Behind Shanghai Fashion Week: How do designer brands look directly at profitability?

Shanghai Fashion Week is still in full swing, but behind the fashionable show and innovative exhibitions, some calm thinking is still needed.

Fashion is also an industry. When designers are branded with a sense of fashion, commercialization is always a problem that cannot be avoided.

How to make a designer brand profitable in the face of discerning buyers and consumers? “Open source and thrifty, rooted in products, rationally allocate resources, and learn to leverage leverage.” At the same time, it is the summary of the designer service platform, Showroom (buyer collection store) and the founder of women's wear brand.

Designer

Cost control is the premise of cost performance

The reporter learned from the clothing exhibition of Shanghai Fashion Week that the price of autumn and winter of many brands is mostly concentrated at 800-4000 yuan. Wang Ting, founder of the trend sports brand exciTING, said that the original intention of her brand was to make more young people who like this style affordable.

Previously, because many designers lacked effective cost control, they had to increase their prices to make profits. Now, the price/performance ratio is perhaps what the designer brand is pursuing. H&M China Purchasing Director Xu Yushi has had many years of buying experience. She said at the MODE TALKS held in Shanghai Fashion Week: "The budget is the first thing buyers think about."

In some large clothing brand companies, commodity planning often has a comprehensive budget system to maximize profits, and designers then complete the design under the existing framework. Even fast fashion giants like H&M have only put "fashion" in front of some series to relax the cost range. This is especially true for independent designers who have to face funding issues to maintain the normal operation of the brand. "Self-discipline is freedom" is equally suitable for them.

According to one designer, in general, the cost of a piece of clothing consists essentially of three parts, fabric cost, design and production. The former is often a fait accompli, so the fundamental question is how to effectively spend energy and money to reduce unnecessary time and labor costs.

In the MODE TALKS, Yang Fan talked about the specific reasons why the start-up designer brand is difficult to make profit. “There is insufficient estimate of the cost, or the allocation of inputs in various sectors is unreasonable, resulting in excessive cost. On the other hand, they often lack experience on the market side. Quality, delivery, positioning and pricing can be problematic, so that market acceptance is not high."

She suggested that the initial energy and funds should be spent on polishing the product itself. “In the market, cost-effective, distinctive and good design is always scarce, and it is worthwhile to delve into and develop.” So, how to make the product cost-effective Can you still have enough surplus?

Yang Fan believes that at this stage, designers should maximize the cost savings, such as completing the pattern-making work, sharing the sample workers and machines, and finding more suitable accessories and processing plants.

Her other identity is the founder of the American women's wear brand, feorran, and she is also firmly committed to “high cost performance”. After returning home in 2014 to adjust, feorran the re-launch of the new autumn and winter 2017, black and white gray tone, cut, wild simple design, the cost will be mainly spent on imported fabrics.

After two years of entering the market, some effective public relations can be done with sufficient funds. The key to communication is whether it can affect buyers and consumers, and it is necessary to consider conversion rates rather than aimlessly saving money. In Zhang Xiaoming, director of China Affairs of Los Angeles Fashion Industry Co., Ltd., it is very important to do financial planning. “Many designer brands have failed because they have not mastered the inventory, which leads to the break of the capital chain. Therefore, the designers have been from the first day. Put financial indicators at the top of the list."

The exploration of the online market is becoming a trend

After the product is developed, it is necessary to find the right sales channel. As more and more Showroom and emerging brands emerge, buyers are more rational, return to products, and expand online and offline multi-channel operating models.

For most designers, there is a lot of financial pressure to open the store directly. Therefore, entering the store through the traditional ordering mode has become a regular option for entering the market. Yang Fan further shared the current development of domestic buyers' stores. She believes that it can be roughly divided into the following categories:

1. Personal shop, often the retail space created by the manager based on interest and personal style;

2. Large-scale chain buyer's shop, with financial support, business model is sometimes combined with real estate development, so it will consider the commercialization of designer brands;

3. The transformation of traditional dealers, after accumulating a large number of users and shopping mall resources, seeking to upgrade consumption, the purpose of opening a buyer's store is mostly to seek profit;

4. The traditional brand of business development, financing needs and the demands for talent to market new business models.

In addition, online shoppers are becoming a force to be reckoned with, both in terms of customer price and selection. "Clouds clothing" Yang Fan I founded in 2015, the platform will provide online agency to find shops and services, but also on the line electronic business platform YCO SPACE App help sales.

Since last year, more and more new-born brands have opened a store online, and have chosen to open a Taodian store. The exploration of online markets is becoming a trend.

“As more and more luxury goods enter the e-commerce, and more and more designers gather online, everyone’s attitude towards e-commerce has changed.” In the annual Chinese designer survey, the fashion media “Glory” Wang Qiong, the fashion design director, found that consumers ranked first in the selection of e-commerce platforms when purchasing local designer brands.

After 2010, some brands have even made online the only choice at the beginning of their creation. Open, low-cost, and online communication channels have become the main reasons. The secret fan and Ms MIN, which were the highlights of Shanghai Fashion Week, were the first designer brands to be born in Taobao, and the latter settled in Lane Crawford.

According to Feng Guang, the founder of the secret fan, with the help of the online platform, the young designer brand can bypass the middlemen, saving operating costs on the one hand, and strengthening the real interaction between themselves and consumers on the other hand, thus promoting brand growth. . This designer brand, which was born on the Amoy platform, has been established for only 3 years and has stood out with its unique style. Compared with traditional channels, online channels are more flat and transparent, just as Feng Guang, the founder of the secret fan, laments: “The open e-commerce platform is more generous to designers.”

The original designer brand of Qu Gao and Wei began to embrace change and value different consumers under different business attributes. Wang Qiong also revealed that from the opening of the online sales channels of designer brands, there are often three types of official websites, Taobao stores and micro-stores with sales functions, of which Taobao stores account for a maximum of 38%.

However, it takes time for designers to fully embrace the online line. Judging from the situation we learned at the Fashion Week, many designer brands and showrooms still show their resistance to online. For them, e-commerce is more like a double-edged sword, which can help to make a name, but there are also crises that are quickly followed.

Personality and good sales, how should the designer brand balance?

Except for a few successful cases, most designer brands seem to be naturally insulated from the public. Brands must weigh the importance of display and consumption. Pursuing individuality or selling is the left and right sides of the game that designers always play. From the perspective of fast fashion brands, Xu Yushi values ​​the wearability and good selling of products. “The sales cycle of clothing is very short, usually only 5-6 weeks, and it needs to be sold at the highest price.” If the traditional brand and independent designers cross-border cooperation, then we must consider how to play the designer's personality and further weigh the relationship with the market, "This is a difficult choice."

But must the design and the market be contradictory? In the opinion of an independent designer, designers may be able to pursue individuality in a more purely artistic field, but once they become designer products, they must have a market concept. Both need to be treated differently. “For example, the catwalk needs to consider the results of the show, and has the comprehensive ability to consider whether it can generate capital flow, depending on whether the market recognizes you.”

With the upgrade of consumption and the cultivation of design talents in more colleges and universities, the designer ecology is becoming more and more prosperous, which is both a challenge and an opportunity.

Zhang Xiaoming emphasized the importance of soil for local designers. It is recommended to cherish the Chinese market in brand planning, adhere to local culture, and reinterpret Chinese elements. This is a unique opportunity. In addition, in the survey of gorgeous designers, women's wear and men's wear accounted for 96% of the brand design field, so there may be room for further digging for children's wear, underwear and wedding dresses.