How much can a pair of underwear cost?
86 yuan, this is the answer given by the emerging underwear brand Jiao Nei. This value has gradually approached leading brands in the international underwear industry such as CK. And so far, the person who has given this answer is just three years old.
On November 13, 2020, underwear brand Jiao Nei received over 100 million yuan in financing from Yuansheng Capital, completing the company’s Series A financing. According to relevant media reports, after the completion of this round of financing, Jiao Nei’s market value will reach 2.5 billion yuan, becoming the underwear brand with the highest valuation in recent years.
According to information disclosed to the media by Zang Chongyu, the founder of Jiaonei, the funds obtained from this round of financing will mainly be used in the field of technology research and development.
Since the product was officially launched in 2017, Jiao Nei’s sales have experienced continuous substantial growth in three years, from 50 million yuan in 2017 to 360 million yuan in 2019. According to predictions, the total transaction volume in Jiao Nei in 2020 is expected to exceed one billion yuan, and the number of users may exceed 5.5 million.
Why has Jiao Nei suddenly emerged in just a few years and become a dark horse in the domestic segment?
1. The “concept” business of underwear
“Not only underwear, but also new technology”
Zang Chongyu, the founder of Jiaonei, is not a newcomer to the apparel industry. He and his partners were already registered in Jiaonei in 2016. The third clothing brand founded.
While founding Jiao Nei, Zang Chongyu has also been serving as the general manager of the competing brand “Crab Secret”. The brand was co-founded by Zang Chongyu and his partners in 2008, and its annual sales in 2014 reached 46 million yuan.
According to media information such as Sisiluo.com, Zang Chongyu had already started opening a clothing store on the Taobao platform as early as 2005. According to media reports such as 36Kr, Jiao Nei’s other founder and COO is also an entrepreneur with fifteen years of experience in industrial design.
To a large extent, Jionei’s success is due to its founder’s long-term experience and concepts in the industry.
As early as 2014, when Zang Chongyu, one of the founders of Crab Secret, was interviewed by the media, he expressed his ideas about the underwear industry. He believes that many underwear brands will symbolize the sex appeal of their products for the sake of sales and regard them as a quality that attracts the opposite sex. However, this marketing method is an overdraft of the brand image.
“I hope that Crab Secret gives people the impression of being comfortable and breathable, rather than attracting women,” Zang Chongyu said in an interview with the media in 2014.
Zang Chongyu also has different ideas regarding the connection between the brand and customers: “I hope people will patronize us not only because they are short of a pair of underwear, but because they have more demands for underwear. Just come and patronize us.”
The “underwear without sewn labels” that Jiao Nei specializes in is consistent with this concept. As time goes by, in the minds of more and more young people, “pleasing oneself” has replaced sexiness and become the new standard for choosing underwear. Jiaouchi’s concept coincides with this trend.
In fact, Jiao Nei is not the first or the only underwear brand to feature seamless labels. Whether in domestic or overseas markets, underwear without sewn labels has become a trend. Many old underwear brands such as CK and Mr. Aimu have launched products without sewn labels in response to market demand.
(Jiao Nei’s seamless label underwear)
Compared with similar competing products, Jiao Nei does have its unique advantages in body feel. The main materials of most underwear items in Jiao Nei are modal fiber and spandex.
It is worth noting that in order to make the underwear more skin-friendly and feel better, most of Jiao Nei’s items such as 500e use modal materials from the Austrian company Lenzing. Lenzing is the supplier of many international famous underwear brands such as Kim Anderson and Xuanji Underwear.
As a company whose main business is underwear, Jiao Nei’s brand culture is quite different from that of many of its competitors. Jiaonei founder Zang Chongyu commented in a Weibo repost on October 15: “Jiaonei is a scientific somatosensory company.” Rather than positioning itself as an underwear manufacturer, Jiaonei seems to be more inclined to position itself as an underwear company. In the field of technology.
Jiao Nei has indeed carried out a certain degree of deep cultivation in the technical field. Take the brand’s two recent best-selling items, non-removable boat socks and +℃ thermal leather thermal underwear as examples. These two items have truly solved customers’ pain points with boat socks and thermal underwear—— Boat socks are easy to take off, while traditional thermal underwear always hovers between not keeping warm and being too thick.
But to “sell underwear at a high price”, it is not enough to just have technology. It’s like Elon Musk stamped Tesla with a geek stamp—buying a Tesla equals coolness.
Jiao Nei also stamps its own underwear with the mark of technology – Jiao Nei’s underwear is not only underwear, but also new technology. Exporting “technical concepts” to consumers has become a crucial means for Jiao Nei to build its brand image.
Just looking at the concept poster of Jiao Nei, it is difficult to think that it is a company whose main business is clothing. While other underwear brand posters capture the model’s body and make a fuss about it, Jiaouchi hints at users with its minimalist design interface and cyberpunk-style model dress.This is especially true in the underwear industry.
Compared with many traditional clothing brands that tend to analyze consumer preferences through statistics of sales data from the previous quarter, Jiao Nei’s market research method is more direct-preliminary market testing to analyze market preferences.
The unique market research model can effectively reduce the risk and cost of promotion and serve as a “questionnaire” before the product is officially launched. In addition, Jiao Nei’s product layout model is also very sophisticated. Take the layout of the first batch of products launched in Jiao Nei from the end of 2016 to the beginning of 2017 as an example. A total of 27 products in this layout covered single products with different unit prices, design details, functions and styles, thereby testing consumers’ understanding of different characteristics. How much you like the item.
However, the 27 items laid out in the same period also have certain commonalities and product features. For example, all the products launched in this period are mid-waist underwear, and the styles are mostly sexy.
This product layout model similar to “controlled variable experiment” can give designers efficient market feedback to a large extent, so that they can make timely adjustments to cater to consumer preferences.
(List of 27 online products)
Today, Jiao Nei’s business field has also developed from simple underwear to thermal underwear, home clothes and even more Necessities of life for many other subdivided circuits.
Opening the Tmall flagship store in Jiao Nei, the cheapest product in the store is 25 yuan for a pair of anti-falling boat socks, and the most expensive is Takahashi’s co-branded home clothes priced at 699.
The expansion of business areas and the continuous increase in product unit prices all demonstrate the brand’s ambitions. However, the most sold product is still three pairs of underwear for about 100 yuan, and the most popular product among consumers is Jiao Nei’s underwear.
From a “trendy brand” in underwear to a real fashion brand, Jiao Nei still has a long way to go. </p
