Text | Zinc scale, author | Li Xuanqi, Editor | Li Xiaolin
In 2021, the Chinese market is no longer unfamiliar with the word "sinking". In recent years, with the help of the Internet, various industries have rushed into the sinking market, or the signs are just beginning, or the war is in full swing, or it has become white-hot or even eclipsed...
Whether it is an emerging consumer brand or an already mature e-commerce platform, no one is willing to easily give up the cake of "sinking market". Zhang Qingqing, on the other hand, has been in the sinking market for seven years.
Seven years ago, Zhang Qingqing began a clothing business in a county town in the southwest region. The source of goods from Dongdaemun, South Korea, to domestic factory stores, business methods from physical stores + purchasing to membership model + community, Zhang Qingqing seems to have always been keenly aware of what the current consumption habits are, but also can see the direction of the outlet, but she also understands that blindly following the trend is not safe.
In the past seven years, fast fashion brands have experienced a highlight moment in China and withdrawn; live e-commerce and community marketing have become keywords that every brand and platform are emphasizing, and they have frequently exposed shortcomings; the fate of clothing purchasing has also fluctuated...
What is a little surprising is that Zhang Qingqing has successfully played many forms of Internet marketing by relying on different business logic in small counties, different from blindly relying on traffic and marketing, and also different from sticking to traditional ideas, Zhang Qingqing not only keeps up with the direction of the times, but also weighs up, and finally walks out of his own "sinking" road.
Even if Zhang Qingqing's county is only a tiny sample, the road of operation that Zhang Qingqing personally explored has its particularities, but more or less, Zhang Qingqing's seven-year "sinking road" is closely linked to the torrent of the times, and may also provide a window for impetuous and fragile emerging brands and industries to glimpse another calmer and longer-lasting path.
Open the "East Gate" of South Korea to the county seat
Time is reversed back to the starting point. In 2014, 23-year-old Zhang Qingqing thought about opening a clothing store in the small county where he was born.
The county seat is located in the north-central sichuan basin, 107 kilometers from the new first-tier city of Chengdu. Despite the name of a large agricultural county and a large population county, it is still an unknown local county. If you look at it from the plane, it is difficult to find it. Therefore, young people continue to lose and run to the surrounding urban areas.
But Zhang Qingqing likes this leisure in the county, and more importantly, "low cost". At that time, Zhang Qingqing's funds in his hands were not abundant, "In addition to the decoration of the storefront, the family also gave me 100,000 yuan as start-up funds." If I open a store in the city, in addition to the more expensive rent of the storefront, I may have to rent a house for myself to sleep. ”
In fact, the current rent can also see the difference between the operating costs of the county and the urban area, Zhang Qingqing store is about 30 square meters, and the golden road where it is located is now rented about 1500 yuan-2000 yuan a month, while the monthly rent of the same area of the same area in similar areas of Chengdu Can be as high as 6000 yuan.
Therefore, without much entanglement, Zhang Qingqing made up his mind. The only time-consuming link is site selection. "The flow of people is large, the rent is cost-effective, and it is best to have a good environment in the surrounding community." In the end, Zhang Qingqing's clothing store was located in a section of about 1,000 meters long, and at both ends of the road were three forks, and mid-to-high-end residential buildings were rising from the ground. Seven years later, looking back at Zhang Qingqing's decision, it is not difficult to see her foresight, and this road has later become a local Internet celebrity road because of the ginkgo trees on both sides.
When the store opens, the supply is crucial. At that time, the "double 11" opened up by Taobao has achieved the fifth session, online shopping has long been no stranger word, and many physical stores have also been more or less impacted. Especially in the clothing industry, the stores of the online shopping platform do not have to be trapped in rent, and the same piece of clothing can always give the physical store a low price that cannot be afforded.
"At that time, everyone knew that they had to go to Taobao to compare prices." Zhang Qingqing understands that if you can't find a lower price source, you can only find a more unique source. "At that time, many of the Taobao were sold from domestic purchases, and I thought that if I didn't go abroad to buy some exclusive money to sell back, it would be difficult for customers to compare prices." Young Zhang Qingqing originally had the habit of looking for South Korea to buy, and now Korean dramas are also on fire, and South Korea's Dongdaemun is also favored by young people, so Zhang Qingqing decided to go to South Korea's Dongdaemun to talk about the source of goods.
In fact, since the korean drama in China in the early 2000s, "Korean style" has been hot for a while. In just a few years, South Korea's Dongdaemun has also changed from a local offline clothing wholesale market to a clothing trade center with "Chinese gathering".
According to the "Mangzhong Story", by 2010, half of the sales of many stores in Dongdaemun came from Chinese customers. Around 2014, Dongdaemun Street was full of Chinese, "Koreans rarely go shopping, you can enter the store, you can hear the Korean bosses of the stalls talking about Chinese." ”
"Compared with the domestic women's wear market, the update frequency of Dongdaemun is faster, the stalls basically maintain 1-2 times a week, and the production cycle is one week, so I can continue to be new." Zhang Qingqing flew to South Korea for the first time to select goods, she secretly felt that her choice was not wrong, and in the process of dealing with the Korean bosses of various stalls, she also became more and more clear about how to do it in the later stage, "The selection is definitely the most important, both the style is popular and more characteristic; the other must be matched, whether it is the collocation of the model in the store or the collocation that I recommended when the guests came to the store, and even the collocation map I sent to the circle of friends later, it must be good-looking, to be trendy."
Therefore, since 2014, Zhang Qingqing will fly to South Korea almost once a month, often landing in the early morning and rushing to the East Gate, "In fact, there are many people squatting there to do purchasing, and then the outside of the stall is basically still packing suitcases." Slowly, Zhang Qingqing has his own familiar and stable supply of stalls, but also accumulated experience in collocation, "I insisted on about a year, every month to personally go to the selection, to negotiate, a year later slowly became a quarter to go once, and then will maintain telephone or email contact with the stall, such as replenishment, or to temporarily increase some sudden popular models and the like." ”
And the county because of the purchase resources are less, Zhang Qingqing's shop clothes are completely different from other traditional clothing stores in the county, style update, more fashionable, has a unique competitiveness, "so the first year in fact, I quickly returned to the original, but also accumulated a lot of stable customers, and even many young people are back to their hometown suddenly came to our store to shop, found that we are South Korea's Dongdaemun clothes, back to the big city will also look at the clothes in my circle of friends and then directly order me to express the past." ”
But at that time, the young people in the surrounding urban areas were only a small part of Zhang Qingqing's customer source, and a larger part was still the young people and even middle-aged people who stayed in the county, "In fact, I paid great attention to the quality and taste of clothes when I chose the model, I would not choose the kind that although it was very popular, it looked like the texture was very poor, most of the models in our store were I was sure that I and my friends would be willing to wear out, and my mother was willing to wear it, so the price would not be too low, and it might even be on the same level as the consumption level of Chengdu." Zhang Qingqing knew, "This may screen out some customers, but the customers left behind are certainly accurate, consistent with my taste, and have a certain consumption ability." ”
Open branches to benchmark fast fashion, build a community to play with private domain traffic
From 2014 to 2018, Zhang Qingqing's road to South Korea's Dongdaemun did not stop.
In 2016, overseas fast fashion brands in China have maintained an expansion rate of nearly 20 stores per year for five consecutive years, while H&M Group opened about 100 stores in China every year between 2013 and 2017.
With the fashion elements of rapid store opening and rapid update, overseas fast fashion brands have flourished in the Chinese market.
Even in the county, Zhang Qingqing also felt this pressure from the outside, "because since 2016, many of the customers I know are in our county, usually in Chengdu or the surrounding urban areas or even in the north, Shanghai and Guangzhou, I can indeed feel that the frequency of them looking for me to place orders has decreased, and some fast fashion brands have attracted their attention." On top of that, we don't have much difference in pricing. ”
But if you hastily change the direction and abandon the style of South Korea's Dongdaemun to do the european and American style of fast fashion clothing, Zhang Qingqing feels that the risk is also very large, "On the one hand, the old guests are used to my style here, and if I change it rashly, it may be lost, on the other hand, if I do not have a good source of goods, the price is not competitive, even if the change of style is not much meaningful." ”
Therefore, starting from the autumn of 2017, Zhang Qingqing began to look for the direction of transformation. In this process, she found two feasible ideas, one is from 2016, due to the rise of live broadcasting, many Internet celebrity shops began to take shape, and the store manager or model with personal wear charm has become a trend; the second is that the source of goods behind many clothing online stores - Guangzhou Thirteen Lines is following the transformation, whether it is fast fashion or the clothing launched by Internet celebrity brands, guangzhou thirteen lines of the stalls have lower prices of the same source.
Following these two lines of thought, Zhang Qingqing made two changes, one is on the basis of the previous accumulation of customer sources, relying on small-scale live broadcasts to increase stickiness, in order to make these contents more accurate to reach customers, Zhang Qingqing pulled the first customer group in 2018, called "South Korea Single Booking", "Originally just wanted to try it, the result was pulled to pull the first group to be full, and then pulled a group, two groups of about five or six hundred people, for our small volume of physical stores has been very good." ”
Zhang Qingqing's membership group
At that time, Zhang Qingqing did not know that the concept of "community" would become the keyword of many industries in the future.
"I actually don't want to follow the trend to do online stores, so my live broadcast is basically to find a live broadcast platform to broadcast to my old customers to see, mainly to keep changing outfits, a day in advance to match dozens of sets of wear, wear them next to each other." Sometimes I also send videos or photos directly, which are shared in my circle of friends and groups. This path is actually not very suitable for expanding new customers, more is the group members will look at. ”
Broadening the path of new customers is another, in 2018, Zhang Qingqing opened a second store, close to the old store dominated by Hanfeng, the style is positioned as a trend fast fashion, and the source of goods comes from Guangzhou Thirteen Lines. "I will clearly tell the customer that the supply of this store is not Korean, but I also go to the stalls to go door to door to select the products, and the target is the fast fashion models, but my pricing will be lower." Zhang Qingqing told Zinc Scale, "In fact, I usually visit those fast fashion brands, so I know that they are basically not matched because of too many goods, and the model pictures on the official website are not very in line with the Asian aesthetic, so I still use the old store set, and once the new model arrives in my store, I will definitely use all the intentions to match it out and let customers learn from it." ”
Zhang Qingqing's collocation diagram
The advantage of this is that when customers come to place an order, they often place an order, and "the unit price of the customer increases." Zhang Qingqing said.
The business of the new store soon went smoothly, so Zhang Qingqing also hired a store manager, and the two had a clear division of labor, "I am responsible for wearing and taking pictures, as well as the update of my circle of friends in that number." She helps me to take care of group chats, reply to some basic questions, take care of stores and the like on a daily basis, and update her outfit photos in her circle of friends. ”
In addition, Zhang Qingqing began to learn from the marketing methods of major e-commerce platforms, and launched some promotional activities at some important time nodes, including various statutory holidays, double eleven and anniversary celebrations, including "discounts, full reductions, lottery gifts, coupons" and so on.
It is not difficult to see that although it is a physical store business, from maintaining the customer base to daily operation, Zhang Qingqing has applied some important paths in the Internet era to his own small shops, and they have brought considerable results.
Don't open an online store and don't do live broadcasting, and transform before the "black swan"
In 2019, Zhang Qingqing's community has stabilized, and there is a third group, and the members of the two stores have begun to merge.
The year was actually an important turning point.
The influence of the internet celebrity shop on the e-commerce platform is getting stronger and stronger, and Zhang Dayi, who is a model from Xinwei, has taken advantage of the east wind of social media to create his own brand - "My Joyful Wardrobe", the parent company Ruhan was listed on the NASDAQ in this year, and the popularity of the Internet red brands "Mrs. Qian's Home", "Sydney Customization" and "ASM ANNA" has also increased; and the fast fashion brands that have ushered in unlimited scenery have gradually declined, and many brands have shown signs of withdrawal.
Zhang Qingqing noted, "Although the Internet celebrity shop is attached to the appearance, figure and collocation ability of the Internet celebrity, it has quickly become popular, but in fact, the supply of many Internet celebrity brands is not really exclusive and self-made, and I can also find the same model in the thirteen lines of Guangzhou, and I don't have to face too many customers, just continue to do one hundred and eighty small Internet celebrities in my community, I can ensure stable income." On the one hand, I am very clear about my own ability, once I become bigger, I may not be able to do a good job of quality control, logistics and the like; on the other hand, the Internet celebrity brand is actually found to be taking goods rather than self-made, in fact, it is quite easy to be criticized, but I can only take the goods to sell, customers are also clear, they are more to buy my vision and collocation. ”
To put it simply, Zhang Qingqing is using the development ideas of Internet celebrity brands to build his own small shop, but the focus is not on expanding the "plate", but on improving the "value-added" of the goods.
Looking back on the decision to open a branch, Zhang Qingqing could not hide his happiness, "After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic at the end of 2019, the entire purchasing business was suspended, if I had not started the transformation early and had a stable supply of domestic goods, then I might have been affected by the epidemic for a long time." ”
Zhang Qingqing's goods
Zhang Qingqing did make a correct choice.
According to the "Mangsang Story", in 2020, three-quarters of the year has passed, the epidemic in South Korea has risen and fallen, in mid-August, a businessman couple in Dongdaemun was diagnosed with new crown pneumonia, and more than 600 stalls were urgently closed. The number of Chinese buyers who remained in Dongdaemun was less than half of last year. Under the influence of the epidemic, there were originally four raw material markets, but now only three are left. Many stalls have closed under pressure.
Therefore, under the impetus of the tide of the times, Zhang Qingqing no longer has to travel to and from South Korea, "In fact, it is a good thing for me, because I also have a lot of fixed sources of Korean style in these places in Guangzhou Thirteen Lines, but if there are too many domestic purchases in my old store, perhaps old customers are not very willing to accept, and now with external factors, it is logical to let the domestic supply replace the Source of Goods in Dongdaemun, and I can also save a certain cost." Zhang Qingqing said.
Under the epidemic, when the physical industry has been more or less impacted, live e-commerce has gone against the current. From the embryonic period in 2016, to the exploration acceleration period in 2017 and 2018, and then to the outbreak period in the post-epidemic era, live e-commerce is accelerating its expansion from the perspective of turnover, users and enterprises. According to the data released by iResearch, the scale of China's live e-commerce market will reach 1.2 trillion yuan in 2020; as of March 2020, the scale of China's e-commerce live broadcast users will be 265 million, growing rapidly.
Whether as a consumer or a merchant, Zhang Qingqing is also aware of this, and even her 10-year-old son has learned to buy things in the live broadcast room. But even if the live e-commerce is applauded, Zhang Qingqing is very clear, "This is the outlet that I can't rub, in the end, the form of live e-commerce is a way to empower brands or merchants, an emerging channel, but it is not too necessary for small businesses like us." ”
Many of the peers in the first-tier cities that Zhang Qingqing knows have also begun to try to do live broadcasts themselves, or ask anchors to bring goods, but more or less have hit the wall. "The pain of doing live broadcasting is that there is no strong supply chain, and the price cannot beat the big anchor; the anchor's pain is that he can't afford to pay the pit fee of the big anchor, and the small anchor can't move the goods." Zhang Qingqing was once again glad that he was not in the first- and second-tier cities, "I think the live broadcasting industry may just look beautiful, maybe in the first- and second-tier cities, you don't do live broadcasting as if you can't do it, in fact, in the county, there is not so much pressure in this regard." ”
The big market has ups and downs, and the sinking market has been good for years
A year later, a lot of facts seem to really validate the fact that the live streaming industry just looks beautiful.
There are frequent problems such as false publicity of anchors, falsification of live broadcast data, non-cashing of gifts, delayed delivery, and incorrect goods, coupled with frequent tax evasion and tax evasion. The most recent incident is that on December 20, 2021, the Zhejiang Provincial Taxation Bureau announced the tax evasion case of the head anchor Wei Ya, and made a tax administrative treatment penalty decision against Huang Wei (net name: Wei Ya) in accordance with the law, recovering taxes, collecting late fees and imposing a total of 1.341 billion yuan.
Gorgeous "robes" are constantly being torn off, and "lice" are constantly eating away at the order of the entire industry and the trust of users.
On the other hand, fast fashion brands that have had an impact on many domestic clothing brands have lost to China in this year. According to the Internet list, in fact, since 2016, the market has frequently reported that foreign fast fashion brands terminated their Chinese business, first the British brand ASOS ended the operation of the Chinese market, and TopShop and New Look also followed the footsteps of ASOS and abandoned the Chinese market.
Under the pressure of the epidemic, GAP's Old Navy could not withstand the pressure to leave the Chinese market, C&A sold its Chinese business, Superdry abandoned the Chinese market, and Mango suspended its plan to open stores in the Chinese market. In August 2021, the American fast fashion brand Urban Outfitters announced the closure of Tmall stores, and Urban Outfitters, which has not even touched physical stores, also means withdrawing from the Chinese market.
The big market looks up and down, while Zhang Qingqing is unique in the sinking market years.
Although in the past two years, many e-commerce platforms and brands have begun to pay attention to the sinking market, and try to besiege the sinking market through "price wars" and other forms, Zhang Qingqing once again insisted on his own views on the pricing matter, "If you want to win the sinking market, the price is indeed important, after all, everyone feels that the consumption power of the sinking market is very low, but in fact, the user group I want to compete for is not a low consumer group, on the contrary, I have not been priced low, because I am aiming at a group with strong consumption power in the county." ”
Zhang Qingqing's pricing is not low in the county seat
It is precisely because of this that when e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo and other affordable or even low-priced e-commerce platforms try to grab users, Zhang Qingqing has not significantly reduced prices, "and my customers are still increasing."
At the end of 2021, Zhang Qingqing began to work on a new business that she was optimistic about - new coffee drinks. "Milk tea and coffee have been heating up in recent years, but there are actually very few milk tea brands in the county, and the chain brands have not opened here except for Mi xue ice city, and some self-created brands are of poor quality." So I felt like there was room. Zhang Qingqing this time aimed the user group at the local middle and high school students and young people who stayed in the county, "They often go online, will be infected by milk tea culture, and may often go to first- and second-tier cities, and have the habit of consuming milk tea or coffee." ”
Zhang Qingqing's drink shop
Zinc scale found that Zhang Qingqing's beverage shop is also in line with the aesthetics of young people at present, "The store decoration should be young and good-looking, and young talents are willing to take pictures and punch cards." ”
On the third day of 2022, Zhang Qingqing's beverage shop officially opened, and she opened 2022 with a circle of friends of "a milk tea shop sister who seriously sells clothes".
(Zhang Qingqing is a pseudonym in the text)