Monki, A Brand Of H & M, Has Fully Withdrawn From The Chinese Market And Entered The Countdown

H & M's China strategy seems to be changing.

H & M's brand Monki has fully withdrawn from the Chinese market and entered the countdown phase. The online tmall flagship stores and offline stores will complete the last day of operation on March 31. At the beginning of this month, H & M's positioning high-end vice brand & other stories just opened its second store in Beijing. With the actions of arket, other stories, cos and other brands, H & M's high-end sub brand matrix in the Chinese market has gradually emerged.

It is not only H & M, but the fast fashions with the labels of "low price" and "fashionable" have been defeated in China in recent years, and high-end seems to be their new way out.

Fast fashion and its "sub body" are not fragrant

On March 10, the official flagship store of Monki tmall issued a closing announcement, announcing that the store would be closed from April 1, and the whole store's goods would be removed from the shelves and sales would be stopped. During this period, the warehouse clearance activities would be carried out. Monki's last offline store in China in Chengdu will also close on March 31, according to another report.

Monki entered the Chinese mainland market in September 2012 with its first store in Nanjing. As a girl brand of H & M group, Monki has a high degree of recognition, showing a more personalized fashion both in store building and clothing design. The price is also lower than the group's main brand H & M, especially in the discount activities, consumers can also buy a T-shirt or T-shirt at a price of tens of yuan, which was once a cost-effective choice for many young fashionable girls.

In terms of channels, Monki has gradually opened its stores to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other cities, and has set up online channels and opened tmall flagship stores in 2016. However, since last year, brands have been closing stores.

As early as 2016, Monki, who announced his exit from the Japanese market, had put his hopes on the expansion of the markets in Europe, mainland China and Hong Kong. But the fact is, with the end of last year's operation of Monki's last branch in Tsuen Wan square, Hong Kong, Monki also withdrew from the Hong Kong market, losing in the Asian market. According to Monki's website, there are only 98 stores left worldwide.

It's not only Monki, but "shop closing" has become the norm for many fast fashion brands in recent years. Previously, Topshop, new look and Forever 21 have all withdrawn from the Chinese market. Zara's sister brands Bershka, pull & Bear and Stradivarius have also closed their offline stores and switched to e-commerce channels.

Once fast fashion giants "step down from the altar", the reason behind it is closely related to the rapidly rising generation Z consumer groups' preference for fashion trends. In short, the single "cost performance" has been unable to attract more and more picky consumers.

Try high-end transformation and break the situation

According to the survey data, fashion brands, light luxury brands, fast fashion, national brands and sports brands are the top five in the fashion product segment preference of generation Z. When the low price fast fashion is no longer suitable for the current market competition pattern, in order to seek a new way out, fast fashion has embarked on the road of high-end.

On March 1, H & M group's high-end vice brand & other stories opened its first store in Beijing, which is also the brand's second offline store in China. On the eve of last year's national day, & other stories opened its first store in China in Shanghai, while another high-end vice brand of H & M group, arket, also opened its first store in China in Beijing.

Both of them focus on "life collection shop", among which & Other Stories continuously creates one-stop shopping experience for Chinese women with full range of fashion, accessories, underwear, home and lifestyle products; Arket includes clothing, home products and coffee shops, bringing consumers a one-stop northern European lifestyle.

In addition, cos, a high-end vice brand of H & M group, is also striving to break out of the fast fashion circle, emphasizing more on classic and simple design and high-quality fabrics, and even launching independent men's clothing stores and introducing the concept of lifestyle. The channel also tends to be high-end mall, and has entered the shopping centers of Guangzhou Taiguhui and Shanghai Qiantan taiguli.

According to the latest news released by H & M, in the three months to the end of February, group sales rose 23% year-on-year, but how much of it came from high-end sub brands is unknown.

INDITEX group's high-end action, on the one hand, is inseparable from Massimo dutti, on the other hand, it comes from the launch of Zara's new origin series, which focuses on the basic fashion and high-quality clothing, focusing on creating a wardrobe that meets the needs of modern life for consumers. Fast retailing group, represented by theory, has built an elegant clothing matrix. With frequent cooperation between UNIQLO and designers, it has formed a high-end upgrading mode of self-management and acquisition.

However, behind these actions, some problems are gradually exposed.

For example, fast fashion gene is an unavoidable identity brand of high-end sub brands. This is particularly significant in the "Xinjiang cotton" incident. Fast fashion brands and high-end line sub brands with the same fabric suppliers have been resisted by domestic consumers to varying degrees. In addition, the quality of fast fashion high-end line has been criticized repeatedly.

Secondly, homogenization is not only the pain of fast fashion, but also the inevitable problem of high-end sub brand of fast fashion. When the competitiveness of high-end brand is obviously not obvious, its irreplaceable will become weaker and weaker and can be replaced at any time.

All round adjustment and embracing generation Z

In addition to the high-end transformation, in the face of the current market demand, the adjustment of fast fashion brands can be said to be all-round.

Recently, H & M launched the column "H & m with friends" on the official websites of Sweden and Germany to sell Lee, Wrangler, FILA, superdry, Crocs, EASTPAK, aimn, Kangol and other brand products. After the test in Sweden and Germany, this model will be extended to the official websites of e-commerce in other markets around the world in the future.

This is an important step for H & M to transform into a comprehensive fashion e-commerce platform. At present, online retail business is not only an important source of sales for fast fashion brands, but also their focus in the current and even future. This way is not only more in line with the consumption habits of the younger generation, but also can greatly reduce operating costs.

In addition, some fast fashion brands are no longer focused on products due to consumers' pursuit of "fashion lifestyle".

Located in taiguli West District, Sanlitun, Beijing, UNIQLO, the third global flagship store in mainland China, is positioned as a "compound tomorrow life Museum", and has opened a vitality flower shop among stores in mainland China for the first time. Today, UNIQLO has brought flower shops to many stores in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

MUJI has opened the first fresh food compound store in Shanghai Ruihong Tiandi Sun Palace; Gap and Wal Mart jointly launched gap home, a home decoration brand, which was launched on Wal Mart website and introduced popular products into some offline stores; Zara has entered the field of beauty and launched a full line of beauty products in the Chinese market

Of course, with the return of products, fast fashion brands are also trying to find some consumption power from the co branded products and firmly grasp the young consumer groups. However, some people in the industry believe that the core competitiveness of fast fashion brands is still quality and price, and keeping low prices under high-quality products is the way for fast fashion brands to survive.

Although the recent quarterly reports of many fast fashion parent groups show that they are reversing the decline, it is obvious that they are still facing a lot of pressure in the Chinese market. The rise of domestic products, fashion brands and even minority clothing is a great challenge to them. Fast fashion brands not only need to adapt to changes and keep updating, but also need to integrate with Chinese local culture and business model.