China's clothing market sportswear boom turned to fast fashion

With ZARA, H&M, and GAP gathering in China, China’s apparel market has begun to shift from the five-year-long sportswear boom to the fast fashion field. Can these international brands known as “fast fashion” be the world’s largest in China? How will the apparel market achieve rapid growth and how will it affect the future of China's apparel industry?

A person in the clothing industry for many years to the author said that she personally compare ZARA and H & M, think that the positioning of these two is clear, can walk in front of the trend, can bring freshness to consumers. Although the pricing of GAP in China has been adjusted and relatively competitive, the style of clothing is not new enough.

Paul French, the chief representative of Tongya’s China in China, a market research agency specializing in Chinese consumer and retail market research, said in an interview with the media that GAP is a brand that is struggling in the international and U.S. home market. It seems a little late for China to become its salvation site.

Whether it is ZARA or H&M, they all copied the European style to China, especially ZARA, and even the items in the store were shipped from Europe. The reason why H&M China stores sells clothes is trumpet. The reason is naturally that all plate types come from Europe. For relatively thin Asians, trumpet can meet the needs of the body.

At this point, later GAP seems to be more concerned with the integration of the Chinese market. In GAP's store on Huaihai Road in Shanghai, all characters in the posters are composed of a Chinese and a foreigner. They want to tell the Chinese that the brand is international, but it also contains Chinese elements. This point and ZARA and H&M very much emphasize their own European lineage contrast. GAP also emphasizes humane service, but it remains to be seen whether such differences can really please Chinese customers.

Judging from the impression given by the store sales staff, ZARA China store staff are often proud of their attitude and are considered to be indifferent to their customers. Nowadays, the hot scene of the opening day of ZARA Shanghai West Nanjing Road Store has rarely been seen. Apart from the surging wave of biannual discount seasons, the gap between passenger flow and local apparel retailers is not significant at the rest of the time.

An industry source told the author that although she is more optimistic about ZARA and H&M, she and her peers believe that China's clothing retail market is certainly the domain of local brands after 10 years. Because local brands have a strong ability to imitate, they will learn the strengths of international brands in a short period of time.

Paul French also said that one issue that they are now very concerned about is who will become China's ZARA, just as Metersbonwe had previously challenged Giordano and G2000's Hong Kong casual dress giant hair. He believes that the Chinese mainland The growth of retailers in the fast fashion field is only a matter of time.

According to Paul French, the disadvantage of local retailers is that their apparel line is not as "fluid" as international brands, marketing practices are "a bit shabby," and stores are not attractive enough. In addition, in such a face and identity-oriented market, the lack of international status of the brand is also their shortcomings. But the advantage of local retailers is that when they are determined, they spread the goods nationwide very quickly. In addition, the manufacturing profit margin is also an advantage. Given the rapid increase in income and disposable income of second- and third-tier urban residents, we must not underestimate the importance of rapid distribution for maximizing sales and profits.