The prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic has not yet ended, and offline consumption in various industries has become the most affected area in the short term. Recently, many sports brand companies have issued voluntary announcements to disclose the company’s current operations. Since offline store operations have not yet fully resumed operations, major companies have turned their attention to online channels. Models such as “cloud exhibition halls” and “cloud shopping” have become new retail methods for sports brand companies. Many local brands have used online sales platforms to promote sales through discounts and other methods as a response to the epidemic. At the same time, employees of domestic sports brands including Anta and 361 Degrees began to temporarily act as “micro-business”.
Store recovery is slow
On February 21, China Dongxiang, the parent company of sports brand KAPPA, issued an announcement stating that the group and its subsidiaries had resumed work as of February 19, 2020, in accordance with the relevant epidemic prevention and resumption of work guidelines and requirements of the local government. offline stores (excluding KAPPA children’s clothing business) account for 30% of the total number of stores, and other stores are gradually resuming operations.
As for the supply of goods, China Trends stated that due to factors such as delays in resumption of work and obstructions in logistics and customs clearance caused by the epidemic, goods stored in warehouses in Wuhan, Hubei Province cannot be circulated. This has resulted in an overall shortage of available inventory for online and children’s clothing businesses since the outbreak.
In fact, since the outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia, many companies have issued voluntary announcements. On February 17, Anta took the lead in issuing an announcement stating that as of February 14, 2020, nearly 40% of various brand stores in mainland China had resumed business, and over 60% of stores were still closed. The epidemic will inevitably have an impact on the group’s financial performance in the first half of 2020, and it is not expected to return to normal levels until the second half of the year.
Subsequently, 361 Degrees and Xtep also stated in announcements that the group’s self-produced factories have initially resumed operations. It is initially expected that in addition to stores in Hubei Province, other parts of the country will All retail stores will gradually resume operations before the end of February.
In addition, the relevant person in charge of Li Ning Company also stated that the epidemic has had a certain impact on the development of the sports industry. Currently, all Li Ning stores in Hubei are still closed. Li Ning’s stores will be divided into dealer stores and self-operated stores. Depending on the store type and business location, there will be ways to suspend operations and shorten business hours.
Cheng Weixiong, a textile and apparel brand management expert and general manager of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., said that we are currently in a critical period of the national “fight against the epidemic”, so the offline business of sports brands It may be difficult to do, and adding a “cloud” sales platform will undoubtedly become a measure that every company has to take.
All-staff sales started
Despite the addition of “cloud sales” platform, but reporters from Beijing Business Daily found that many sports brand leaders are currently publishing product and preferential information on social platforms such as Moments in order to boost online sales.
On February 20, Lin Xiaoxiong, director of Peak Sports Brand Department, wrote in WeChat Moments after successfully bringing the goods, “Thanks to my brothers and sisters for their support, which made me not too embarrassed in the internal PK.” “.
Lin Xiaoxiong’s promotion of goods in WeChat Moments is just a microcosm of the full-scale sales of sports brands. Faced with the problem that consumers cannot enter the store or meet in person, various sports brand companies All-employee sales have been launched one after another, allowing employees to sell goods in their WeChat Moments, and post product pictures and purchase links on the screen like Wechat merchants.
361 Degrees stated in the announcement that in order to make up for the impact of the epidemic on terminal sales, the group will transfer sales to e-commerce platforms and launch a call for “all-employee marketing” to increase sales. “WeChat Mini Program” and other ways to enhance online marketing.
Similarly, Anta Group also revealed that more than 30,000 employees and dealer partners participate in “all-employee retail”, including the sales and brand support teams of each brand and all The management and sharing teams have opened micro stores one after another.
Guo Bin, associate professor of the sports industry high-quality development research group of the National Sports Industry Research Base of Peking University, said that after domestic sports brand companies are doing all-area marketing and all-employee marketing, compared with the original A marketing method that relies on friend circles to sell goods can shorten the psychological distance with consumers.
Private domain traffic monetization
In the opinion of industry insiders, all Behind the sales model, it is also a manifestation of monetizing private domain traffic at an emergency moment.
Currently, most sports brands have adopted the CPS (sales) sharing method, that is, each employee will have his or her own QR code. If a transaction is formed through an employee’s QR code, the employee will receive a certain percentage of the transaction.
Judging from industry feedback, the overall performance damage in the first quarter of this year is inevitable, but the epidemic has made people see that traditional industries can overcome space barriers through digitalization to provide more consumption. We also see the broad application prospects of digital technology.
Cheng Weixiong believes that by letting go of the brand identity and allowing employees to dominate the content of their circle of friends, companies can become a weight for adding consumption scenarios, penetrating consumers’ lives and maintaining emotions.Code, various application scenarios of digitalization will emerge in endlessly in the marketing field in the future.
It is worth noting that the epidemic has brought new trends in private domain marketing faster than expected. In just a few weeks, sports brands have already seen examples of bucking the trend in the e-commerce field.
According to back-end data provided by Anta, from the end of January to February 16, the group’s e-commerce company received more than 450,000 manual consultations, exceeding the level of the same period last year. The person in charge of Anta Group’s e-commerce business said that the group’s e-commerce business exceeded its target in January, and sales in February are also expected to meet expectations.
However, the current slow resumption of factory work is a problem faced by all sports brands. A person in charge of a sports brand said that factory production capacity cannot yet be restored to normal levels, which will result in insufficient supply of some products and will also affect the launch of new products and the March promotion activities.
In addition, all-person sales also face problems such as delayed shipments, unreliable express delivery, and the inability to deliver goods to certain areas, which may lead to consumers reducing their desire to shop. Increase the chances of consumer chargebacks.
“For sports brands, difficulties are temporary. I believe that after experiencing this epidemic, consumers will gradually pay more attention to health, and sports consumption will also welcome changes. to achieve greater growth.” Cheng Weixiong said that the problems and opportunities exposed by all-staff sales of sports brands during this period are worthy of all brands rethinking their operating models. </p
