In January 2021, Lin Xue (pseudonym), a clothing shopping guide in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, had a new identity: “Cloud Shopping Guide.”
During that period, due to the epidemic, Lin Xue’s clothing store was closed The business was forced to close, and Lin Xue had to stay at home. Under the company’s initiative, she quickly transformed online and became a “cloud shopping guide.” Her customers have also moved from the store to WeChat, social groups, and live broadcast rooms. In the past year, countless clothing shopping guides across China have been experiencing the same career changes as Lin Xue. Mobile phones have become their most important “production tool”. Behind this change, the apparel industry is experiencing a historic “private economy” trend.
Shopping guides, “connectors” in the private sector economy
In 2020, the Affected by the epidemic, physical stores have closed down one after another, and private e-commerce has become a life-saving straw for clothing companies.
Youngor, Anta, Semir, Peacebird, GXG, TeenieWeenie… are all attracting traffic through public accounts, WeChat groups, corporate WeChat, live broadcasts, etc., and then using marketing tools to attract new customers Fission, facilitating transactions.
In the private operations of most clothing companies, “shopping guides” play a vital role. They understand the brand, the products, and the customers. They are the best people to connect the brand and customers. Therefore, they have become a key node for the brand to reach customers and attract traffic.
Take the clothing brand TeenieWeenie as an example. When the epidemic was at its worst, it cooperated with Youzan to quickly launch a WeChat mini program within a week and recruit 7,000 employees (including Most of them are shopping guides) registered as “salespeople”. Salespeople can earn sales commissions by placing orders online.
Through this method, TeenieWeenie’s mini program generated nearly 10 million yuan in sales within 2 days, 80% of which was contributed by “salespeople”. On the first day of the event, the number one salesperson achieved a sales volume of 130,000 yuan in a single day and received a commission of 10,000 yuan. It can be said that he “made money while sitting at home.”
In addition to the distribution rebate model, there are also many shopping guides who directly enter the brand live broadcast room and become anchors with goods. With its own professional capabilities, it turns the live broadcast room into a new sales battlefield.
Chairman, promotes rapid growth in the private sector from top to bottom
If a shopping guide is The “ace” that is indispensable when a brand moves into the private sector, then the chairman is the most powerful “engine” when a brand moves into the private sector.
On February 13, 2020, Youngor Chairman Li Rucheng held a video conference with 10,000 people and told company employees: “On the basis of doing a good job in epidemic prevention, all employees must Learn online sales skills.”
As a result, 20,000 employees at Youngor headquarters, regardless of age and department, have joined in this all-employee marketing war. From the management to the front-line workshop workers and store shopping guides, everyone is transformed into a “salesperson” and attracts traffic to online malls and live broadcast rooms by posting in Moments and establishing WeChat groups. Employees with strong sales ability can bring in sales of more than 100,000 yuan in a single day.
“My own weekly revenue is more than 200,000 yuan. The most expensive item sold is a four-piece silk and linen set worth 18,800 yuan.” Li Rucheng happily revealed , the day with the most sales by all employees exceeded 10 million yuan.
In fact, the most prominent clothing brands in the private sector usually, like Youngor, make decisions from the founder and senior management levels and promote strong execution by the team. GXG, TeenieWeenie, Peacebird, and Anta are all examples of top-down efforts to promote rapid growth in private sector business.
Only when the management realizes the value of the private domain and achieves internal unity, can the private domain business really take off quickly.
Multi-store simulcast, a new weapon for brands to empower stores
Brands operate private domain traffic, There are many mature ways to play, such as multi-person group play, bargaining and fission, community group buying, private domain live broadcast, etc. Among them, private live broadcast has become one of the most effective forms of attracting traffic and selling goods.
Compared with live broadcast platforms with huge traffic, why should brands choose “private live broadcast”? The relevant person in charge of the men’s clothing brand Shanshan expressed the aspirations of many clothing companies:
On the one hand, private live broadcasts can allow brands to interact better with fans. Live broadcasts by experts are usually quick, giving each brand very little time. There is no way to make a detailed display, and it is impossible to reply to customers’ questions one by one. However, brand self-broadcasting can give customers a more patient service experience;
On the other hand, private live broadcast can also save a lot of costs and increase profit margins. Private live broadcast does not require the purchase of slot fees, and the cost savings can be directly given to consumers and loyal fans through discounts and benefits, allowing them to bring more new customers.
In the development of live broadcast business, clothing companies are alsoGradually explore your own “new model”. Taking Youngor as an example, it discovered during a live broadcast event last year that almost all stores hope to bring goods through live broadcast, but not all stores have live broadcast capabilities.
What should I do? Youngor finally used the “multi-store broadcast” technology that you like and love to shop, so that stores can live broadcast and sell goods without any threshold. The headquarters will broadcast live in a unified manner, and all stores will broadcast simultaneously, and the transactions brought by each traffic will be attributed to their own stores.
Through this technology, in April 2020, Youngor’s first attempt at “Ten Cities Simulcast” was a great success, with nearly one million people pouring in in just a few hours. Viewing ultimately drove sales of 8.28 million yuan.
Top 10 listed clothing brands’ private domain attack path
More and more Leading clothing brands are entering private e-commerce. According to preliminary statistics from the China National Garment Association, among the top ten domestic listed apparel companies in terms of revenue in the first half of 2020 (note: only mass consumer apparel companies are included), it was found that these 10 companies have all built WeChat malls through different methods and channels. /Mini program, try community operations, shopping guide distribution, and private live broadcast.
(The construction of the WeChat mall of the top 10 listed clothing companies in terms of revenue, 60% cooperated with Youzan to build mini programs)
During the epidemic, the private sector even became the main performance driver of these brands.
Peacebird has revealed that its WeChat community has exceeded 1 million people. During the period from March 5 to 8, 2020, Peacebird achieved a total sales of 246 million yuan, and the single women’s clothing brand sales exceeded 100 million yuan, of which more than half was achieved through new retail methods such as WeChat mini programs and live broadcasts.
Anta’s transformation in the private domain is more urgent. Starting from January 26, 2020, Anta cooperated with Youzan to complete the development of a full-staff retail system within 48 hours, and gradually enabled more than 10,000 shopping guides to transform online and become “salespeople”; within 10 days, help dealers We have launched 42 micro-malls, forming an “online chain” matrix.
Clothing brands’ increasing focus on private areas has also driven the rapid growth of service providers behind them. For the whole year of 2020, the total transaction volume of private domain service provider Youzan has reached 103.7 billion, of which the growth rate of the clothing category is as high as 70%.
Among the TOP10 listed apparel companies, 6 brands have cooperated with Youzan, using the latter’s technology to build mini programs and use live streaming, price bargaining, flash sales, Various marketing tools such as multiple discounts on multiple items promote transactions and repeat purchases.
The transaction scale of the entire WeChat ecosystem is also rising. In 2020, the annual transaction volume of mini programs was approximately 1.6 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 100%. Ye Jian, general manager of Tencent Smart Retail Business, predicts that in the future, 40% of the retail revenue will come from offline stores, 30% from centralized e-commerce, and 30% from the private ecosystem.
Whether it is the clothing industry or the wider retail industry, the “money scene” in the private sector is just beginning. In 2021, with the continuous improvement of infrastructure such as mini programs, corporate WeChat, and video accounts, the private domain potential of the apparel industry will continue to be released. </p
