Chinanews client, Beijing, July 30th (Zuo Yukun) The New Year "A set of pajamas lasted the entire Spring Festival" is still vivid, and the summer has come in a blink of an eye. Are you looking to buy clothes again?

The off-season is two months earlier, "It is harder to keep a shop than a widow"

  "There is a popular saying in the clothing circle. It is more difficult to keep a shop than to be a widow." The shop owner Mu Mu (a pseudonym) smiled bitterly. "Under normal circumstances, this time should be entering the off-season, but this year’s off-season is almost two times earlier than in previous years. Months."

  The epidemic has reduced consumers' purchasing power, market demand has rapidly reduced, and a large number of offline clothing stores have been forced to close. The capital turnover of production enterprises is tight, and operations are hindered and it is difficult to maintain normal operations. The clothing industry has entered the off-season ahead of schedule.

The "Super Mall" located in the Zhengzhou Golden Commercial District closed its shop. Photo by China News Agency reporter Wang Zhongju

  "2020 is bound to be a turbulent year. It is estimated that China's apparel market will evaporate at least 400 billion in revenue and the overall market size will shrink by 15%." Liu Jinyan, vice president of Market Department of Convertlab, gave a keynote speech at a clothing conference in Shenzhen. highly anticipated.

  On January 23, the 29th of the twelfth lunar month of 2019, Mu Mu posted a "Fu" on her store door when she was off work, leaving a "perfect ending" evaluation in the circle of friends.

  "It is said that winter clothing will be cleared in January and spring clothing will be in February." At the time, Mumu, who was still thinking about what to do when she returned to work on the seventh day of the first month, did not expect that this holiday would be closed until March 1.

  Before closing the business a year ago, in order to connect the winter and spring market, Mu Mu had entered more than 10 boxes of slightly thicker transitional spring clothes. Unexpectedly, when it reopened, these new clothes became inventory.

  "Although it was opened at the time, the factory production was delayed and the goods were not available on hand. All of them had to be ordered. The apparel industry has always been ahead of the consumer market for about 3 months. It has always been one step faster. This is the first time for me. I feel what it's like to sell'futures'." Mu Mu said, after making clothes for four years, for the first time this year, she had a strong desire to close the door.

  According to data from the China Apparel Industry Association, from January to May 2020, the retail sales of clothing products of units above designated size in my country totaled 288.7 billion yuan, down 25.6% year-on-year, and online retail sales of clothing products fell 6.8% year-on-year.

In order to save himself, Runbo lost almost 20 catties in one month

  "On March 20, Friday, the sales were 1166 yuan; March 19, Thursday, the sales were 2658 yuan; March 18, Wednesday, the sales were 1567 yuan... The total sales in March was 26645.7 yuan, and the gross profit was 1,1714.2 yuan. "The owner of the clothing store Jiajia (pseudonym) looked at the book and was very satisfied with her performance.

  "I lost nearly 20 catties during that time. I really did it." Jiajia ran two trips to Guangzhou to purchase goods in March. "Basically, I lost ten catties of meat in one trip."

  Guangzhou and Hangzhou are the two most famous clothing distribution centers in my country. Relatively speaking, Guangzhou's clothes are cheaper, refurbished faster, and have more styles. It is also the most familiar wholesale place for Jiajia in the south.

In February, Guangzhou SDIC Network Clothing City, which has not yet resumed the city. Photo by Wang Jian

  Jiajia remembers very clearly that the Guangzhou Shisanhang Wholesale Market opened on March 4, and she went to Guangzhou on March 5 when many of her colleagues were still waiting and not daring to go far. "The procedures at the time were particularly cumbersome, and the business hours of the mall were also short, from 8:30 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon. Before, I was lavishly buying goods, and I could get tens of thousands of dollars in excess, but at the time I basically took a few thousand dollars. Brakes."

  "Wholesale stalls generally do not have stocks. You have to wait for one to two hours before the delivery boy will deliver them. There are also many receiving workers at the door. They can send the logistics to the store directly for five to ten yuan. ." Jiajia introduced.

  "Women's clothing is basically changed for half a month, and a month for a big change. The clothes styles of last month may not be popular for this month." So, in mid-March, Guangzhou Wanjia Clothing Wholesale Market opened, good Jia became the first group of guests there again.

  "At that time, there were still many stalls in the wholesale market that were not open. The most impressive thing was that because there were fewer people going there, the attitude of many ladies at the stalls was better than ever before." Jiajia laughed.

  While many ordering merchants were still waiting for their orders, Jiajia, who dared to work hard, became the fastest newcomer in the mall and made a lot of money.

Online sales help me "cross the catastrophe"

  Insiders pointed out that this year's clothing market has a significant gap compared with previous years. In addition to the inability of manufacturers to start operations and the inability of timely supply of goods in the early stage of the epidemic, the inability of retail stores to attract customers has become the main reason for the continued decline in the market.

  "The shop is good when I want to open a branch, and when it's bad I want to sell it quickly." The clothing shop owner who wanted to open a branch a year ago had a good business and smiled (pseudonym), and was in a hurry every day after learning that the mall was about to postpone its business. Like ants on a hot pan.

  "The most deadly thing in making clothing is to reduce the cost of goods. If you don't open a store, you can't sell winter clothes, and you can't get spring clothes without liquidity. It's a vicious circle." In mid-February, Xiaoxiao waited for the good news: where you are. Of malls allow merchants to come in and take out goods.

  It took a long time to move the clothes home from the store, and two days to take pictures and organize them. Xiaoxiao pulled a few "limited time spike groups" on WeChat, and dealt with all winter clothes at the lowest price.

  "I feel that the most correct thing I have done in the past few years is to actively add customers to WeChat. If you came to the store to buy clothes, you can add 10 yuan off if you add WeChat. You can add it if you don't buy it. This way I have accumulated a lot of regular customers. "

  Xiaoxiao has always paid attention to the creation of a circle of friends. It must have its own life expression, product display, and even sales results. After the spike activity started, many people who had nothing to do with their phones at home came to "familiar" Xiaoxiao to buy clothes. Xiaoxiao successfully recovered the funds and easily cleared the inventory at home.

At the end of February, Yiwu businesses brought masks and mobile phones to open the market in Taobao live broadcast rooms to accelerate the resumption of work. Photo courtesy of Ali

  "Online" has also become the main self-help channel for the entire apparel industry. Dai Honghua, secretary general of the Women's Clothing Branch of the Wenzhou Clothing Chamber of Commerce, once said that from the survey feedback of the Zhejiang Clothing Industry Association, during the epidemic, 19.34% of member companies switched from pure offline sales to online sales, and 54.84% of member companies adopted Various forms have increased the layout of online sales channels.

  "I have had a very stable life for the past six months. Basically, I sell 20-40 pieces of clothes a day on average, which is the same as last year." said with a smile, "In fact, any industry is very difficult. Accumulation and persistence are particularly important."

In the post-epidemic era, consumers prefer cost-effective clothes

  Improvement is also slowly happening in the industry.

  According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first May of 2020, China's retail sales of clothing, footwear, and knitting textiles totaled 406.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 23.5%, and a decrease of 7.8% compared with the previous April. The resurgent market has also attracted newcomers eager to try.

  "I lost my job during the epidemic and had no income for nearly 5 months. Opening a clothing store has always been my dream, so I temporarily decided to open a store and take a gamble." said Xiaohuan, a newcomer in the clothing industry "post-95".

  "The location I chose is on the third floor of the shopping mall. The rent and transfer fee are relatively cheap, but there are not so many shoppers who come to this floor. The total area of ​​the shop is 36 square meters, and the decoration costs all add up to about 8,000 yuan. The decoration master, The wall painter and the purchase of materials are all purchased and hired through market consultation. Although the process is very tiring, it is a bit of saving."

  Xiaohuan, who started a new business tremblingly, said that he had long been prepared for this year's business meeting and wanted to stick to his own style and clothes that everyone liked. "Unexpectedly, I opened the store on May 24, and the two-day trial business had a turnover of 3,500 yuan, which really exceeded expectations."

Citizens buy clothing in shopping malls. Guo Jiashe

  What kind of clothes do you like? Xiaohuan said that according to his own exploration during this period, clothes with good quality, high wearability and obvious price advantage are the most popular.

  "When I first started buying, I bought some'fancy' clothes. After all, the average price of spring and summer clothes is relatively low. I think there are always young girls willing to buy some cheap and nice little clothes, but their sales are far. Not as good as I thought."

  Bruno, a global partner of Bain & Company and senior leader of consumer goods and retail business in Greater China, has also said that the new crown pneumonia epidemic has accelerated the trend of "pursuing cost-effectiveness" that has emerged in 2019.

  According to statistics, consumers probably only wear the latest fashion items about seven times, and the average number of times the clothes are used has dropped by 36% in 15 years. In other words, the happiness brought by fast-moving clothing has become lower and lower. With more and more people "holding their pockets tightly", "buy less, buy well" may become the future of the clothing industry. development trend.

  How many new clothes did you buy this year? What are they like? (Finish)