CHINA FASHION BUSINESS

Participants: LengYun Fashion Group 1

Date: January 2, 2022

Moderator: A Xue-Zhengzhou-Physical Stores

Introduction

Most people think that the threshold of clothing business is very low. Every year, many novices join in clothing business, but in fact, few of them cling to it. The business of shops on the street is constantly changing, and it seems that the shops have never been suspended. However, in fact, most people may not be aware the challenges that clothing business is facing.

The existing laws of running clothing stores

1. Why do customers come to your stores for shopping?

Moderator: As consumers, we are usually first attracted to the store by its design and window display, therefore store owners like to invest a lot in decoration. Take the small county town where I am living as an example, a small store of 30 square meters across from our stores spent about 50000 yuan for decoration. A two-story store with an area of more than 200 square meters spends more than 1 million yuan on decoration.

Nuanxi: Yes, it is easier to attract people with high-grade shop decoration style, and it brings more added value to the clothes in the shop.

Darren: Yes, in small towns in China, store owners indeed spenta lot of money on store renovation, but 50000 yuan for a 30-square-meter store is really expensive. In addition, it is not easy to run good business in a second-floor shop in a small town.

Moderator: The shop I mentioned mainly sells high-end clothes of Korean niche style, and their price is rather expensive, I am referring to the 30-square-meter store。

Darren: It is indeed very Korean simplicity style.

Nuanxi: Is the high decoration price also related to the store’s position

Liuxia: I think the shop is well decorated, and it attracts me to get in.

2. Why do customers come back to the store again and again?

Moderator: Customers enter the store for the first time by being attracted by the decoration style of the store. But the customers return again mainly because of the pleasant experience they had, or because of the charisma of the shop owner, and or the hospitality of shop assistants.

Darren: I think there are two kinds of shops popular in the small cities in China. One looks messy and full of stuff, the stores give people a sense of intimacy. This type of stores is usually called “the shop nearby home”. The other is the shop like what is in the pictures sent by the moderator.

Moderator: A good shop now sells not just clothes, but a range of accessories, such as shoes, bags, necklaces and hats.

Darren: Yes, accessory plays an important role in attracting customers Because they are cheaper and easier for mix and match.

Moderator: In small cities, those who do better business include super markets, they squeeze the margins to the extent that only a few yuan profit can be gained from a dress.

3. Why does customers bring their friends to your stores?

Moderator: For example, when I went to Haidilao Hotpot (a famous restaurant in China) for the first time, I felt good, I enjoyed a free manicure, so I invite my friends with me the next time.

Nuanxi: Me too. If I feel good, I will recommend the store to my friends.

Darren: The first experience is very important, and the recommendation will be made only if the customer accepts it.

Moderator: If I see a shop, which is famous on Instagram or Weibo, decorated especially beautiful, I would like to visit it and take photos of it. And after having delicious food, I always want to share it with my friends. We can apply the same logit to our clothing business. We can offer mix and match service to our customers. When they wear the dress, and her friends praise it, she willoften return to our store and bring her friends. Therefore, to make our customers feel good will lead the to bring new friends to our stores.

Liuxia: I will regularly invite professionals to give free lessons on dressing and matching to our customers. I also design a scene where customers can take photos. They all love it.

Nuanxi: That’s a good way, too.

Moderator: Only by getting the recognition of customers, can we get better publicity.

The overall layout of clothing stores, and the atmosphere and activities of Wechat marketing (Wechat is a product like combination of Facebook and Whatsapp in China)

1. The importance of store location

Nuanxi: In my opinion, location, transportation and foot traffic are also important.

Moderator: Before, as long as the location was good, there was a lot of foot traffic, but now the foot traffic is scattered to other stores. Take the small city here as an example, the foot traffic of the previous particularly popular places is also declining. But even in small towns and villages there are still some good stores that are popular on Instagram or Weibo. We need to be careful with the location of our shops for the rent is a big expense. The shop I took a picture of is in a prime location on the street.

Darren: If the store is on a high street, parking can be a problem. Moreover, there are still some problems. For example, the road is too wide, traffic is too busy and the inconvenience of the pedestrians to go across the road.

Becky: The rent is too high too.

Nuanxi: Yes. It’s hard to keep going unless clothing sells well.

Moderator: Yeah. Now the stores rather big, and big stores can be more expensive when there are no customers.

Darren: The location of these shops used to be in the center of the small towns. But as local economies grow, towns tend to expand their territory, consequently the popularity in the centerfades. Therefore, clothing business needs constant innovation, and choose the appropriate location, position product properlyand design popular styles.

Nuanxi: Yes, so the store needs to have its own core customer base.

2. The importance of the decoration of the brick-and-mortar store

Moderator: Now brands which sell well in our small town buy merchandises instead of develop their own products.  In a small city, a brand may have many shops on the same street, and their prices are affordable.  In my opinion, either the store should be developed into a landmark store with a large area, or there should be many stores on one street, so that the whole city knows this store. 

Darren: But for old type of stores, their sales clerks maybe also old? The older generation of staff may not have sense of fashion and hospitality.

Moderator: Yes. At present brands delegate their franchise to open store in small towns. But the margin left for franchisee is insufficient for them to open stores in the malls. We had a brand who were very successful before but now they disappear from the market because of the fierce competition.

Darren: It will be difficult for franchisee of the big brands to sell well in small cities in China. Big brands require store have 80 square meter, stores need to refresh the window display and pops and posters regularly. Every 2 weeks stores need to load new items. These high standards are difficult to achieve for stores in small towns.

How to use Wechat to do sales and marketing?

1. The way to Expand customers base in stores.

Moderator: My way of attracting new customers is to post new clothes and matching tips in Wechat, and tag the customer’s preferences in order to send suitable outfit to her according to my overall feeling of her.

Nuanxi: You are very detail-oriented.

2. The membership system of my stores.

Moderator: We do marketing in the Wechat customer group, and we can chat with customers when we are not busy. We need to discover the customer’s needs, get the customer’s phone number and take notes of their preference. As to the customer who buys nothing, we will also send small gifts to them and ask them to connect to our store’s Wechat. Every day in the Wechat group to we send red packets, and whoever gets the most can also get a small gift in the store.

Nuanxi: This helps to maintain customers.

Darren: I think the key is honesty and persistence. Without the good wishes, the marketing plan becomes empty and boring.

Nuanxi: Yes. Customers are able to feel your carefulness.

Moderator: In my opinion, sales is like being in love with customers. We need to greet and talk with them every day. We need to ask some customers why they don’t come to our store, how our store needs to be improved, what clothes they like now, etc.

Liuxia: You really work hard, and it’s not easy to keep doing this.

Mengxiaoqi: I find that some customers are also enthusiastic, they will discuss with you about what is popular at this time and what can you put in your store.

Becky: We need to be friends with our customers.

Translated by Gu Zhenheng