Produced by One View Commercial
Author/Li Yan
Edit/Wooden Fish
April 9, #西班牙品牌ZARA多城大面积闭店#话题登上热搜. ZARA, which is known as one of the world's four major fashion chains along with HM, Uniqlo and GAP, can't stay in China anymore?
This afternoon, in response to the rumors that "ZARA will gradually withdraw from the Chinese market", the brand responded to multiple media: "It is untrue news that ZARA will withdraw from China on the Internet. The figure of nine stores closed in more than two months is also inaccurate, and ZARA has closed three stores in Huizhou, Dongguan and Baoshan in Shanghai in the past two months. ”
"We are constantly optimizing and upgrading our stores to bring a more integrated digital experience to Chinese consumers by opening larger stores and equipping them with efficient digital innovations," ZARA added. In August last year, we opened ZARA's latest flagship store in Shenyang Joy City, and launched a pop-up store in Shanghai and a local co-branded collection in the Chinese market. This year, the ZARA flagship store on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai will be renovated and upgraded. At the same time, it will continue to open new flagship stores in some cities. The Chinese market is an important strategic market for ZARA and Inditex. ”
One View Commercial called the three ZARA stores in Hangzhou and received a reply: no notice of store closure has been received. At the scene of ZARA's Xixi Impression City store, an employee of ZARA told Yilan Commerce: We will not close the store, and the flow of people is still good.
One View Commercial observed that on a weekday afternoon, about 20 people entered and exited the nearly 700-square-meter ZARA within an hour, of which four people entered the fitting room, and only one person paid the bill.
On the social media platform, the reaction of netizens was more intense, #ZARA大量粉丝紧急扫货#随之登上热搜, interestingly, under related topics, there don't seem to be too many fans of ZARA standing on the street, but a large number of netizens commented that ZARA is "not cost-effective" and "the quality is very average", and some netizens even questioned that "ZARA still has fans".
Zara,经 有很多 。
Once upon a time, the bustling business districts of first- and second-tier cities were occupied by fast fashion brands represented by ZARA and HM. Dare to put the unit price of the goods about 100 yuan, open next to LV and Gucci, which are often 10,000 yuan, which shows its once strong popularity.
According to the 2024 Global Billionaires List released in April, Amancio Ortega, founder of Zara's parent company, Inditex Group, ranked 12th with a net worth of $111.2 billion. Previously, Amancio Ortega has also won the throne of the world's richest man many times.
According to Inditex Group's latest financial report, its sales in the 2023 fiscal year increased by 10.4% year-on-year to 35.9 billion euros, and its net profit increased by 30.3% to 5.4 billion euros. Among them, the three fastest-growing brands were Oysho, which has transformed from a lingerie brand to a sports brand, Massimo Dutti, which has taken the high-end route, and Stradivarius, a young brand, which increased by 19%, 15% and 13% respectively. Other brands, including Zara, Pull&Bear and Bershka, all recorded 10% increases.
Notably, the share of "Asia and the rest of the world", including China, fell to 16.9%, compared to 23.2% in 2020.
In the view of Yilan Business, there are two major demands in the clothing industry, one is fashion, and the other is fast. In order for apparel companies to meet the ever-changing fashion needs of hundreds of millions of people, the core variable is "fast".
ZARA has a fast enough supply chain. Its ultra-fast supply chain comes from two aspects:
ZARA's pre-season production volume only accounts for 10%~15% of the expected sales volume, which greatly shortens the lead period, and replenishes the goods in a timely manner twice a week by tracking the inventory and sales volume of the terminal system in real time;
"One-stop" logistics and distribution system: the headquarters and the central logistics center form a 200-mile underground conveyor belt to ensure that new products are shipped to stores in Europe within 24 hours, and to the United States and Asia within 48-72 hours:
In terms of product research and development, ZARA's fully direct-operated terminal system covers more than 1,800 stores in 82 countries around the world, allowing it to grasp the terminal consumption trend in a timely manner and serve as a reference for its new products.
Even if ZARA can grasp the two key words of "fashion" and "fast", it can't stop the pressure on China's performance. In the view of One View Business, there are several reasons for this:
First of all, as China's consumer industry enters a new cycle with the theme of low prices, ZARA, which is positioned as fast fashion, has gradually lost its competitive advantage in terms of price and fashion compared with its competitors. In recent years, the domestic brand URBAN REVIVO and the Korean brand CHUU, which are also positioned in fast fashion, have opened stores in major business districts, and such brand products have launched a positive impact on ZARA in terms of fashion and cost performance.
For example, the price of a summer sling in ZARA is mostly in the range of 200-300, mostly black, white and gray color, and in recent years, dopamine wear and other high-saturation, bright clothing colors have become more and more popular, in competing brands, it is not difficult to buy a brightly colored "hot girl sling" below 200, and most consumers tell Yilan Business that there is really no need to pay for ZARA.
Secondly, after the ZARA Xinjiang cotton incident, the word-of-mouth impact on it in the domestic consumer market is still continuing. In the second half of 2020, many American and European apparel brand companies, buyers and retailers have asked Chinese suppliers and OEM companies to prohibit the use of Xinjiang-containing cotton, yarn and cotton products, including Zara. The incident also involved HM, which is also a fast fashion brand. At the end of February 2019, the number of H&M stores in China reached 535. But by the end of November 2021, the number of H&M Group stores in China had dropped to 445.
Finally, the development of China's online fast fashion has also taken away a piece of the pie that belongs to ZARA. With the rise of domestic e-commerce platforms, the ability to reach customers online is stronger than offline, so online instead of offline fast fashion has become a new trend.
Overall, ZARA's store upgrade aims at digitalization, which is an inevitable measure to combine the current development trend of the domestic market. Secondly, ZARA may also need to put a lot of thought into more aspects such as service capabilities, consumption scenario creation, and product iteration.