On September 16, Alibaba’s three-year-old “new manufacturing” model “Rhinoceros Factory” was officially unveiled. It targets small and medium-sized textile enterprises, and its core needs are small-unit and multi-batch production options.
Minimum order of 100 pieces, delivery within 7 days, Ali is holding back its “big move”
In recent years, China’s clothing retail industry has gradually shifted to online channels. In 2019, 70.4% of consumers in my country have online shopping experience for clothing, and 76.9% of consumers purchase clothing through online channels (e-commerce platforms, brand official websites, etc.).
With the rise of online stores, the barriers between clothing sellers and consumers are constantly being broken down, and consumers’ personalized needs are constantly being met.
Driven by this trend, textile people are increasingly aware that small batches and multiple batches have gradually become the mainstream order model in the market.
Under the influence of the epidemic this year, more consumers choose to buy clothes online. The most intuitive feeling reflected by Boss Bu is that there are more small orders every few kilometers. .
Alibaba owns Taobao and Tmall, the two largest online textile and clothing sales platforms in the country, which means it has the largest sales channels. It can understand what consumers like through big data, and directly communicate with clothing online stores. Connect and intuitively understand each other’s needs.
But according to the traditional model, online stores need to contact the clothing manufacturer themselves, and then the clothing manufacturer contacts The fabric dealer contacts the gray fabric dealer, dyeing factory, etc. After such a process, 15 days is considered very fast. And because except for popular items, most clothing orders are not large, they cannot effectively reduce costs.
At this time, Alibaba took action personally and came up with the “big move” of “Rhinoceros Factory” to directly connect online stores and manufacturers and integrate the supply chain to reduce costs and speed up delivery. Effect.
Alibaba describes the Rhino Factory this way: Generally speaking, the clothing industry has an average minimum order of 1,000 pieces and a delivery process of 15 days, but in Ali’s Rhino Factory, this process is shortened to 100 pieces. Minimum order, delivery within 7 days.
What impact will it have on textile enterprises?
The inventory problem is expected to be controlled
For the clothing industry, inventory has always been an unavoidable hurdle. Clothing brands produce blindfolded, that is, manufacturers and merchants don’t know when their order volume is large and when their order volume is small, and they all place orders and inventories based on feeling and experience. This results in either inventory accumulation or a severe shortage of inventory.
However, Alibaba’s e-commerce platform has a huge amount of data. Through big data calculations, it can basically estimate the approximate sales volume of a style of clothing brand, which to a large extent helps clothing companies reduce inventory. risk.
It is easier for companies to receive orders
Online stores are now the main force in textile sales. In the past, when online stores connected with upstream manufacturing companies, they needed to consider partners. Whether it is reliable, whether it can meet its own needs and produce qualified products is a technical task. Now that Alibaba has endorsed it, it saves shop owners the trouble of finding reliable manufacturing companies themselves. Alibaba will screen out suitable companies and place orders based on the requirements, and will even provide some technical details and difficulties required to produce the product, and ultimately produce products that meet the requirements efficiently.
For upstream weaving, printing and dyeing, finishing and other companies, receiving orders in the future may be the same as taking out takeaways now from Meituan and Ele.me. You can receive orders delivered by the system without leaving home. Order.
Changing the textile industry is not easy
But we must also see that the textile and clothing industry is one of the industries that has changed the least in thousands of years. From bone needles thousands of years ago to modern looms, its essence No fundamental changes have occurred.
As far as the fabric is concerned, the same 75D chiffon uses silk from different polyester factories, is woven in different weaving factories, has different dyeing factories, and uses different finishing methods. The fabrics that come out are all different, which is why when you see a fabric with the same name on the market, the price you get at the end may differ several times.
If you are producing clothing such as T-shirts and shirts with relatively fixed styles and relatively simple materials, the advantages of intelligent production will be relatively greater. However, when it comes to fashionable women’s clothing, which has the largest sales volume in the clothing market, it is difficult to grasp the color, material, feel, and style of fabrics using digital tools, and production still requires manual work. At this time, the advantages of the digital model over the traditional model may not be that great.
The structure of the textile industry chainIt’s not that easy to change, but “Rhino Factory” really tried, and that’s a good thing.
Editor’s Note
Ali “Hema Fresh” and unmanned supermarkets have also been launched before. They attracted social attention when they were launched, but disappeared from people’s sight after a period of time. However, “Hema Fresh” has not been popularized, but the cold chain distribution link in the market has become more mature; the wave of unmanned supermarkets has passed, but unmanned payment in supermarkets has become popular… Therefore, the editor judges that this time Although the “Rhino Factory” will not really subvert the entire textile industry as it says, in a sense it will indeed make the entire industry a big step forward in smart manufacturing and industrial chain integration.
Of course, these are all predictions now, and the final results will take time to prove, so let us wait and see.
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