“I didn’t buy any spring clothes this year.” “Me too, but I saved money.” Spring is the season for promoting beauty, and it is also the harvest season for clothing and other related companies. But this spring, due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the above chat scene has become a norm among many female consumers. Summer has arrived, but the consumption winter continues. We still haven’t seen the usual comings and goings and hustle and bustle of physical channels. After experiencing this protracted global epidemic in 2020, the retaliatory consumption rebound we have been looking forward to is still long overdue.
The consumer side is so “cold”, and the related textile and apparel industry on the supply side is naturally also experiencing chills – fewer orders, suspended orders, canceled orders… …Messages like this and the economic turmoil caused by the epidemic warn that 2020 is destined to be a year full of hardships. They all make people pay attention to one thing: As a traditional industry, the textile industry is connected to tens of thousands of enterprises and to massive industries. What is the living status of the large industrial chain of consumer groups? What textile and clothing companies need to seriously think about is: why are there no trade orders, why are there no stores, and what kind of changes have taken place in the clothing consumer market?
National apparel industry from January to April Retail sales dropped by nearly 30% year-on-year. What’s the reason?
When it comes to consumption, we cannot but talk about the role of “Half the Sky”. Recently, Alibaba wrote this sentence in its financial report analysis, “However, due to the impact of the epidemic, especially women need to wear masks for a long time, this has reduced This has reduced the demand for clothing, accessories, and cosmetics, which has largely dragged down the growth of China’s e-commerce business.”
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in April 2020, the total retail sales of consumer goods was 2,817.8 billion yuan. It decreased by 7.5% year-on-year (the actual decrease after deducting price factors was 9.1%, and the following are nominal increases unless otherwise specified), with the decline narrowing by 8.3 percentage points from the previous month. Among them, retail sales of consumer goods other than automobiles were 2,509.5 billion yuan, a decrease of 8.3%. From January to April, the total retail sales of consumer goods was 10,675.8 billion yuan, a nominal decrease of 16.2% year-on-year.
In terms of textile and clothing retail sales, the total national textile and clothing retail sales in April 2020 reached 79.9 billion yuan, a decrease of 18.5% compared with the same period last year. From January to April, the total retail sales of textiles and clothing nationwide was 305.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 29%.
China’s total retail sales of textile and apparel products and year-on-year growth rate in 2019-2020
Data source: National Bureau of Statistics, China Business Industry Research Institute Compilation
From the perspective of textile and clothing retail sales growth, the national textile and clothing retail sales growth rate dropped by 29% year-on-year from January to April 2020. Affected by the epidemic, the retail sales growth rate of the clothing, footwear and hats industry Innovation low.
2019-2020 China’s textile and apparel retail sales and total retail sales of consumer goods growth rate
After the epidemic If you fall into the “low desire trap” and keep your wallet close to your chest, where will the explosive consumption come from?
The epidemic is easing, and more and more cities are allowing people to take off the masks on their faces on some occasions. However, the “mask” covering people’s hearts is not something that can be taken off.
The movie theater industry, which has been struggling during the epidemic, is finally waiting for the dawn and is about to open to public screenings. However, many people may still be hesitant. Can they go to the movies now? There are many similar questions – can I go out to eat hot pot with my friends like before? Can I travel to popular tourist attractions?
This kind of worry is caused not only by vigilance against the epidemic, but also by worries about the thickness of one’s own wallet. The epidemic has not yet dissipated, and the media has begun to enthusiastically discuss whether there will be retaliatory consumption? Or will there be retaliatory deposits?
Judging from the data, it seems that the latter has the upper hand.
On April 17, the National Bureau of Statistics released data that the total retail sales of consumer goods in the first quarter was 7.858 billion yuan, a nominal decrease of 19.0% year-on-year. Looking at resident deposit data, data released by the People’s Bank of China showed that deposits increased by 8.07 trillion yuan in the first quarter, an increase of 1.76 trillion yuan compared with 6.31 trillion yuan in the same period of 2019.
Is the “revenge deposit” really here?
Whether this phenomenon of “retaliatory deposits” is true is still controversial in the economic circles, but the visible increase in deposit figures is here. In fact, there are two reasons for this.
The first reason is that everyone is worried about the normalized impact of the epidemic on the economy, so they are prepared for danger in times of peace and make preventive deposits.
There is another reason. Many people are isolated at home and work online. They live a solitary life at a young age. Even if you want to spend money on many daily expenses, you have no place to spend it. If you want to go to eat, restaurants are not open; if you want to go skating, the skating rink is not open; the most interesting thing is that after two months of isolation due to the epidemic, many boys have begun to have the temperament of artists – their long hair can almost be braided, because of the haircut The store is also closed. In this kind ofUnder such circumstances, neither monetary easing nor public investment can improve consumer confidence, and no matter how much money is spent, it cannot improve the economy or bring demand in the textile and apparel industry chain.
At the same time, it is understood that since May, the number of foreign small and medium-sized enterprises that have closed down due to the epidemic has increased sharply, and the impact of the economic contraction has begun to affect large foreign companies. This is undoubtedly a problem for domestic foreign trade companies that are eager to recover. A blow.
In a questionnaire survey on foreign trade orders at the end of May, nearly 80% of the bosses who participated in the survey said that foreign trade orders had not improved. “80% of our previous major customers were from abroad. There have not been many new orders recently. In previous years, at this time, we would focus on proofing orders for next spring and summer. Currently, these orders have not been placed.” Another fabric supplier serving Japanese clothing manufacturers He also said that there have been very few orders recently, and now the core sales staff have started to start side jobs.
After the epidemic, textile people will face the next more difficult battle! Please cherish your VIP customers
After the epidemic, the next more difficult battle is actually to promote domestic demand and maintain growth. The official authoritative media pointed out, “From the data point of view, the proportion of China’s final consumption in GDP (consumption rate) is just over 50%. Compared with developed countries such as Europe and the United States, where the consumption rate is as high as 80%-90%, consumption is still greatly improved. Space.
It can be said that China’s ultra-large-scale consumer market needs to be further developed, and its huge consumption energy needs to be further released. At the same time, we must also see that the growth of total consumption and the upgrading of consumption structure will provide a solid foundation for China’s economic development. Opened a window.
In 2019, consumption contributed 57.8% to national economic growth, and has been the number one engine driving China’s economic growth for six consecutive years.” From the national level, stimulating consumption is It is a major event related to whether our country’s economy can continue to improve and move forward under the new international situation.
As for textile people, in the future textile environment, the importance of consumers will increase significantly. What clothing brands and textile companies urgently need to improve is the operational capabilities for “people”.
(1) We must cherish limited-edition customers. If they do not place orders when making samples, or place orders without consecutive orders, then the company’s products and service technologies need to be deeply introspected.
(2) Be sure to cherish your VIP and always accompany your customers on their journey of growth. You can leverage technology empowerment and digital upgrades. If there are problems with VIP loyalty and repurchase rates, then the company’s customer management needs deep introspection.
(3) In-store business should be done outside the store. Customers cannot come over. We go there and establish brand-level and regional-level communities. Please note that it is not a sales group or a discount group, but an interest group. , empathy group. Focus on building the cultural attributes and radiation of the community. The focus of community culture is the consensus of cultural attributes and brand concepts based on the style and buying points of the product. It is the guidance of a beautiful, interesting and novel consumer experience. And then achieve 30% offline sales + 70% online sales. </p
