On November 8th, in recent years, British fast fashion brands have been in cold in the Chinese market. After New Look announced its withdrawal from China, Topshop and TOPMAN, the brands of the Arcadia Apparel Group in the UK, also announced that they will close the Tmall flagship store, and the development of the Chinese market is in a state of uncertainty.
According to the “Electronic Business Daily”, at the beginning of this month, the British fast fashion brand Topshop announced that it will close the Tmall flagship store due to the adjustment of international business operation strategy. Five days later, Topman also issued the same announcement. At present, Topshop and Topman have entered the clearance chain in two channels of the Chinese market, Shangpin.com and Tmall.
In fact, in August of this year, British fashion brands Topshop and Topman announced that they would terminate their cooperation with China’s franchise partner Shangpin. According to the data, Shangpin.com has helped Topshop to test the Chinese market through E-Commerce channels since 2014. In December 2016, the two parties reached an agreement that Shangpin.com exclusively operates TOPSHOP in China, and plans to open the first independent store in mainland China in 2018. If the number of stores will increase to 100 in five years. However, at the beginning of this year, Shangpin.com was acquired. The acquired business does not include Topshop’s online and physical store operations in China, and Topshop’s first store has not been listed yet.
TOPSHOP is not the first British fast fashion brand to “lose” China. On October 18th, New Look officially announced its withdrawal from China, and will close all 130 stores to focus on the restructuring and transformation of the brand’s own business. In addition, the British street brand Superdry, known as “Pure English Blood”, recently issued a performance warning. This ultra-popular tide brand in the UK has not only fallen into the performance quagmire. Since entering the Chinese market, its performance has been sluggish and it has suffered losses for three consecutive years. The loss in China last year has expanded to 2.1 million pounds (about 18.92 million yuan). ).
Fast fashion brands have been developing smoothly since entering China. The stores are located in the core business districts of major cities. Uniqlo, ZARA, GAP, C&A and other brands have opened stores in Tmall and Jingdong. However, the British fast fashion brands have “fallen” in the Chinese market. On the one hand, the British retail industry has entered the cold winter, which has caused the collapse of these fashion brands; on the other hand, there are reasons such as excessive pricing, insufficient marketing exposure, and insufficient localization.
However, due to the economic slowdown and the impact of E-Commerce on the real economy, the trend of rapid fashion industry expansion has also begun to shrink. As of the first three quarters of September 30, the top ten fast fashion brands have added 205 new stores, down about 17% from last year. From the brand perspective, the number of new stores in the first three quarters of NEW LOOK, MJstyle and H&M decreased more than last year. , respectively, 25, 13 and 12, UR, MUJI, ZARA decreased slightly, Forever 21 expansion “stagnation.”
In addition, according to the latest report released by CBNData, as the consumption continues to escalate, the interest of young consumers in the post-90s and 00s in the country towards Zara, H&M and other international fast fashion brands is gradually fading, and domestic clothing such as Taiping Bird is rising. “Tencent 00 Research Report” pointed out that in the eyes of this most potential young consumer group, domestic brands are no worse than foreign brands.
Under this circumstance, the expansion of British fast fashion brands in the Chinese market is not dominant. As consumers gradually shift to online and change their minds, in the face of a volatile retail environment, fast fashion brands may usher in a new round of reshuffle.