothing from the out of print French fashion boutique. At the same time, AFound stores also have H&M group's brands, which are very discounted, thus helping H&M group clean up inventory.

In the recent global economic downturn, many consumers are keen to buy goods that are not yet out of date.

T.J. Maxx, Target and so on are all the top retailers in the US discount retailers. Under the downturn of retail trade, T.J. Maxx has maintained a strong growth.

In this way, H&M Group offers discount retailers as a good way to save themselves.

H&M, a new concept store opened in high-end consumer areas in Stockholm, Sweden, mostly sells its high-end product lines, whether it's decoration or customer service.

Sitel group's recent report shows that the brand loyalty of consumers mainly depends on the customer experience, so the entity stores should work harder in customer experience.

H&M's high-end technology is not only on the product line level but also at the customer experience level, which is in line with the general trend of retail industry. It will take time to test whether it will achieve good results.

Zara placed its hopes on technology and digital pformation, and driven the development of online and offline technology with high technology.

In November 2018, Zara's global e-commerce website opened up 106 new markets, and now it has been opened to 202 markets worldwide.

In addition to selling goods to the whole world, Zara also wants goods to arrive smarter and faster.

In February this year, an intelligent operation system was developed, which provides acoustic technology to track passenger flow and provide virtual assistants for consumers. It also cooperated with Tyco, an alarm equipment supplier, to develop a security label microchip with built-in styles and sizes for consumers to find location information of goods in the supply chain.

In August, we accelerated the logistics industry and set up shop direct mail system in 2000 stores around the world.

Looking at the global fast fashion industry, the UK's fast fashion brand is probably the most sluggish response to the impact, and seems to be in jail when the British retail industry enters the cold winter.

Zara, H&M and other fast fashion are also challenged, and the layout pformation has begun since the recession has not yet been made. Although the pformation effect has not yet appeared, the reason for not moving forward is that it will not be outdated in the commercial world.

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