In January this year, news of bankruptcy and liquidation suddenly came from Jeanswest, which had not been heard for a long time. However, this news was not surprising.
Just like those born in the 90s and 95s are familiar with UNIQLO, ZARA, and H&M, for those born in the 70s and 80s Later, many Hong Kong-owned brands such as Jeanswest, Baleno, and Giordano were once the “White Moonlight” in their hearts, which once opened up the young people in mainland China’s awareness of fashion trends. As time goes by, these brands gradually disappear from the public eye, and the sporadic news is often unfavorable.
Perhaps, the entry of foreign fast fashion brands and the rise of e-commerce channels have caused the clothing industry to feel a “cleansing” brand impact, and also made clothing people more deeply aware of The clothing market has always been an era of alternation between the old and the new. If you don’t advance against the current, you will fall back. If your product design cannot be updated, your brand influence will fade, and you cannot keep up with retail trends, etc., you will be gradually “abandoned” by the new generation of young people.
The decline of some traditional domestic brands and the flight of foreign clothing brands also prove that the industry erosion caused by a new round of consumption upgrades does not care about your past glory and success. No, I only care about the quality of your current products and services!
So what is the current status of the brands Giordano, JeansWest, and Baleno? In this article we will have a brief understanding.
01 Giordano encountered a “mid-life crisis”
Giordano, who is nearly forty years old, witnesses We have witnessed the glorious years of Baleno, JeansWest, and Smith Barney, and have also witnessed the overtaking of Uniqlo, H&M, and Zara. The cruel thing is that Giordano has to witness its own “midlife crisis.”
Giordano was established in 1981 and was successfully listed in Hong Kong in June 1991. In August of the following year, it entered the mainland market and pioneered It became the first casual wear retail chain store in China, seized a large market, and dominated the clothing industry.
In 2011, the number of Giordano stores reached a peak of 2,671; in 2013, sales hit a record of over HK$5.8 billion.
However, as foreign fast fashion brands represented by UNIQLO, H&M, and ZARA began to accelerate in China in 2006, Expansion has captured a large number of consumers. Taobao brands such as Handu Yishe and Inman are also becoming increasingly active. The older generation of casual brands are facing a double attack, and their performance has declined sharply. Giordano is not immune.
By the end of 2016, the number of Giordano stores was 2,397, with an average of more than 50 stores closed every year. Fortunately, this data is not terrible.
In 2019, Giordano still has 2,375 stores around the world. This number has not changed much from before. Compared with the wave of store closures in the mainland market in recent years, Giordano’s channel management It’s still relatively stable.
But even so, in the competition in recent years, this once leading giant has lost its strong Style, it is difficult to return to the glorious days when performance burst out.
Giordano’s latest report shows that in 2019, Giordano’s global sales were HK$4.852 billion, a decrease of 11.9% from HK$5.509 billion in 2018. In the first quarter of 2020, global sales were HK$1.057 billion, down 34.6% from last year.
In this regard, Giordano’s explanation is that the epidemic has caused a halt in social business activities, which has seriously affected consumer sentiment and Giordano stores. of passenger flow.
Although the epidemic has taken the blame, in fact, since 2017, Giordano’s sales in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao markets have shown signs of decline, showing an obvious trend of decline.
Comparing Giordano’s sales performance in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao in the past two years, the sales in mainland China increased from 2017 to 2017. HK$1.307 billion fell to HK$995 million in 2019; sales in Hong Kong and Macau fell from HK$969 million in 2017 to HK$772 million in 2019.
All in all, Giordano delivered an unsatisfactory report card in 2019.
It is worth noting that during the most severe period of the epidemic, the sharp decline in offline retail sales was expected , when major brands are increasing their online and offline dual channels, Giordano’s response is obviously somewhat “calm”. According to the report, in the first quarter of 2020, Giordano’s online business-group=”1″ src=”https://www.tradetextile.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/20200630090557316022.png”>
In Under this situation, Rising Sun Group sold Jeanswest for 800 million yuan, and we will never see its financial report again.
So, how did Jeanswest ruin a good hand at its peak? There is only one fundamental reason – retail thinking has not kept up.
In 2013, when Jeanswest experienced a sharp decline, the general environment was the second wave of e-commerce blowout in China. In 2003, Taobao was born. In the same year, JD.com shifted from offline to online, and the B2C e-commerce model started the first wave of craze in China. After 2012, China’s e-commerce ushered in its second major explosion. In 2014, JD.com and Alibaba went public one after another, and 618 and Double Eleven continued to set new shopping spree records. In 2018, the rising star Pinduoduo also went public.
There is no doubt that e-commerce has become the core battlefield of China’s retail industry, bringing a new set of retail thinking, but Jeanswest is still using the traditional model to cope with the times. change.
In response to the rapid development of e-commerce, Jeanswest first established an e-commerce department, and in 2017, it established “Jeanswest E-commerce” branch”. The name of this company sounds great, but in fact it only plays the role of “destocking”, moving products that Jeanswest cannot sell offline to Taobao, JD.com and Pinduoduo.
Jeanswest was punished for its neglect of e-commerce. In 2017, it had an omni-channel revenue of 1.6 billion and a loss of tens of millions. During the same period, the independently operated Semir e-commerce only had online sales. Just over 5 billion.
Many times, a single thought difference can make the difference between heaven and hell.
In Jeanswest’s financial report, it attributed its fall to e-commerce: E-commerce cooperation Mainland’s cheap logistics services have a huge impact on physical stores!
So, since we see that the trend is changing, why does Jeanswest not respond effectively to the changes?
Because it has no courage! It has admitted that it can only open up sales by using e-commerce and big data to completely transform its design concepts and operating models. But in the face of risks, its parent company retreated and ultimately chose to sell at a low price rather than try its best.
The once-famous “famous brands” Giordano, Baleno, and Jeans Vespa were brands that entered mainland China in the same wave in the 1990s. They all had a glorious period and fell into decline. It’s also the same thing.
Their collapse in the mainland shows a clear path: taking advantage of the east wind of the times, they once swept the Chinese fashion market, but when the mainland’s economy and people’s aesthetics developed by leaps and bounds, , but they are still standing still, or they are hesitant and far unable to keep up with the needs of the mainland people. In the end, they can only be abandoned by the times.
As a youthful memory of those born in the 1970s and 1980s, when it comes to Giordano, Baleno, and Jeanswest, each one is “worse” than the last! Then the waves are always rolling. When Giordano, Baleno, and Jeanswest are declining, it is the time when international fast fashion brands such as Uniqlo, ZARA, and H&M are making waves in the Chinese market. The Chinese youth who once wore “casual clothes” are getting older, but the young people born in the 1990s and 1995s sneered at the old styles and slow updates of brands such as Giordano, Baleno, and Jeanswest, and instead pursued those who were at the forefront of the trend. brand.
While product design and store image cannot keep up with the development of the times, what is even more regrettable is that China’s Internet has been in full swing in the past 20 years, e-commerce, self-media, live broadcast… nothing Neither commotion nor popular, Giordano, Baleno, and Jeanswest have once again failed to keep up with the times. Looking at their WeChat public accounts, it is almost a discount and promotion platform, but there is little reshaping and dissemination of the brand image; and for The neglect of e-commerce companies directly led to poor sales performance!
Of course, Giordano, Baleno, and JeansWest have also undergone changes and updates. Compared with other brands, they are lagging behind in time, thus missing the best opportunity to turn around; change The strength is not enough. Referring to the brands of the same period, such as Li Ning, which was once an old and rustic sports brand representative. In recent years, with its subversive design and high-profile communication methods, it has once again entered the highlight moment, stepped on the international stage, and become The representative of the “national trend” brand has regained the favor of young consumers.
With the changing of times and the “changeable” nature of consumers, there are too many failures and exits on the way for brands to evolve into “century-old brands”. As once synonymous with youthful fashion, the gradual silence of Giordano, Baleno and Jeans Vesper is indeed lamentable. We also hope that they will seize a critical opportunity again and bring us surprises again.
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