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Text | Special Observer Duan Mingjie
Editor | Cui Yandong
Special Observer Duan Mingjie
When middle-aged and elderly clothing was still stereotyped as cheap, ugly and gaudy in the eyes of many people, when many clothing brands were still hesitant to enter the field of middle-aged and elderly people, in fact, there were already A large number of companies are making a lot of money.
There are not only a large number of mid-to-low-end “grandma clothes” that are common on mainstream e-commerce platforms, but also a number of brands that have seized the dividends of social platforms such as WeChat and Kuaishou, and have quickly established nationwide coverage on WeChat. The online distribution agency team brings Hanfu to middle-aged and elderly women in lower-tier cities that are in sync with first-tier cities. Or through live streaming, high-end fabrics such as mulberry silk and cashmere can be sold to middle-aged and elderly women who value the quality of fabrics at factory prices that are much lower than counter prices.
If the above-mentioned brands are still small in scale and not considered mainstream, then a group of Hanfu brands established around 2000, such as Kelatier, Langzi, Jiuzi, etc., have their initial customer base. Starting to enter the middle-aged and elderly stage and showing strong purchasing power, these brands have now occupied the mainstream core business districts and major e-commerce platforms in first- and second-tier cities, supporting an annual revenue of up to 1 billion to 2 billion yuan for a single brand.
The price levels, product categories, and fabric grades of middle-aged and elderly Hanfu have been fully expanded, showing the strong fashion demand and purchasing power of middle-aged and elderly women. It is the best example of the upgrading of China’s economic consumption, and it is also a good example of China’s economic internalization. important driving force of circulation.
The decline of Taoxi, the rise of WeChat and Kuaishou: Reconstruction of Hanfu e-commerce channels for middle-aged and elderly peopleThe income of Hanfu for middle-aged and elderly people in Taoxi has declined seriously, and low-level competition makes it difficult to find a way out
AgeClub has been closely monitoring The latest market changes in consumer goods for middle-aged and elderly people on mainstream e-commerce platforms. Through data analysis and expert research, it is found that there are a large number of players specializing in Hanfu for middle-aged and elderly people on mainstream e-commerce platforms. However, the market share has been scattered for many years, and there is rarely long-term stability. Brands that occupy the forefront.
Comparing the market share of the top 10 brands in July 2020 and August 2019, only a few brands can continue to remain in the TOP10 ranks, and the market share is very unstable, mostly between 1% and 2%.
Top 10 brands with market share of Hanfu e-commerce platforms for middle-aged and elderly people
Judging from the prices of Hanfu for middle-aged and elderly people on e-commerce platforms, they are still generally in the mid- to low-end range. For example, among T-shirts, 84% are priced below 150 yuan; among dresses, 85% are priced below 200 yuan.
A front-line investment institution that has long been focusing on middle-aged and elderly consumer goods and e-commerce once communicated with me and pointed out that the middle-aged and elderly Hanfu brands on the e-commerce platform will change every one or two years. The founders of these brands Most people are familiar with the gameplay of traffic operation, but they don’t actually understand the clothing industry itself deeply. They hold the idea of making a short-term profit and rarely have the concept of long-term management. Some bosses even use the money they earn to buy houses instead of Additional investment in his main business - Hanfu for middle-aged and elderly people.
Since the beginning of this year, the sales revenue of middle-aged and elderly clothing categories on Taobao and Tmall has dropped significantly. Li Tao, the founder of Frozen Age Diary, who has been engaged in Hanfu e-commerce for middle-aged and elderly people for more than ten years, told AgeClub that in the first half of this year, Taobao and Tmall saw more than half of the overall decline in middle-aged and elderly clothing. In particular, the decline in leading stores was even more severe, so that they began to Expand categories, including Hanfu for middle-aged and elderly people, to mommy clothes, plus-size Hanfu and even men's clothing for middle-aged and elderly people.
Is the traffic and revenue lost from Taobao and Tmall mainly affected by the epidemic, or is it lost to other platforms?
The rise of high-end middle-aged and elderly Hanfu brands on the WeChat platform
Although leading social platforms such as WeChat and Kuaishou have not announced the GMV of the middle-aged and elderly Hanfu category, it is impossible to know their views on the Taobao style The specific impact of the platform, but AgeClub has been closely tracking the development of e-commerce on social platforms and found that there are many middle-aged and elderly Hanfu brands with revenue that are likely to reach 100 million or even hundreds of millions of yuan.
On the WeChat platform, AgeClub last year analyzed the case of "Queen's New Style", which targeted middle-aged and elderly women in the sinking market. It established a large online agency team through WeChat and initially started with low gross profit. After entering into affordable Hanfu, it started to expand into categories such as beauty and weight loss with high gross profit after having a huge user base. It continued to expand its e-commerce mini program.No hits.
AgeClub found several similar cases. It established hundreds of emotional, life, and fashion public accounts to acquire middle-aged and elderly female fans, and then introduced them to customer service teams and e-commerce mini-programs to sell Hanfu to monetize.
If the above-mentioned brands are still stuck in affordable Hanfu for less than 50 yuan for a T-shirt and less than 200 yuan for a dress, and their business prospects and customer value seem to lack imagination, then Age Club recently discovered A WeChat case "Jane Agnes" focuses entirely on high-end Hanfu for middle-aged and elderly people. Its style, fabrics, prices, and marketing are all on a much higher level than the above-mentioned brands.
On the WeChat platform, the main category of summer dresses is generally priced around 1,000 yuan, while in its high-end product line "counter series", the price has risen to between 4,000-10,000 yuan.
Such a price not only requires the use of more high-end fabrics, such as mulberry silk, lace, etc., but also requires efforts in design, branding, marketing, etc. On its official WeChat account, Jane Agnes continues to highlight its Italian designer team, and focuses on promoting the brand to hold fashion shows in the fashion capital Milan, communicate closely with world fashion celebrities, and accept exclusive interviews with well-known fashion media. It also studied the marketing methods commonly used by mainstream fashion brands, and invited second-tier celebrities aged 35-60 such as Huang Shengyi, Tao Hong, and Zhong Liti to wear their own clothes to shoot fashion blockbusters to increase their influence among middle-aged and elderly women.
Celebrities shoot fashion blockbusters
As a brand that has emerged on social platforms like WeChat, Jane Agnes’s marketing certainly pays special attention to user participation and interactivity. In the past July, a "Most Beautiful Buyer Show" competition was held on WeChat, which fully stimulated the enthusiasm and social fission energy of middle-aged and elderly women through multiple rounds of voting such as primaries, semi-finals, and finals. Behind the high-end price, there must be a strong marketing system to support it. According to its official website WeChat, in March 2019, Jane Agnes held an agency team conference in Shenzhen, where a lecturer group composed of the brand founder and ten distributors shared entrepreneurial stories and successful experiences.
The number of "elite agents" participating in the conference is said to be as high as 1,500.With an estimated sales volume of 200,000 yuan, the brand's annual sales will reach 300 million yuan.
Hanfu for middle-aged and elderly people on Douyin and Kuaishou: a counterattack at factory prices
AgeClub took the lead in conducting in-depth research on elderly Internet celebrities last year and has always emphasized that middle-aged and elderly people are turning to short video platforms The migration trend, and this trend has been continuously confirmed in subsequent data monitoring of various third-party platforms and exchanges with people familiar with the business development of Douyin and Kuaishou.
Among the 300-500 million daily active users of Douyin and Kuaishou respectively, the proportion of middle-aged and elderly users currently accounts for at least 10%, that is, 30 million to 50 million. Although the total number is still the same as that of young people. There is a gap, but this user base is enough to support a successful business closed loop.
In fact, there have been some cases showing the purchasing power of middle-aged and elderly women on Douyin and Kuaishou.
In May this year, Douyin released the "2020 Douyin Enterprise Apparel Industry White Paper", which mentioned a case of "Hongye Cashmere Hongling" that specializes in selling cashmere clothing. Most summer clothes are 300-500. Yuan, the current number of fans is 530,000, and users over 41 years old account for 27%. Annual sales exceed 15 million yuan, and the most sales in one night are 400,000 yuan.
Another middle-aged and elderly Hanfu account "Jinglongjin" specializes in selling mulberry silk fabrics on Kuaishou, which further illustrates the strong purchasing power of middle-aged and elderly women.
According to media reports, Wang Yan, the entrepreneur behind "Jinglong Brocade", has been making mulberry silk for more than 20 years, and has gradually integrated fabric development, pattern development, design, pattern making, production and sales. Waiting for the whole industry chain, the Kuaishou account "Jinglongjin" was launched in March last year, and the current number of fans is 880,000. Through short videos and live broadcasts to promote and sell mulberry silk clothing, monthly sales reached about 6 million yuan at the beginning of this year, and recently exceeded the 10 million yuan mark.
As you can see on the homepage of "Jinglong Jin", the main selling point is cost-effective mulberry silk clothing sold directly from the factory warehouse to end customers, cutting out the middleman, which is indeed suitable for many middle-aged and elderly women. Pay attention to cost performance and the demand characteristics of natural fabrics.
What is the key to jumping from the billion-yuan level to the billion-yuan level?The 100 million yuan revenue bottleneck for middle-aged and elderly Hanfu brands
Mature HanfuRepresentative brands
A number of fashionable Hanfu brands were established around 2000. As the main customer base gradually entered the middle-aged and elderly stage, customers aged 40-60 accounted for an increasing proportion. These brands have accordingly shifted their customer base towards those aged 50-60.
In fact, this group of customers has very strong purchasing power, supporting a number of high-end clothing brands with annual revenue of 100 million to hundreds of millions of yuan. Among them are original designer brands, such as Oberano, for which Luo Zheng, the winner of China's highest fashion design award "Golden Summit Award" and China's first Hanfu designer to appear at New York Fashion Week, serves as chairman and art director. There are currently 200 brands nationwide. There are also many stores; there is also Tianyi TANGY, which features natural fabrics such as cotton, linen, and non-woven fabrics. Its founder Liang Zi has insisted on promoting the revival of non-woven fabrics for many years and currently has about 100 stores.
Observing many online and offline Hanfu companies for middle-aged and elderly people, you only need to focus on a segmented direction, such as Korean style, cheongsam, and printing in terms of style, or mulberry silk, mulberry silk, or a special channel in terms of fabrics. , such as Taobao Tmall in the past ten years and WeChat and Kuaishou social e-commerce in recent years, can quickly reach revenue of 100 million or even hundreds of millions. But it will be extremely difficult to break through to 1 billion yuan in revenue.
For example, MORELINE, which was founded in 1993, uses printing as its biggest feature. The official website states that the fabrics for each season come from countries such as France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany, and have cooperated with many of the world's top printing companies. The long-term and stable strategic partnership has been established for nearly 30 years.
According to the official website, Mulan set up over 100 brand counters in department stores in first- and second-tier cities across the country in 2003. However, nearly 20 years later, the number of counters is still over 100.
A certain high-end cheongsam brand began to develop the market in mainland China around 2010. It developed rapidly in the first few years. In 2018, it had more than 100 counters and revenue exceeded 100 million. However, rapid expansion has brought about lowering of location selection standards, inability to keep up with the talent team, and decline in single store revenue. It began to shrink in 2019, especially affected by the epidemic in 2020, and the current number of counters has dropped to more than 80.
Breaking through one billion yuan in revenue: creating a unique offline fashion scene for middle-aged and elderly women
In fact, brands in the clothing industry are changing rapidly, and they are working in the market of women aged 40-60 Among mature Hanfu brands, the only ones with annual revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan are Kelatier, a subsidiary of Winner Fashion, a Hong Kong-listed company, Langzi, a subsidiary of A-share listed company Langzi Co., Ltd., Jiuzi, a subsidiary of A-share listed company Anzheng Fashion, etc. A few.
These brands with revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan all have one thing in common: they have hundreds or even thousands of offline stores.
After sorting out the annual reports of the above-mentioned companies, the number of brand stores (excluding stores belonging to other brands of the same company) are:
Colatil: There were 862 stores at the end of 2019 stores, including 641 self-operated stores,There are 221 dealers.
Langzi: There are 296 stores nationwide, of which 191 are self-operated and 105 are distributors.
Jiuzi: At the end of 2019, it had 673 stores, including 131 directly operated stores and 542 franchised stores.
In the field of clothing, offline channels always have special value. In offline scenarios, decoration design and display can give consumers an intuitive aesthetic impact, and shopping guides can also give professional matching suggestions, allowing consumers to immediately experience the changes that clothing brings to them, thus bringing about a large number of plans. External joint sales, which are impossible for online channels.
And the brand's store system is not just about selling goods. In fact, through the combination of stores in different business districts, combined with the online e-commerce platform, a closed loop is created from regular-priced new products to inventory clearance. .
Take Kelaidier, which has the highest sales revenue, as an example. At the end of 2019, the brand had a total of 862 stores, while the entire Winner Fashion Group behind it had a total of 1,697 stores, of which 1,257 were directly operated. Among these 1,257 directly-operated stores, 841 are opened in department stores, 153 in shopping malls, 199 in specialty stores, 33 in street stores, and 31 in airports.
From the perspective of channel mix, department stores, shopping malls and airports mainly sell regular-priced new products, reflecting the brand's high-end positioning, while specialty stores and e-commerce platforms mainly sell off-season inventory to improve capital turnover efficiency.
According to the annual report, Winner Fashion’s revenue on e-commerce platforms in 2019 was approximately 400 million yuan, including 273 million yuan from Tmall and 128 million yuan from Vipshop.
And in the store system of Winner Fashion, direct sales account for an absolute proportion, accounting for 74%. Among the 673 stores of Anzheng Fashion’s brand Jiuzi, 131 are directly operated and 542 are franchised, with direct sales accounting for only 19%.
The channel combination of regular-priced new products and inventory sales, as well as the directly-operated store system, have greatly alleviated the problem of inventory elimination in the clothing industry. In 2019, Winner Fashion’s revenue was 4.148 billion yuan and its inventory was 652 million yuan. In comparison, Langzi's revenue in 2019 was 3.007 billion yuan and inventory was 924 million yuan; Anzheng Fashion's revenue in 2019 was 2.438 billion yuan and inventory was 1.099 billion yuan. The inventory control of the two brands is obviously far less than that of Winner Fashion.
Of course, the expansion of offline channels requires a large number of stores and shopping guides distributed in different regions, which will bring huge management problems: such as how to recruit, train, motivate, and establish unified values and work system, real-time changing sales information on the front end, how to feed back customer opinions to optimize the design and production process on the back end, how to combine different sales channels and products, and how to maintain the product price system while speeding up the digestion of inventory... all of this is of great benefit to middle-aged and elderly Hanfu The operation and management of enterprises put forward the requirement of reinvention.
Use different styles for positioningAnd the price range covers a wider range of middle-aged and elderly women
In the process of leaping from 100 million yuan to 1 billion yuan and 2 billion yuan, multi-brand is another necessary breakthrough outside of channels.
Koradior, the main brand of Winner Fashion, had revenue of 1.874 billion yuan in 2019. The derivative brand La koradior focuses on formal wear and accessories for social occasions, with revenue of 239 million yuan in 2019. Koradior elsewhere focuses on Hanfu and accessories for urban women’s fashion and leisure occasions, with revenue of 410 million yuan in 2019.
In addition to the main brand Kelatier, Winner Fashion has also successively created and acquired mature Hanfu brands with different styles and price positions, showing the importance it attaches to the middle-aged and elderly women's market.
In 2016, it acquired CADIDL, a mature Chinese clothing brand, with revenue of 189 million yuan in 2019.
In 2017, it obtained the operating rights of "Obzee" and "O"2nd" under South Korea's Han Fiber Group in mainland China. Both brands are positioned at women aged 25-50, with a total revenue of 114 million yuan in 2019.
In 2019, it acquired three brands, NAERSI, NAERSILING, and NEXY CO. Their revenue in 2019 was 744 million yuan, 272 million yuan, and 300 million yuan respectively.
Lancy Co., Ltd., which is listed on the A-share market, was founded in 2000. It has founded or represented many young brands, but its performance was poor, so it refocused on mature Hanfu and launched a specialized brand in 2013. Lia lancy, a high-end daily series designed for high-end women, launched the lancy in 2018, which is more user-friendly, easier to care for and more cost-effective. The revenue of the entire lancy brand in 2019 was 1.087 billion yuan.
In addition to the Langzi brand, a series of mature-age Hanfu layouts have also been carried out:
LIME FLARE was established in 2006. Its target customers are urban women aged 25-45. In 2019, its revenue was 288 million yuan. .
Mojo S.PHINE (Mojo or Zhuoke) and JIGOTT (Jigott), a Korean light luxury Hanfu brand, were later introduced, targeting women aged 20-45 and 25-50.
m.tsubomi is a high-end Hanfu brand originating from Japan. It entered China in 1998 and was acquired by Langzi Group in 2019. It is targeted at women aged 30-45.
Yes. It can be seen that the multi-brand strategy mainly creates differences in terms of wearing scenes, clothing styles and prices. For example, middle-aged and elderly women need different styles of clothing in work scenes, leisure scenes, and wedding banquet scenes, and different women also have great aesthetic preferences. Differences, for example, some like traditional Chinese style, and some like Korean light style.Luxury, some like Japanese simplicity, and some like European and American luxury. All these bring great development space for the multi-brand strategy of Hanfu for middle-aged and elderly people.
And middle-aged and elderly women have much weaker awareness of clothing brands than cosmetics brands. In the past year, NewAgingPro, an independent consulting service brand under AgeClub, has conducted a large number of in-depth user surveys in first-, second- and third-tier cities across the country and found that fashion consumption among middle-aged and elderly people in first-tier cities is rising rapidly.
Among the 50+ women interviewed in first-tier cities, their preferred clothing brands include traditional brands such as Nanjiren, Hengyuanxiang, Bosideng, Yu Zhaolin, Gedi, etc., as well as fast fashion brands such as Uniqlo, Armani, Foreign high-end brands such as PRADA, CK, and Burberry, as well as some brands that do not use offline channels and only sell online or through micro-business channels, have an overall distribution that is much more dispersed than cosmetic brands.
This aspect reflects that middle-aged and elderly women are not very loyal to clothing brands, and it indicates the market opportunities for establishing exclusive clothing brands for middle-aged and elderly women, and it may be easier to succeed with new brands targeting new scenes and new categories. .
And the vast sinking market has also contributed an increasing share to the middle-aged and elderly Hanfu market. Since the channels of most first- and second-tier clothing brands are focused on economically developed cities, the majority of clothing stores in third- and fourth-tier cities and even counties and towns have old styles and not cheap prices, so it is actually difficult for consumers to enter the sinking market. Buy clothes that suit your mood offline. At the same time, there is also a big gap in their knowledge of clothing brands. This is an important window of opportunity for new brands to easily occupy users' minds.
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