"During this period, the average daily traffic flow was only single digits, as there are no customers today." Recalling the scene of queuing customers at the store door before the outbreak, Wang Ying, a shopping guide at a luxury shopping mall in Beijing, was extremely emotional. .
"Compared with rice, oil, noodles and other necessities, the sales of non-rigid goods such as luxury goods and cosmetics are much worse than before." Wang Ying reluctantly told the Beijing News reporter that Valentine's Day propaganda activities were originally prepared and have now been received Go to the notice to "low-key processing" and listen to the headquarters saying that other regions may even cancel, so as not to appear "out of date".
The new crown pneumonia epidemic struck, leaving the fashion retail industry driven by passenger flow into a "quick freezing period." The postponement of resumption of work across the country, closure of cities and roads in various places, and the continued decline in the number of shoppers have disrupted fashion companies' production, launch and delivery plans for the new year, and directly affect the revenue of physical stores.
For clothing manufacturing factories at one end of the fashion industry's production chain, life is not easy.
Zhang Yi, a person in charge of a shoe and clothing manufacturing plant in Zhejiang, broke his heart for the employees' income. "The start of the factory means income and development. How long the epidemic impact lasts, everyone has no idea. In this way, factory sales, employees Revenue has become a problem. Last year, our company had a turnover of nearly 100 million yuan. It is not good whether we can reach 8 Chengdu last year. "
While worried, Zhang Yi saw a new trend in the development of the retail industry. "Our customers are constantly developing online business, and many physical stores and shopping malls are also moving from offline to online. Maybe the epidemic is an opportunity. An opportunity to thrive in physical stores online. "
Surprise attack:
Brands closed and closed, "Spring Festival stalls" ended
"Seriously, I'm very panicked now. After the resumption of work, I don't know how far I can go to work to make samples, and as far as I know, offline activities such as fashion week and trade shows are still hesitant to postpone or cancel, Without cancellation, whether buyers and media will come to the conference, especially overseas media, makes me very anxious. "Costume designer Xiao Qi is worried.
Xiao Qi's worry is a microcosm of the anxiety face of the entire clothing industry. The epidemic has hit, and the fashion retail industry, mainly represented by clothing, is renewed quarterly, which is greatly affected by seasonal changes. For offline channels, the outbreak has made winter clothing clearance miss the "Spring Festival stall". Normally, most of the brand's spring clothing has been launched during the Spring Festival, February and March should be the peak season for spring clothing sales. Now, in the face of unknown conditions, how many apparel companies are caught off guard.
"At the current stage, the sales of physical stores have plummeted, resulting in a backlog of spring clothing inventory. If the inventory cannot be digested, it will lead to a lack of cash flow and directly affect the purchase and turnover of the next quarter." Sakurako, a regional retail manager of a domestic women's clothing brand.
"Because I don't know how long it will last, what we can do now is to choose a reserve, mainly for the basic models that have not changed much, etc., and then sell them normally in the second half of the year." Sakurako said. Communicate again, return some styles, and then minimize the spring styles and focus on summer styles. This should be the path that most apparel companies choose. "
Internally, apparel companies choose to reserve funds to reduce inventory; externally, most brands choose to temporarily close their stores due to the decline in sales caused by the epidemic. Uniqlo, H & M, Levi's, GAP and other brands all said that the epidemic has affected offline sales and has taken "special" measures such as temporarily closing stores and shortening business hours. Levis said that nearly half of its stores in China have been temporarily closed.
"The Spring Festival holiday is a golden period for offline store sales. Due to the outbreak, provinces and cities have initiated a first-level response to public health incidents. As physical store hours are reduced and some stores are closed, clothing companies will suffer short-term sales. Certain impact. In the long run, as the inventory increases, many companies will also increase the cash flow pressure. "Clothing brand La Chapelle said.
It is not just clothing companies that are affected. "I wanted to go to the mall to buy her favorite cosmetics and jewellery years ago, but because of the public health risks caused by the epidemic, I decided to buy wealth management products after discussing with my wife." Consumer Mr. Zhu decided to "don't leave Many places. "
The entire fashion retail industry, such as clothing, cosmetics, and jewelry, is facing difficulties. There is no passenger flow, no cash flow, and insufficient epidemic prevention supplies. Inventories, labor costs, and rents have become difficult problems.
"Our brand has 337 stores and now only 175 are open." Zoe, a local skincare brand leader, told reporters that there are three main reasons for closing the store. "One is that most stores are closed because of the uniform requirements of local government departments. Secondly, although some enterprises have not yet required the closure of the local government, the safety of employees cannot be guaranteed due to the shortage of protective materials; thirdly, the passenger flow is reduced or there is no passenger flow, and cash back cannot be used to pay back store rent and labor costs. "
chain reaction:
"If you don't start work, there will be costs and losses."
Zhang Yi, a person in charge of a shoe and clothing manufacturing plant in Zhejiang, has been worried for a long time. "If you don't start work, there will be costs and losses. Start of the factory means income and development. Now the resumption time is expected to be delayed by an average of 20-30 days, and it will take longer to restore production capacity."
Zhang Yi was worried that even after the resumption of work after February 7, the proportion of foreign workers who returned before March was not too high. Even if they returned, they would not be able to work during the quarantine period. "People either can't come back, they can't get to work, or they don't work hard at work."
"Generally speaking, around March is the peak summer delivery period. There are two direct consequences of order delays, one is the problem of default deductions, and the other is the increase in inventory. Textile and apparel companies need to cooperate with the upstream and downstream industry chains to complete For the orders, if the supporting companies can't resume the work synchronously, a lot of work can't be completed. "For this situation, Zhang Yi is worried that there may be two situations, one is insufficient demand, and the other is insufficient summer product supply.
"How long the epidemic impact lasts, everyone has no idea. In this way, factory sales and employee income will become problems. Last year, our company's turnover was nearly 100 million. It is not good to say whether it will reach 8 Chengdu last year."
Garment factories are not the only suppliers affected now. A small cosmetic product often requires the cooperation of dozens of processes and dozens of upstream supply chains.
"It's too early to resume normal production, because suppliers can't resume work," said Li Nan, the founder of a well-known domestic cosmetics packaging company. "A complete set of cosmetic packaging needs to be completed by plastic factories, glass factories, and printing factories. The processes are different and there is no way to make reserves. This is a chain problem and a relay problem."
Once the cosmetics supply chain is stopped, there will still be "money" issues. Li Nan was a little nervous about the follow-up situation. "Maybe it will resume work in March, but the capital chain was not very good years ago, and the company still has a problem of starting capital. Even if it starts to move, the lack of employees or high-paid digging will increase labor costs."
Live sales:
"Contactless Shopping" Wins "Cloud Cabinet Sister"
Offline encounter "sniper", online? The reporter from the Beijing News learned in the interview that the epidemic situation might force the retail industry to usher in a round of reshuffles. Are brands, channels and retails "snapped down" by sudden changes, or are they exploring new opportunities? This tests the ability of the retailer.
Under the epidemic, "contactless shopping" unexpectedly became popular.
Zhang Yi deeply felt this. "Our customers are constantly developing online business, and many physical stores and shopping malls are also going from offline to online. Maybe the epidemic is an opportunity, an opportunity for the physical store to flourish online."
Online retailing is not a new concept, and the outbreak has spawned the development of a new industry, the "Cloud Cabinet Sister".
Starting from the Lantern Festival, after Intime's shopping guide Xiaohua finished eating lunch, the first thing was to find a corner, open the mobile phone and start broadcasting. This situation has been going on for a few days, Xiaohua feels "also very good", "Eating, sleeping, and doing live broadcasts are becoming three things I must do every day."
"During the epidemic, the mall was closed and customers had no place to shop, and our shopping guide was also very anxious. Now, Intime Department Store has joined hands with Taobao to invite nearly a thousand shopping guides to sell live goods at home to achieve 'contactless shopping'." Xiaohua said.
Large shopping malls are looking to move forward, and brands are no exception.
The local skincare brand Lin Qingxuan closed in nearly 30 stores in Wuhan. Since February 1, more than 100 local shopping guides have spontaneously adopted smart shopping guide tools such as "WeChat + Mini Program Mall" and "Ding Nao + Taobao" to continue working at home. . It is reported that from February 1st to 2nd, the performance of Wuhan area jumped to the second place of Lin Qingxuan's national performance. Among them, the day of sales on February 1 increased 234.2% year-on-year.
"The occurrence of this epidemic is a great test for the real economy. Under the epidemic, for clothing companies, the selling pressure, labor costs, storage and rental costs coming from the face are driving companies to think about self-rescue measures. On the one hand, La Chapelle will increase the promotion of online business marketing to meet market demand in special circumstances; on the other hand, the company will continue to explore new retail paths, including but not limited to WeChat marketing, webcasting, affiliate marketing, etc. Way. "The relevant person in charge of La Chapelle admitted to the reporter.
"As far as I know, many physical stores have begun to experiment with new channel forms, and they have also begun to focus on rapid realization of their marketing. Previously, they didn't know enough about the expansion of online channels, paid less attention to them, and had unclear monetization paths. Deep. "Said Xiao Tang, a fashion retail analyst.
Xiao Tang believes that most of the future shopping must be completed online, and the future physical stores will no longer be centered on "selling products" but will be centered on "providing experiences".
"After experiencing this epidemic, many companies have only realized the importance of the ability to acquire customers online. No matter what type of enterprise, they must have the ability to acquire customers online. The traditional method of acquiring customers is nothing more than telephone, Advertising, distribution, etc. But the initiative of these models is getting smaller and smaller, and the cost will be getting higher and higher. "Xiao Tang said.
Beijing News reporter Zhang Zeyan