Chinese Fast Fashion In Taobao

Although the fast fashion industry has gone down all the way, and a large number of stores have been closed due to the impact of the epidemic, foreign giants are thinner and bigger than Malaysia.

In the first half of fiscal year 2020, Zara and Zara home had net sales of 5.532 billion euros (about 44 billion yuan * *). In recent years, Bill Gates and his mother, Bill Gates, have become the world's first founder. Founded in Sweden in 1947, H & m also sold $3.07 billion in the first half of 2020.

With decades of company history, global supply chain and multiple brand lines, there is no Chinese company that can compare with these two long established companies.

The tears of the young generation of maysonne and Texan have been influenced by Chinese people for a long time. According to the latest semiannual report of SEMAR, 947 stores were reduced in the first half of the year, and the net profit decreased by 97%. The latest appearance of Meibang in the news is that Hu Jiajia, the daughter of Founder Zhou Chengjian, is restricted from consumption.

Who are the young people chasing the trend?

"The soul of China's fast fashion, I think, is 30000 IFashion merchants on Taobao platform. The individual scale of these businesses can be very small, but when they are together, they support a sales scale even larger than Zara, even reaching 2 or 3 times of Zara. " Taobao industry head Kaifu said.

If we say that foreign fast fashion is supported by giants, now China's fast fashion landscape is built by Taobao sellers.

The Sellers with an average age of 6 years old grasp the two most basic elements of fast fashion: a keen sense of the market and a flexible supply chain with quick response.

Hot search is a business

When Zara appeared in business history as a case, people always mentioned the brand's ability to respond quickly to market demand.

In the early market, when most companies have no evidence to rely on, thousands of Zara stores will make sales analysis based on consumer demand, and then summarize them to the headquarters. Designers shuttling through major fashion weeks will make continuous changes to existing styles based on feedback from the market.

Subsequently, Zara's factories all over the world will produce a large number of styles in small quantities. It takes only two or three weeks for a garment to go from design to hanging on the shelf.

In the era of social media, Zara, which regards consumer demand as the Bible, has a more timely data basis instagram. According to a report from business insider in 2018, when Zara designers launch new products after the design is completed, it is mainly decided by KOL on instagram.

Launch 12000 new products twice a week, and only show them in the store for three to four weeks. Zara has frequently launched a new mode of promoting continuous purchase, which is now the most common way for Chinese sellers to play, from handu clothing house and La chapel to today's small and medium-sized businesses.

IFashion, the fashion house on Taobao, has only 30000 sellers, but it has to launch 600000 new products every month.

How did such a large number of new products come into being?

In addition to the transaction data provided by e-commerce platforms, hot search lists on social platforms such as microblog have also become the basis for many sellers to launch new products. For the general audience, the topic on the hot search list is just talk. Taobao is a seller here.

Not long ago, "sister riding the wind and waves" created several hot searches and several popular Taobao items, such as "qiqizi same style shoulder belt" and "Jingzi big earrings" respectively made the top list of Taobao products; the "BM style", which caused body anxiety, gained more than 3300% search growth; the five people who dominated the whole day on microblog hot search, with "Renke same shirt" as the key The word appears in the product search bar.

If the "hot search" is suspected of capital manipulation, Taobao, the wild "holy land of the same type", represents the real popularity and sales volume.

Of course, this in turn shows the ability of Taobao merchants to capture hot spots. Zara as a multinational giant, no matter how fast it responds to the market, it also needs to summarize and feedback from the branch stores to the headquarters. It is not easy to put new products on the shelves in a few weeks. And Taobao sellers, it is likely that hot search just broke out, on the shelf with the same goods.

This kind of reaction ability is almost intuitive, because Taobao shop is small and young. For a team of 10 to 20 people, the average age of clothing sellers is 26.7 years old. The number of merchants after 2000 is 3.5 times that of three years ago. They are consumers themselves, and they know what young consumers need.

Rhinoceros factory becomes a show

In the past, Taobao has always been a "Advisor" role.

"The platform's data insight and sensitivity to the market are stronger," said Qiao Qiao, head of Taobao clothing industry. "Many businesses need our insight.". She spent 10 years in Taobao clothing industry, witnessing and participating in the birth of the first batch of Taobao brands, such as qigege and yinman.

Now some young Taobao teams do not understand the situation.

A few months ago, Feitian fat policewoman was just a fashion video blogger. A group of fans gathered in the short video of the slightly fat people. Some fans told her that they hoped to buy the clothes she wore and recommended directly in Taobao store.

In June this year, she officially opened a shop on Taobao, constantly emphasizing the key words of "showing thin", and achieved 2 million sales in the first month.

Like "Feitian fat policewoman", Qiao Qiao is called "content-based merchant" because he is a seller with fans. Compared with the traditional Taobao sellers, they have prominent advantages and obvious disadvantages.

As one end of new manufacturing, "content businesses are good at mastering hot trends and have loyal fans," says Qiao. "But there are weaknesses in the supply chain.".

This is also the reason why Ali launched the rhinoceros factory. The quick response ability of small orders with 100 pieces ordered and delivered within 7 days is an important link at the end of the supply chain for small businesses. "Let entrepreneurs free from heavy production and focus on innovation, so that small and medium-sized enterprises have the key ability to compete with large enterprises." Wu Xuegang, CEO of rhinoceros factory, said on the day of rhinoceros factory's announcement.

On September 22, the rhinoceros factory appeared less than a week ago and became a show. The models shuttled between the "T-stage" composed of assembly lines. More than 30 Taobao merchants and 30 media were watching the show, sitting opposite each other on both sides of the show.

"The place where we hold the conference today is very symbolic. Our whole Alibaba flexible manufacturing and new manufacturing will also combine with IFashion merchants and fashion brands in the front end." "We're going to work with new businesses and content makers," he explains

It's something fast fashion giants can't do

For hundreds of years, fashion has been permeated from top to bottom.

In the big shows of two seasons each year, all the details on the T-stage are the research objects of fast fashion brands and wholesale markets - colors, fabrics and sewing methods are "copied" from Paris and Milan shows to Hangzhou Sijiqing and Guangzhou Baima markets, and then sink to the distribution networks all over the country.

Until recent years, the fashion world still follows such a way of information transmission. However, there is another role called "Internet celebrity" who participates in the research of fashion trends: they choose the style, add some "independent design" details, and sell personal brand to fans.

But on this chain, subtle changes are taking place.

A large number of young people in Hanfu, Lolita and JK uniform appeared on the street. More and more minority clothing began to come out of the circle.

What caused this change is the e-commerce platform. Taobao didn't create Hanfu or JK uniform, but it must be the one who grabs the market and amplifies the trend. The year before last, Qiao Qiao discovered the sales volume of Hanfu when observing Taobao data, so he began to recruit a large number of merchants, "this is a process of expanding the market."

Taobao organized sellers, seize the soul of fast fashion, but not just follow, but homemade a "popular.". According to the data, the market scale of the "three pits" of Hanfu, Lolita and JK uniforms has exceeded 10 billion, and 60% of the population under the age of 25.

This is not what fast fashion brands can do. You'll find that even companies like Zara who actively understand market demand still need to follow the trend and determine the timing of new product release through the dynamics on instagram. No matter how fierce the eyes and the unique insights, they all seem to be passive.

This may be one of the reasons for the decline of fast fashion industry.

Fashion is not that important

Why is fast fashion declining?

To be sure, fast fashion, which has been chasing fashion, is not a style. Although the styles are diverse and often new, Zara are always facing the same group of people. Its design will not deviate from the aesthetic preferences of the mainstream market, which makes it likely to ignore the needs of the niche market.

The popularity of street style in recent years is precisely accompanied by the popularity of hip-hop and hip-hop programs, from underground to mainstream minority culture.

One or two hundred yuan can buy a street fashion suit, and it looks as cool as rappers. This cheap and easy to get fashion attribute has made street style popular quickly. It is also the hot topic of fast fashion. The attraction of Zara in the past lies in that white-collar workers who have just graduated can also pursue fashion and wear big brand designs.

One day, the "small number of players" killed in Xieli were beaten to pieces. There is no permanent fashion in fashion circles. This once let a lot of business people blindly chase after popular run.

Deer and birds were once the representatives of "sell whatever is popular in the market". In 2007, it started as a Taobao men's clothing store, and in three years it rushed to the forefront of the industry. However, due to unclear product positioning and development bottleneck, it ushered in the first transformation.

At that time, the most popular fashion on the market was Hangzhou style women's clothing: lace, self-cultivation and femininity were the key words. In 2010, deer and birds also followed this trend, focusing on women's wear. Several popular items were sold for tens of thousands of pieces.

But soon, "the mode of selling goods doesn't work.". Xiaoxiao, the co-founder of Lu and Feiniao, told ecommerce online that the importance of branding made them transform again. At that time, the store had accumulated more than 1 million fans, and the change of style meant that it was hard to sell for a period of time.

After several months of hard transformation, deer and birds are once again the head sellers of Japanese clothing. In 2014, there were not many Japanese clothing sellers. Deer and bird stood out with a price of one or two hundred yuan and a relaxed and cool style. However, the popularity of Japanese clothing began to decline.

Xiaoxiao clearly, fashion clothes attract more young people's attention. But she doesn't plan to transform again this time. The seller, who has always been chasing hot spots, has finally settled down.

Now the deer is related to the bird. The main reason is that they have built a brand and found their core followers.

Xiaoxiao told ecommerce online that the repurchase rate of deer and bird fans is more than 50%. An old fan from Hebei Province started to buy clothes in deer fish and birds since 2014. From college graduation to becoming a treasure mother, she will share photos of clothes she wears at each stage to businesses.

Precipitation of a batch of Zhongfen is the experience learned from wanghong.

"All our businesses can be regarded as celebrities. It naturally has the conditions of personification and content. " Qiao Qiao said, "since 2016, Taobao has been operating businesses in the way of operating celebrities."

As a matter of fact, Japanese clothing, which has stepped out of the fashion circle, has become a subdivision category and represents the aesthetics of a group of people - their dressing styles may have been fixed for a long time. The market will be tired, and the popularity will fade. But behind every commodity, there are a group of regular supporters.

The operation of fans, as well as Taobao guess you like the push mechanism, so that businesses can always find like their own users, there is no need to chase too much popular.

After all, fashion will pass and it will come back.