Inman is a women's clothing brand, with the east wind of Internet retail to develop and grow, once won the 2013 Tmall Double 11 women's clothing sales champion. On that day, Inman's sales reached 126 million yuan, and the entire Tmall GMV (total transaction volume) was only 35 billion. That night, Inman founder Fang Jianhua and Alibaba helmsman Jack Ma and Daniel Zhang (Xiao yaozi) connected to witness the continuous rise of that number. The following year, As the only representative case of women's clothing brands, Inman was written into the prospectus of Alibaba's IPO.
After more than eight years, on the eve of 618 in 2022, Fang Jianhua published an article - "This year's 618 "lying flat", no play" He called on the platform or the brand to abandon the layers of promotional routines, and not to stare at the GMV anymore, behind the numbers that have been repeatedly rushed up, there is an increasingly high return rate, tired merchants, consumers, and the already difficult business environment under the epidemic.
Over the past decade, womenswear tracks have changed. It is a must for e-commerce platforms to compete, and it has also been a fertile soil for Internet brands; In the era of the king of live e-commerce, women's clothing has supported the initial ambitions of Via and Sydney. The times have set off waves after waves, and Inman, like many other "Tao brands", once stood at the head of the tide, but at the same time faced the catch-up and transcendence of latecomers.
Now, Fang Jianhua no longer wants to be the first, how to keep himself on the field, not to be squeezed out of the game at the same time can also live out his own characteristics, is his concern.
Here's what he had to say —
Text | Cao Mohan
Edit | Zhao Lei
Operational | Painted fireflies
"Lying flat" 618, a tough survival account
When we posted that article, we were all waiting for the epidemic to end. There's really no way out.
Every day when I wake up, I haven't done anything, that is, the cost of seven or eight hundred thousand, the rent of offline direct stores, the wages of employees, the cost of inventory storage, etc., all of which we have to pay.
At that time, Shanghai had not yet restored the order of production and life, our stores there were still suffering, a total of more than 100 offline stores nationwide closed their doors, and some stores that had not closed for more than two consecutive months had zero sales, and there was a backlog of inventory. Online sales also have many cities that cannot ship goods, and the sales of Shanghai alone account for 10% of Inman's entire online market.
In this case, 618 came.
The objective environment is there: the epidemic has been going on for too long, everyone's income has been affected to some extent, and consumer confidence and ability are declining. Even if the consumption, are also concentrated on rigid demand, chai rice oil and salt this category, non-rigid do not want to buy, after all, the opportunity to go out is less, social occasions and needs are also less, you can turn out the clothes in the wardrobe first and wear slowly.
In order to stimulate consumption, the platform has come up with the largest promotional plan in history. For example, the platform coupon issued by Tmall supports cross-store over 300 minus 50, and the double 11 strength is not so big. But to the brand here, the platform after the anti-monopoly is not so hard to fight before, the investment is shrinking, you will see from last year's double 11 to this year's 618, whether it is Tmall, JD.com or Vipshop, basically can not see them to do a lot of advertising, that the subsidy to the brand is not as good as before, the cost of promotion is actually our own responsibility, which means that the profit of participating in the promotion will be further compressed.
Now there is a "cancer" in the clothing industry, the return rate of major platforms is very high, and the proportion of refunds and returns on some platforms has reached 60%, that is, only 40 pieces of selling 100 clothes can receive money. This has a certain relationship with the cross-store full reduction, consumers in order to make up a single, may buy a dress and then return, may not have anything to do with the quality of your brand, the version. Although inman's overall GMV increased by 30% year-on-year this year, it can only be left with a few points considering returns and refunds.
These are superimposed on top of each other, and people have the idea of lying flat. But when I got to 618, I felt that I couldn't lie flat anymore, and I couldn't waste every crisis. However, there is a point of "lying flat", I and our operation team said, do not engage in so many marketing games, all preferential discounts should be simple, how much money each piece of clothing directly drops, a look will understand.
▲ Fang Jianhua posted on his public account, saying that Inman should "lie flat" in this 618. Picture / Screenshot of WeChat public account
A few years ago, as soon as I arrived at the big promotion, there were a lot of formulas, building buildings, pulling people, points exchange, everyone followed the trend to do, Inman also did, but at least from the perspective of ordinary consumers, I can't understand, I don't understand. This year's consumption is so weak, you do it again, it is even more to dissuade consumers.
Now 618 is over. This year's competition is not fierce, to put it bluntly, in the past two years, many merchants have been quite difficult, many brands may not be able to support it, we have maintained growth online, which is almost the same as my expectations. But offline is really worse than I thought, and inventory pressure is increasing. The sell-out rate of Inman's spring and summer goods is less than 60%, some new spring products can only be pressed to sell in the autumn, and unsalable clothes must also find some online masters to help us sell.
Last year's double 11, everyone saw Li Jiaqi sold 106 billion yuan a night, but this does not represent the prosperity of the entire e-commerce industry, because the original sales in the brand and the platform's own live broadcast room were passed on to Li Jiaqi, you just saw how big the sales of the head anchor was, but they did not make the whole plate bigger, just redistributed the resources on the plate.
By 618 this year, the platform did not emphasize GMV as much as in the past, especially Tmall, what sales data was not posted, and the ranking was gone. This is also the change I most look forward to seeing. The platform used to compete with GMV, which was a symbol of the status of the jianghu, but you must know that the final competition is still user evaluation, experience, customer unit price and return rate, so that e-commerce will become more and more healthy, rather than blindly rushing sales, and finally may not get anything.
In fact, it can be felt that consumers' dependence on big promotions is getting weaker and weaker. I myself never buy anything on 618 or double 11, the logistics pressure is so great, I like to buy it normally. Affected by the epidemic this year, logistics are not smooth, some needs have been solved offline, I only bought a shirt and a set of vegetable cutting artifacts online. Consumers are rational, and the platform has become rational, such as the promotion that starts at 8 p.m. now, and it used to always be necessary for people to stay up until after 12 o'clock to grab goods. I think that's a good sign too.
As a merchant, we still hope not to let the big promotion be normalized sales, do not sell before the big promotion, squeeze in the big promotion shipment, and the daily sales should still be stable, so as to represent the true level of a brand. I think the effect of the big promotion, which may be weaker than the next year, is continuously decaying, which is my personal judgment. Of course, we are also living on the platform to develop, or to follow the rhythm of the platform, otherwise you will not have enough to eat.
▲ Fang Jianhua posted two things he bought online this year. Photo / WeChat public number @ Inman Laofang
Transition from barbaric growth to painful transformation
Inman has eaten the dividends of the Internet platform, and since its creation in 2008, it has been an online retail clothing brand at the earliest. In 2010, we did double 11 for the first time without experience, the system collapsed, oversold more than 10,000 orders, when customers as long as the group complaints, Inman flagship store minutes were deducted points, closed stores. At that time, the discount was 50% off the whole market, and the gross profit of the merchant was also very low, everyone had enough energy and only wanted to impact the GMV, and we were no exception.
In 2013 Double 11, Inman sold 120 million yuan a day, took the women's clothing sales championship that year, and became famous in one battle. But we have more than 400 million stockpiles, and the pressure on cash flow is very large. Playing first place comes at a cost, and many people didn't know the brand at the time, only saw the number and the championship, but in fact we sacrificed profits.
▲ In 2013, inman double eleven activity site. Photo / Screenshot of inman's official website
I didn't think it was Inman's highlight moment. When you achieve results, it's good to have a sense of accomplishment, but don't get over-excited, because the challenges that follow are coming. In fact, after that, the dividend of platform traffic touched the ceiling, and we had to develop offline.
As early as 2011, Inman opened 20 stores offline, and no one knew. After a year of opening, we quietly closed the shops again. By 2015, we were making a comeback and everyone was not optimistic. At that time, a peer founder also bet with me that offline would definitely not be able to do it, but I insisted at the time that brands must go offline, and not taking offline is a problem of early death and late death.
We transformed the offline road, and at the beginning it was very difficult, online and offline are completely two systems.
There is no concept of space online, a store can put 10,000 styles of clothes, but offline, the area and location of your store determine your rent, your goods consumers can try, touch, it has the exquisite display. Therefore, offline pays more attention to series and collocation, as well as visual image packaging, while online pays more attention to whether a single product can become a blockbuster.
The advantage of our brands online is cost performance, many traditional brands, international brands have not yet entered the e-commerce market, unlike now. That we just did offline when we also used the online set of things, but soon found that we sold more clothes than offline traditional women's clothing brands, but the sales can not fight people, the unit price and the joint force of the comparison is too far, consumers come to us, may buy two pieces by one person, buy 4 pieces to others, the road of small profits and high sales does not work.
So later we still had to take the road of branding, transforming Inman from an original online brand to a cotton and linen women's wear brand, focusing on the comfort of wearing. I don't think that Zara and HM these fast fashion has a great impact on us, Inman has been walking in the cotton and linen literary style, we want to achieve this style of ceiling in the future, not to be a Zara, nor to be a Uniqlo, the positioning is different.
▲ Inman positioning is mainly based on cotton and linen literary style. Photo / Inman official promotional photo
Our team once mentioned to me that they hoped to do N styles and N series, but in the end they were all rejected by me. I'm not intolerant of trial and error, and sometimes I'll let them try a series or two, and when they hit the nail on the head, they'll go back and be more determined about our own style.
For example, rejuvenation. Inman's positioning is a 25- to 35-year-old woman, but the team feels that the current consumers are getting younger and younger, they want to be 18 to 25-year-old people, I also let them try, but after doing it, they found that young consumers are more sensitive to price, do not buy it, but will weaken our original consumers of the main age.
Because most of the 18- to 25-year-olds are in college, or just out of school, unmarried young women at this age care more about beauty than comfort, they don't care so much about quality and pay more attention to a certain style. And Inman is the main comfort cotton and linen, in fact, after being married and having a baby, it will pay more attention to the comfort of the fabric, which needs to be better experienced offline. So everything we sell offline is sold online, but there will be more styles online. Offline requirements for the texture of clothes will be higher.
Inman can't reach all female consumers in the country. For example, the northern market is still a blank in Inman. The seasons and temperatures in the north and the south are not the same, and the dressing habits and preferences of consumers are also very different.
I once went to the northeast on a business trip, when I went to see two or three stores, the goods store was completely wrong, like shirts, which are completely unsuitable for the north to sell the goods shop to the north. Although shirts are the best-selling category in Inman, northerners rarely wear shirts in winter, mostly only wear a leggings and a sweatshirt, and then put a large down jacket on the outside, and when they go to the heated interior, they directly take off their coats.
The KPI I set for myself was to go offline to see 100 Inman stores every year. You only have to actually feel it for yourself, and all your decisions don't have to be patted on the head in the office.
▲ Fang Jianhua in the Inman offline store. Photo / WeChat public number @ Inman Laofang
The second is the channel, how to go to shop more stores, the model we use is, do not need you to order, is my brand side of the goods, I shop to you, can not sell back to me, so as to reduce the pressure of franchisee inventory, breaking the original traditional order will mode, the original many franchisees ordered a bunch of goods, ostensibly to make money, and finally earned a bunch of inventory, this needs high profits, but our profits are not so high, the requirements for fine management are relatively high, need to feedback various data in time, such as gross profit, sell-out rate, Conversion rate.
So I have a requirement for franchisees, at least after 80, 90, relatively speaking, they are more adapted to our new format, new retail play, no inherent thinking, but also more love to learn. We will help franchisees to open a store site, including how to play the lighting of a store, how to put the moving line and display, there are many exquisite, to ensure that the brand has only one style.
The transition from online to offline is really painful, but you always have to go out of your way. I don't like the word "inner volume" very much, there is a chance at any time, anytime it is rolled, which era is not rolled? It's just that at the end, it will be seen whether you have been swept away by others, or if you have someone else gone, to see who is swimming naked and who is still on the beach. In fact, the "Tao brand" that grew up barbarically in the same period as Inman is now more than 90% dead, and if it is just a pig lying on the vent to eat dividends, it will fall down sooner or later.
Living longer is more important than being the first
The outbreak of the epidemic in early 2020 is a difficult time for all mankind. Each of us is changing in our lives, work, mentality and business style. Specific to the clothing industry, the entire supply chain has been under a lot of pressure.
Since the beginning of this year, the price of raw cotton and down has risen. Cotton, for example, suddenly rose by 20%. In addition, as a labor-intensive industry, the cost of labor is also increasing at a rate of 10% per year, and there are fewer and fewer workers available. At this time, the efficiency of the enterprise is crucial. If you don't want to transfer the pressure to consumers in the form of price increases, you need to do some fine management to cope with rising costs.
From international to domestic, epidemics, wars, trade conflicts, too many uncertainties may affect the survival of enterprises. The more such a time comes, the more you have to think about what you should do and what you should not do as a business operator.
Keeping good cash flow under the epidemic is the most important, at least the money on the account must be able to afford to pay all employees for half a year to a year, and half a year is the minimum requirement. Inputs that cannot generate sales immediately should be cut immediately. For example, we have done a lot of ineffective sales channels before, and for a long time, there is only input and little output, so we have to cut it in time and focus on the main channels.
▲ Inman celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2018. Graph / Network
Inman's current sales, according to online and offline points, is about 60% to 40%, if there is no epidemic, it should now be able to do 55. Among the online channels, Tmall Taobao's share accounts for 30%, and Douyin's share is 20%, which is our most important channel, of which the growth momentum of Douyin is more ferocious. Everyone realizes that this is a place with a lot of traffic, and potential consumers are also gathered here, but its ecology is also unstable compared to Tmall.
Douyin's e-commerce ecology today has some barbaric growth meanings. It calculates your traffic conversions on a per-second basis, and every merchant wants to grab traffic. But we have observed that it is not easy for content and live broadcast to be highly realized to match people, goods, and fields, and it is not easy for merchants to make money in it, and they are mainly based on investment, it is possible that you can't get up when you put traffic, but some content is very good, and you can do a good job without streaming, you have to learn.
I said very early on, "What you don't understand will eventually destroy you." Why are you losing? You just don't understand, so keep learning. But at the same time, we must also be clear about our own boundaries, do something, and do something not. I position myself as one thing in my life, so I only do clothing, and only women's clothing, nothing else. After graduating from college with a major in fashion design, I have been doing women's clothing.
We also prepared men's clothing, but in the end we all gave up. At that time, the team made some layouts, I don't see it at all, the fabric, the version, the process can not meet my requirements, nor is it good. I don't think I can do this with my knowledge and the genes of the current team.
The supply chain system and version of women's wear and men's wear are completely different, and it is a very professional category with a division of labor. I basically don't see companies that do well in men's clothing and women's clothing, and there are almost no such cases in the world. For example, Uniqlo's characteristic is to do the basic model, there is no bias towards which gender, it can be done in children's clothing, men's clothing, women's clothing, and there is no age distinction, because it is all basic models.
For example, we have not cooperated with Wei Ya or Li Jiaqi, the big anchor is completely driven by the price to buy, many merchants' own flagship stores may not be discounted, but when it comes to the big anchor, it may be necessary to reduce the price, and the anchor will ask for a lower price than the flagship store, so that the user of your brand may go directly to their live broadcast room. He trusts the big streamers, not the brands.
Each brand may have different ideas and positioning at every stage of development. If you are an emerging brand, relying on Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya to broadcast a show, suddenly opened up the popularity, it will definitely be helpful. But if you are a very well-known brand, the price reduction is to kill the chicken and take the egg, which is a harm to the entire brand.
Looking back on the more than ten years of being Inman, I regret more things. It turned out that we made a lot of brands, more than 10, and then cut it off, felt that we could not control it, and paid hundreds of millions of tuition fees before and after.
The brands that are cut are definitely my problem. The team didn't have enough energy, I didn't have enough energy. What we lack is not capital, but ability, the ability of the team, the ability of the organization. Now our group has about a thousand employees, focus on doing a good job of the existing brand.
The previous two impact IPOs have been shelved, in fact, it is still actively filing, and there are plans to go public in the future. But this process is not something I can lead, I only have to run the company well, the external environment, we can't control.
In 2015, we shouted the slogan of "thousands of cities and thousands of stores" and opened 10,000 Inman stores in 1,000 cities in 5 years. In fact, it did not think so fast, and now there are only more than 500 stores in the country. Later, our thinking changed, take your time, open 100 and do 100 well.
This year is so difficult, Inman still has to open 100 stores offline, and the company has come up with 15 million cash subsidies. Why? Because at this time, everyone is lying flat, and there are indeed many brands that close offline stores, and many shopping malls cannot continue, and can only reduce rents. I think this is a great opportunity, before with our brand influence, we may not be able to enter the shopping malls in some of the bustling parts of the city, or not get the best bunks, but this time it is possible.
Again, don't waste every crisis. Some time ago, there were various restrictions and nothing could be done, but now that the situation is better, it can no longer lie flat, can no longer wait, or has to take the initiative.
▲ Inman offline store. Photo / Inman official website
The article is original for The Daily People
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