Offline Complex Of Online Clothing Brands

In the near future, the news that VANCL is going to open up and shop is fired up. After the rumor by VANCL, the so-called VANCL entity store on the Internet is actually a Shanzhai edition store. But in the "China business newspaper" reporter interviewed, VANCL does not deny that they have plans to open a physical store.
　　
In contrast, another clothing B2C company, Marceau MASAMASO, has opened successfully. Should online clothing brands be opened or sold offline? Is this a retrogression in business mode or a supplement to online brands? In contrast with the SAIC request that the online shop must be registered in real name and the regulation of e-commerce transactions is becoming more and more stringent in July 1, 2010, many online brands believe that the offline store has a significant effect on the brand bonus. But is this really the case?

　　
The debate has just begun and practice has only taken the first step. But no matter what the path of practice is, there is one thing that is certain: opening the line, selling the shop and opening the shop are all services for the company's overall strategy.

　　
Goal 1: experience! Experience!

　　
VANCL2009 sales exceeded the threshold of 500 million yuan, and the plan for 2010 is 2 billion yuan. The brand emerging on the Internet seems to be dragged on a fast train with the rapid expansion of online shopping demand. Clothing has been a leader in the e-commerce market for many years. Whether it is Taobao platform or the rising brand on the Internet, clothing category is the leader.

　　
Clothing is a product with strong experience. Despite the huge volume of transactions, Internet brands always have the drawbacks of not trying to wear and touching real products. Although some clothing brands introduce logistics service to door-to-door, let customers try on the experience link, but door-to-door try can not replace the store's consumption experience. Therefore, when the domestic network clothing brand achieves a certain scale, it still can not get rid of the entity store complex. Mcglaughlin is an early business entity in China. At present, more than 400 entities have been developed in the country, making up for the defects of direct mail and wheat net.

　　
A few days ago, VANCL also put the physical store plan on the agenda. But VANCL's offline strategy starts with offline advertising. Since 2010, VANCL has gone off the Internet for the first time, appearing in the billboard advertisement. VANCL Brand Manager Li Jianxiong said that online brands always experience short boards, offline advertising and offline stores are all ways to increase user experience, and create an opportunity for consumers to interact with consumers.

　　
In fact, online brand offline store complex is the product of the specific stage of e-commerce in China. Despite the rapid development of e-commerce, a large number of consumers are reluctant to try to buy. Whether VANCL or Marceau has invested a lot of advertisements on the Internet, VANCL advertisements have even appeared on the tens of thousands of websites. Such online advertising attacks have already caught a large number of consumers, and some of them have been climbing again. When the growth of new users reaches a certain peak, it will take some breakthroughs in e-commerce mode to climb up again. Offline stores are an important way to make up for experience defects and attract users to try to buy the threshold.

　　
But there are different ways to attract new users. Taking VANCL as an example, Li Jianxiong said that in the future, even if it opened a physical store, it would not focus on sales, but mainly on brand experience. VANCL future experience store is a high standard and a very nice shop decoration. Besides trying on clothes, you can also access the Internet, drink coffee, and even VANCL's corporate culture wall. If a user likes a garment in such a store, he can place an order directly in the store's network terminal.

　　
Goal two: Interactive Marketing

　　
Traditional brands often experience the pain of online and offline channel conflicts when they fight for Internet channels. However, there is much trouble for the online brand transfer line. The only short board is talent and team. E-commerce teams are often less familiar with the operation of offline channels.

　　
However, online brands still have many advantages in line marketing. The biggest advantage is the immediacy of data and the habit of using data in the course of business. Zhang Xiang, general manager of Guangdong Zhongshan Phil Garments Co., Ltd., one of the ten largest Internet operators in 2009, thinks that online stores sell the whole country and will accumulate nationwide data after a period of operation. These data are equivalent to complete and meticulous national market research, which has a strong guiding role for opening stores. Offline stores in different areas can be allocated according to local preferences. But traditional brands do not have this advantage. Take underwear as an example, it is difficult for Adam to open the market in the south, and Amway Fang has little success in the northern market. It is precisely because of its initial regional positioning that it is difficult to complete the nationwide market research.

　　
Sun Hong, who has served in a traditional enterprise and now serves as general manager of Martha Maso, also said that in many traditional enterprises, the ERP system has almost become an ornament. In an e-commerce company, Sun Hong keeps watching the sales data every day, making decisions based on sales data sooner or later. For example, a T-shirt from Marceau has been replenishing four times since its launch, and the supply chain reaction rate has accelerated significantly. In this way, the turnover rate of physical stores will also be accelerated.

　　
Although VANCL has not made substantial progress online, the online and offline experience mode has already appeared in the United States. Nau, a Portland based company, is a successful combination of physical sales and online buying experience. Nau has opened stores in the 7 major cities of the United States. Customers can try clothes on in the store, then buy them online or order online, and register and place them in a store terminal. Buyers can enjoy free delivery and 10% discount if they choose to order online. At the same time, Nau will also donate 5% of the purchase price to non-profit organizations in the name of buyers.

　　
But in China, most people in the industry think that this way of combining online and offline can not work. Zhang Xiang said that at first, he wanted to try to promote online stores in his own entity store. Once the customer enters the shop, the clerk tells the customer that the order can be purchased at a low price of 20%. But the effect is not ideal, many customers feel puzzled. Therefore, the interaction between offline stores and online stores is limited to background data. At the customer level, it is also necessary to follow their consumption habits. They need a cognitive process for the physical store experience and the online ordering mode.

　　
Case 1 CASE

　　
Correll: not earning MONEY, earning fame

　　
Guangdong Zhongshan Phil Garments Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in underwear for foreign OEM orders. Later, general manager Zhang Xiang began to lead enterprises to set foot in the network business, and built an underwear website. The result did not realize the sales function. Later, he fought Taobao to create the brand and became famous in World War II. In 2009, only one year after its opening, the sales reached 30 million yuan. In the process of rapid growth of the online store business, the company has opened more than 20 outlets in the Pearl River Delta and Jiangsu, and it is an early established online store in the network brand.

　　
For offline stores, Zhang Xiang has his own logic.

　　
Experience economy

　　
"Offline stores don't make money." Zhang Xiang bluntly told the China business newspaper reporter that at present, the business of the shop under the line is basically a state of profit and loss. Correll was born in Taobao, and many shops on Taobao are individual businesses. Small traders have ordered goods from factories or wholesalers and sell a lot in their stores.

　　
If Correll only goes online, he will give consumers an illusion of no strength. Zhang Xiang believes that offline stores can make consumers realize that it is a real brand, not just a virtual shop or brand name.

　　
Some people think that the first difficulty of online brand opening is the price positioning. The reporter once inspects the shop in the Guangzhou Tianhe City. The reporter found that the price of offline shop products is generally higher than 20% of online stores. In this regard, Zhang Xiang said that the line store costs are relatively high, the price is unlikely to be on line with the online. However, Zhang Xiang said, there are some people on the Internet. Because they are not good at online shopping, even if they are cheap online, they do not want to buy online. They prefer to try them on and buy them immediately. There is also a store, such as Guangzhou Tianhe City, because many tourists, many customers even know the wired shop, also like to choose to buy online immediately. The purchasing behavior of these two types of customers basically can support the cost of offline stores.

　　
However, although there are differences between online and offline channel prices, all outlets of the brand are directly operated, so there is no problem of price conflict between online and offline channels.

　　
Interactive sales

　　
The online brand has more room for maneuver than offline brands. Zhang Xiang believes that offline stores can drain online shops. If a customer tries to wear underwear in Gram's, the clerk will tell the customer that the brand can be purchased online. Customers can give up offline transactions instead of buying online after returning home. But for female customers, shopping is an experience. Practice has proved that customers who want to have it immediately are still the majority. However, after the transaction is completed, the salesperson will give the customer a product printed on the wired web site, DM, and tell the customer that he can also buy it online. When a customer breaks a code or fails to make a deal after trying out, the clerk will still tell the customer the address of the shop.

　　
For the line shop can really bring online traffic, Zhang Xiang answered with data. Previously, in the statistics of the success rate of Internet purchase, Zhejiang accounted for 18%, ranking first, followed by Shanghai, and Guangdong again. After opening the line in Guangdong and Jiangsu, the transaction success rate changed, and Guangdong ranked first in 19%, ranking second in Jiangsu, accounting for 18%.

　　
In addition, the flow from the offline will obviously reduce the workload of online customer service. After opening a line shop, the first purchase customers increased without consultation. In the customer return survey, online trial run is the main reason for its withdrawal from consultation and direct purchase.

　　
But Zhang Xiang said frankly, the management of offline stores is totally different from online stores, requiring new building teams. Due to the blowout of online sales in 2010, all of the company's energy is on line sales. At present, there is no intention of further opening the line.

　　
However, many management experiences in e-business can still be brought to the management of offline stores. Zhang Xiang said that at present, the ERP system of all offline stores is butted with headquarters, and the sales data of online stores can also be seen in the background of the headquarters. In this way, all offline stores can use the same warehousing and logistics system on line. However, the quantity of goods shipped under the line is slightly larger than that of the individual purchase order, so that the physical distribution problem of the physical store can be solved. In addition, each store has an electronic eye. Managers can see the service situation of each shop in the headquarters online, which can be supervised online, which greatly improves the management efficiency.

　　
Case two CASE

　　
Martha Maso: offline shop is not the focus.

　　
In May 29, 2010, the China business newspaper reporter saw on the 3rd floor of Beijing's world trade scale, the online menswear brand Masa Marceau had already opened the door. Next to LILY, JACK&JONES and ZARA, the Masa Marceau store is low-key and calm. The location of masa Marceau online shopping mall is clearly printed on the obvious location of the service desk at the door.

　　
In a conversation with a shopper Liu shopper, he learned that he often saw Marceau's products on the Internet, but never bought them. "One is that I don't know the quality, and the two is that the pictures on the Internet may be modified." His concerns basically represent the mentality of customers who are reluctant to try online shopping.

　　
Complement location

　　
Sun Hong, general manager of Beijing nine hop products Co., Ltd. (Masa Marceau brand Create Company) said that online shopping is no matter how convenient and value for money is, it can not make up for the true experience of offline stores. "Physical stores have more impact on customers than online stores. The entity store is a three-dimensional consumption experience consisting of lighting, props, salesmen's services and shopping atmosphere." He believes that such a consumption experience in the online shopping mall, even if the store is doing well, the picture can not be replaced by exquisite.

　　
In the domestic e-commerce brand, Masa Marceau is one of the highest priced men's clothing brands on the Internet. Because of this, for customers, the trial cost is relatively high. Therefore, the offline shop can give customers a place to experience and try.

　　
Because Sun Hong was a professional manager in the victor's men's clothing before establishing the Masa Marceau brand, the operation and management of the store is an old business for him. With the support of resources and connections, it is not difficult to open a store. However, Sun Hong said in an interview with reporters that the store is not the main direction of masa Marceau. The reason is very good: in the first quarter of 2010, sales of Marceau's online store increased by 5 times, while the plan set up by the company's top team was 3 times higher. The blowout environment of e-commerce has given them an unexpected result. At the same time, blowout also makes the supply capacity of factories inadequate. "The physical store has many advantages, but I can not give up a 5 speed growth channel, and put the main energy on a traditional channel." Sun Hong said that the main energy of masa Marceau is still on the Internet, and the physical store is only a supplement to online services.

　　
Because it is the identity of the supplement, the price of the shop under Marceau's line is exactly the same as that of the online store. However, according to the shop assistant, the products in the real store are sold better online. Sun Hong explained that the goods of physical stores are obviously less than online shops, but when a line brand goes down to the line, what products to choose specifically depends on time to run in. The customers on the line overlap with the line, but are more divided. Therefore, the choice of products should not be too early.

　　
And for the physical distribution system and supply chain, Sun Hong said that at present, all of the company's energy is still in e-commerce, and the physical store only takes on the display function. This is a real problem when the store is open, but it is definitely necessary to work out a solution, but at least not at the moment.

　　
Location matching with customer groups

　　
Although only a physical store was opened, Sun Hong took a lot of thought on the site selection problem. Because Marceau has to keep the same price, this requires high location. Sun Hong first excluded Zhongyou and Jun Tai. In these stores, the price of Marceau is obviously competitive, but if there is not a few times the rate of increase, it will be very difficult for profits to sustain costs. More importantly, shopping malls generally do not provide a relatively closed space for brands.

　　
In Sun Hong's plan, the experiential function of a physical store is greater than its sales function. In the future, a store can act as an interactive place for customers to interact, such as new fitting and so on. A relatively independent and closed store space is very important. Therefore, Masa Marceau shop is more inclined to choose an independent shop in shoppingmall.

　　
In the Beijing business circle, Sun Hong thought Jin Yuan Yansha was a better shoppingmall. But after investigation, he found that the customers of Jin Yuan's Yansha are very strong in their regional characteristics, and are basically the residents of the surrounding century city. The world trade scale does not seem to be popular, but the geographical characteristics of customer groups are not strong. Because of its close proximity to CBD, many white-collar workers will be in the business circle. This coincides with Marceau's online customer base. Facts have proved that this shop opened for several days, and the rate of entering the shop buyers is very high.

　　
Because the price of the store is consistent with that of the online store, the store customers will try it on and try to buy it. Because online ordering also has the cost of waiting time and postage. In addition, there must be a certain amount of inventory in the shop of masa Marceau. Through the operation of the store for a period of time, Sun Hong believes that it is not realistic to lead the entity store customers to online consumption in the Chinese market.