Japanese clothing brands began to migrate and take root in China in the 1990s. They once occupied Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and went straight to the streets and alleys of second and third tiers.
1 Crossing the ocean and forming a group to attack
The day when Japanese clothing brands collectively moved to China In recent years, it has been an important juncture for the local garment industry’s trade deficit.
In 2006, the overall import volume of textiles and clothing in Japan was 2 trillion yen, but the export volume was only 30 billion yen. Competition in the local market is fierce and inventory is difficult to digest, so going to emerging markets is the only choice.
Neighboring China was the first to enter the attention of careerists. The demographic dividend is waiting to explode, labor and logistics prices are low, and the local consumer aesthetic paradigm has not yet taken shape. In addition, China has just entered the WTO, and the negative policies have released enough.
In the pathfinding stage, there are few individual operations, and the agency plays a significant role in advancement. The Japan External Trade Organization, the Japan Apparel Enterprises Association, the Japan Fashion Association, etc. all came to China to conduct a round of research.
In Beijing in 2005, Masamichi Nakase, chairman of the Japan Garment Industry Association, led a delegation to China for the first time to participate in the clothing and apparel expo. At that time, only women’s clothing produced by 36 Japanese fashion companies were exhibited. , men’s clothing and children’s clothing.
Before these brands formed a group to cross the ocean, individual Japanese clothing brands had taken root in China for nearly ten years.
ITOKIN, who entered China in 1995, is the representative of this group of players. They have their own department stores in Shanghai, Tianjin, Dalian, Qingdao and Harbin, mainly selling more than 20 of their own clothing brands.
In the 1990s, there was no concept of shopping mall. State-owned department stores were almost the only one-stop shopping channel for ordinary people. The one-stop here does not mean that today’s entertainment, exhibitions, catering and other businesses are all concentrated in the same commercial complex, but refers to grain, oil and non-staple food, daily chemical toiletries, hardware and small parts, etc., all concentrated together.
2 Past experience does not apply to China
The existence of certain historical reasons and conventions has led to a single way for Japanese brands to expand offline.
The person in charge of the Japan Fashion Association once mentioned that Japanese clothing companies mostly use department stores as their distribution channels, and 90% of them will choose department stores as their breakthrough point when going overseas.
This has, to a certain extent, resulted in over-reliance on department store channels. This is true for clothing collection stores such as Honeys and ADASTRIA collect point. In the early days, they entered many department stores such as Wanda, Rainbow, Golden Eagle, and Bailian.
In its heyday, Honeys was almost responsible for the junior high school wardrobes of girls born in the 1990s. The number of stores was as high as 600. Collect+Point expanded rapidly. The first store landed in Suzhou Yongwang, and then expanded. In Shanghai and Beijing, there are 40 stores. Japan’s Stripe, which owns brands such as earth music&ecology and E Hyphen world gallery, has more than 100 stores.
(Picture source: Weibo@千亿奇ojoe)
But China and Japan are different.
Japanese social consumption has formed a stable structure of housewives going out to purchase, and they have sufficient time to immerse themselves in physical shopping malls to make selections. Online business is not as good as offline business. The high cost of freight and labor distribution made e-commerce development in Japan lack strong motivation at the beginning.
But in China, the biggest change in the local life circle that emerged from the Hundred Regiments War is the rapidly narrowing process time of intra-city express delivery and express takeout, thus increasing the shopping experience. The shopping process is constantly being digitized, from payment to selection, and even virtual try-on, until the entire process is covered.
Although Honeys and Collect+Point had hundreds of stores at their peak, when you walk into a shopping mall with complex streamlines, the area is only 20 square meters. stores, it is still easy to get lost in the dazzling array of similar brands.
This is the disadvantage of not having first-line flagship stores and brand image stores.
3 The trend turns to Europe and the United States
This seems to imply that business in China is not as easy as imagined.
In addition to the huge impact of e-commerce, the change in fashion trends has also caught Japanese clothing brands off guard.
The sweep of European and American fashion has, to a certain extent, forced back the Japanese style, which is mainly positioned as comfortable and cute. The retreat of the Mori women’s line is a signal, and the rise of affordable fast fashion like Uniqlo is another sign.
This is closely related to the cultural environment.
An important change in culture in the wave of globalization is the search for commonalities among various cultures and ethnic groups. This has also been a mainstream topic in comparative cultural studies in recent years. Western radical cultural scholars even believe that European and American culture should become the mainstream of the world and eliminate cultural differences.
ObviouslyIt is not an equal communication gesture, nor is it fair to other cultures, including fashion culture.
But this sweep is already taking shape. BM style has gradually become popular, with a large number of European and American makeup and outfit sharing appearing on Xiaohongshu and Instagram, and the sweet and sassy Asian Baby Girl has been promoted to the front line.
Not only China, but also the aesthetics of the younger generation in South Korea are also being affected. The era created by the girl group style and KOP is to some extent a combination of the cool trend in Europe and the United States and the white and skinny Asian.
In such trend changes, fast fashion like Uniqlo has caught up with the opportunity.
In the past, the Japanese garment industry relied heavily on factories. Although the factory will subcontract production according to the brand’s style, fabric and other requirements, the workers and machines are in the hands of the factory, and the brand has no say when cooperating with it.
This is because Japan was experiencing an era of extreme labor shortage—the “overseas trainee” system that could hire foreign workers was used to its full potential during this period.
Japanese fast fashion, which has reduced labor and raw material costs, quickly occupied the position of Japanese clothing brands in this period. Uniqlo, on the other hand, caters to all people, with basic styles that do not distinguish between men, women, old and young, and has stabilized a large customer base.
The most important thing is that in China, their digital marketing layout is very early. The Tmall flagship store and offline stores can be linked to pick up and return goods, and stores in the WeChat mini program can also make one-click purchases. Some flagship stores not only have offline artist visits and pop-up activities, but they are also the kind that can create a sensation on social media.
On the other hand, Yidujin and Honeys did not start up their online operations after handing them over to a third party. EME, a subsidiary of Stripe, did not open a Tmall flagship store until 2015. Their digitalization The movements are all slightly sluggish.
4
Uniqlo was “beaten from both ends” and its fashionable clothing was complained about Without design, can fast fashion without design continue to be popular?
Although many netizens said they would no longer buy Uniqlo, the president found after visiting some offline shopping malls that many Uniqlo offline stores are as popular as ever, and there are still people queuing up to try on clothes. As the situation arises, there are still many “hardcore fans” buying and supporting the brand’s online official blog.
In the mouths of netizens, it is obvious to all that Uniqlo’s clothing is “design-free fashion” and “minimalist style created at zero cost” things. Although the quality of clothing has a high reputation, its basic design slogan has always challenged consumers’ matching skills. But in recent years, the quality reputation they have always been proud of seems to be crumbling step by step.
The reason why consumers are nostalgic for this type of design-free fashion brands is not only the price suitable for ordinary people, but also the fact that in recent years, co-branded brands have been everywhere marketing tool. Secondly, another more important reason is that fast fashion brands like Uniqlo have few cost-effective brands with the same credibility in the domestic market.
Rather than saying that there are none, it is better to say that everyone lacks the opportunities and platforms to see these high-quality brands. As netizens said, brands with the same quality have different tones, and the demand market is not that high. Domestic brands (AMII, Kuaishou, Jiangnan Buyi, etc.) with similar credibility and materials do not have many advantages in terms of price and quality, and the design is not in line with the minimalist and basic consumer needs.
The design advantage of Uniqlo is as stated in their brand style introduction. In addition to creating casual looks, all Uniqlo items can be worn with any other brand of clothing. This kind of basic, versatile and daily simple design can be better worn by consumers in various occasions, and many fashion bloggers have also proved this through personal matching.
Even if you can find clothing with minimalist styles and simple prices, most of them are unknown, making it difficult for consumers to trust them and the chance of appearing in the market is small. Consumer credibility has become one of the biggest obstacles to the development of similar domestic brands. In this situation, at least in the short term, it is impossible for the people to get rid of their dependence on Uniqlo.
If people demand it, there will be a market for design-free fast fashion. Nowadays, UNIQLO is gradually being excluded from the domestic market, and more and more local brands are being noticed. Domestic clothing brands of the same style are expected to come forward. There may be more markets and opportunities in the future! </p
