DHL Speed Up&Nbsp; Opportunities And Challenges Coexist For Domestic Fast Fashion Brands

　　 For domestic rapid development with ZARA and H&M as development goals fashion In terms of brand, global air cargo tycoon While the recent "acceleration" of DHL has brought a new wave of development opportunities, it may also mean that there is not much time left for them to complete the initial accumulation.

DHL recently announced that it will increase its investment in China's fashion and clothing logistics industry, which may be just the beginning. Other global air cargo giants are expected to follow DHL's initiatives to set foot in China's fashion and clothing logistics industry, which is expected to reach as high as 7.5 billion dollars.

These air cargo giants will provide faster product distribution business for China's fast fashion brands that are emerging soon, and even for the Chinese processing link in the global fast fashion industry. In the past, due to the weakness in this field, such as the first-line air cargo giants did not set up special clothing distribution centers in mainland China, China's fast fashion industry has always faced high shipping costs and no regulatory modeling increase speed Limitations of.

At present, shipping giants such as DHL plan to establish a fashion and ready to wear center in Shanghai, which is expected to speed up the logistics of Chinese fast fashion brands and reduce shipping costs, which will undoubtedly provide important help for the development of domestic fast fashion brands. At the same time, it will probably crowd out small and medium-sized fast fashion brands that are not in a fast product design cycle and are still in the "cultivation period".

　　 DHL speed increase

DHL announced at the beginning of June this year that it would increase its investment in China's fashion and garment logistics industry, with specific measures including strengthening supply chain solutions, infrastructure construction and human resource allocation. Among them, the most striking thing is that DHL will build a new fashion and ready to wear distribution center in Jiuting, Songjiang District, Shanghai by the end of 2010.

This soon to be completed clothing distribution center is DHL's seventh professional fashion and ready to wear distribution center in the Asia Pacific region since 2009, and also its first professional clothing distribution center in mainland China. Its completion means that it will be able to provide large-scale and cheaper air cargo services for the domestic clothing industry, reduce the cost of rapid cargo transportation for a single clothing brand, and thus improve the cargo delivery operation cycle of domestic fast fashion brands.

Liang Qiyuan, CEO of North Asia Pacific Region of DHL Global Freight Logistics (Hong Kong), previously said that China's fashion and ready to wear market is undergoing a fundamental transformation, DHL's increased investment in China's fashion and ready to wear logistics industry is just in line with the transformation of China's clothing retail industry. "The size of China's fashion and ready to wear market was 305 billion dollars in 2009, and it will maintain a compound annual growth rate of 21% until 2014. At present, China's rapid urbanization process will continue to expand the market potential of fashion retailers. These retailers are also facing shorter product cycles and fierce competition from important procurement bases in South Asia. China's clothing industry urgently needs to improve the overall level of clothing logistics chain. "

Huang Guozhe, CEO of the company in China, further explained some changes in the Chinese market that they valued.

"Some big clothing brands are acquiring retailers and sales channels in the local market. The pace of retail expansion needs new supply chain models, so it is necessary to establish distribution centers in China." Huang Guozhe said, "In order to cope with this growing demand, DHL The storage and distribution network in China's first tier cities has been expanded, and it is going deep into the second and third tier cities. We will continue to increase investment in this regard in the future. "

For DHL, the biggest change in China's clothing retail market is that national fast selling brands have been formed. These brands with a large number of direct sales networks need to deliver their latest styles of clothing to all parts of the country at the first time, which directly forms the market foundation for DHL to establish professional clothing distribution centers.

　 Start of market integration

At the same time as DHL's large-scale development of domestic clothing shipping and distribution business, the global fast fashion brand giants are fully "launching" in China.

At present, among the four global fast fashion brands, except for the US GAP, which has no large-scale involvement in the Chinese market, the other three retail networks in China have been fully launched.

For example, H&M has opened 27 branches in China by the end of last year. These stores have brought considerable sales performance to H&M, with a total sales volume of SEK 1614 million, up 83% year on year, second only to the Japanese market in Asia.

H&M, which settled in China in April 2007 and opened its first store in Shanghai, has now become one of the most competitive fast fashion brands in China. In terms of market layout, H&M has moved from the "stability" of the domestic first tier market to the domestic second and third tier markets. In second tier cities such as Nanjing and Wuxi, H&M stores have been put into operation.

At the same time, according to H&M's announcement, H&M plans to open 240 stores worldwide in 2010, of which China is the focus of the plan.

Many people in the street believe that the number of H&M stores in China will grow at a double-digit rate in 2010, and most of these stores will be located in the "hinterland" of China outside the first tier cities. {page_break}

"In 2009, H&M's store opening speed nearly doubled year on year. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the economic recovery will promote H&M to open more stores." Analysts said, "Considering that H&M currently has enough stores in the domestic first tier cities, and has begun to enter the domestic second tier cities, H&M's new stores in the future must be concentrated in the domestic second tier and third tier markets."

At present, the expansion of H&M to the hinterland of China and the advance of DHL in the clothing shipping business are interrelated and carried out at the same time. The connection between them is that a national fast fashion brand needs a high-level and more economical logistics distribution system. Because the characteristics of fast fashion brands such as "parity" and "shortest shipping cycle" require large-scale low-cost shipping business.

At the same time, this connection may also mean that the threshold is raised, and the fast selling clothing market is "tightened". The practice of DHL, which specializes in expanding the distribution network of China's first tier cities in the clothing industry and is going deep into the second and third tier cities, has actually accelerated the pace of the current national expansion of fast fashion brands, and thus partially squeezed out the living space of domestic brands that have just come into contact with the concept of fast fashion and are trying to take this as the development direction.

Due to the existence of professional clothing shipping distribution centers, lower transportation costs and more timely distribution will make it easier for national fast selling brands to open stores, maintain a unified fast delivery cycle for local stores, and reduce transportation costs.

Especially for brands with outstanding clothing design and production capacity, the "acceleration" from the logistics field will make them faster and more "affordable".

This means that the competition is more fierce for the domestic fast fashion brands that have been established recently.

Relevant analysts said: "Fast selling of clothing was still the blue ocean in the clothing market in the first two years. Many domestic brands have tried hard and claimed that they are the first fast fashion brand in China. However, just a few years later, the market has become more intense."

"DHL is just the beginning. After it increases its investment in the clothing logistics industry, more global first-line shipping companies will pay attention to this field in China. This shows that a large number of fast selling brands, especially national fast selling brands, have emerged and the market has begun to take shape." The person said, "On the other hand, the establishment of the new logistics platform also means the beginning of market integration. It is difficult for those domestic fast selling brands that have recently been established to say that the fast selling market lacks competitors, and they will face greater pressure to survive.

Because the establishment of a large-scale low-cost shipping logistics system will bring national competitors to these brands. With the help of the new system, national fast selling brands will be more competitive in their ability to expand the market and cost, and they will suddenly appear in front of small and medium-sized fast selling brands that have not yet gained initial accumulation. "