The Brand Cluster Enters The Era Of "Warring States", The Strength Is Weak, And The Brand Is In The Primary Stage Of Development

Twenty years ago, Yixiu children's wear created a legend, creating a brief resplendence for Ningbo children's wear. Three years ago, Ningbo clothing The industry once again competed in the children's clothing market and showed a trend of simultaneous development. However, at present, Ningbo children's clothing has not been compared with Shenzhen, Shanghai and other places in terms of brand number and influence, product sales, terminal number, etc.

Brand Gathering Enters the "Warring States" Era

At the ongoing Ningbo International Fashion Festival Fashion Expo, the children's clothing exhibition area has become a special exhibition area for people to stop and return. Several children's wear brands in Ningbo, such as Yixiu, MINI PEACE, Barbie Lele and Chunyazi, all appeared.

Yesterday, the Ningbo Mugaodi Outdoor Products Company held a catwalk activity and launched the 2014 children's clothing and parent-child clothing series. On the same day, its first outdoor brand Makkadi Youth Outdoor Store in the Century Oriental Plaza was officially opened. This also announced that another clothing brand in Ningbo has entered the children's clothing market.

Lu Dunfeng, chairman of the board of Mu Gaodi, told the reporter that at present, there is a trend of family collective participation in outdoor leisure activities in China. Parents will take their children to get close to nature. Therefore, it is necessary to develop outdoor leisure clothes that care for children. As the first brand of outdoor leisure in China, Mu Gaodi will develop children's clothing series with a sensitive market perspective, Bring children professional travel equipment and comprehensive protection.

Mugaodi is a Ningbo clothing enterprise that entered the children's clothing industry late. Today's Ningbo children's clothing industry can be said to be a cluster of brands. Since 2009, many garment foreign trade enterprises, processing enterprises, adult clothing brand management enterprises, and non garment capital have flocked into the children's clothing industry. The domestic children's clothing industry has created a "Ningbo cyclone". According to relevant information provided by Ningbo Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, new brands have emerged in Ningbo, such as Afabe, Little Tiger Patty, MQD, GXG, MINI Peace, Barbie Lele, Mawei, Laidishang, Xiangke, Didilu, Simbanana, etc; Yixiu, Chunyazi, Shanshan children's wear and other old brands are also enjoying a new spring, reviving the momentum to enter the children's wear market. Ningbo's children's wear industry can be said to have entered the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period. The number of children's wear brands has exceeded 20, forming a unique array of children's wear brands.

In the 1990s, Yixiu Children's Wear once created the glory of Ningbo's children's wear industry. Its annual sales exceeded 400 million yuan, ranking first in China. Since then, Shanshan and Chunyazi have also entered the children's wear industry, but they have failed to achieve sustainable development due to institutional reasons. This time, Ningbo once again entered the children's clothing industry, taking brand development and market-oriented orientation as a new starting point, and showing a bright trend of stars, starting the market competition with leading children's clothing enterprises in Shenzhen, Shanghai and other places.

Weak, at the primary stage of development

Although Ningbo's children's clothing industry is crowded with stars, it looks very lively. However, due to the short history of development and the single mode of operation, Ningbo's children's clothing industry is far inferior to the domestic leading areas such as Shanghai and Shenzhen. Industry insiders believe that the current situation of Ningbo children's clothing industry is that there are only stars, no moon. Children's wear brands in Ningbo are mostly concentrated in second and third tier cities, and none of them has entered the top 10 in terms of sales volume.

Alfabe is the fastest growing children's wear brand in our city in recent years. Jiang Hairun, the general manager of the company, told the reporter that the Alfabe brand originated in France and entered the Chinese market in 2006. It is mainly positioned as the middle and high class children's wear in the first and second tier cities. At present, more than 300 franchised stores have opened in China, and the sales have exceeded 200 million yuan, making it the fastest growing brand in the domestic children's wear industry.

After reorganizing the management structure, Shanshan Children's Wear also accelerated its development. Wang Xueping, general manager of Shanshan Children's Wear, told the reporter that at present, more than 200 stores of Shanshan Children's Wear have been opened in second and third tier cities in China, with sales approaching 100 million yuan.

The reporter learned in the interview that whether it is the MINI Peace under the Taipingbird Group, or the new brands Petit Tiger, MQD, and the old brands Yixiu and Chunyazi, the number of their sales terminals is more than 300, most of the children's wear brands have annual sales of less than 100 million yuan, and some brands have slightly more than 100 million yuan. This is far from the leading enterprises in other regions.

The leading brand in the domestic children's wear industry is Balabala under the Sima Group. The brand has more than 3000 sales terminals in China, with annual sales exceeding 5 billion yuan. "All the children's wear brands in Ningbo add up, and their domestic sales volume is less than one Balabala." Industry insiders said, "Our brands can be said to be in the initial stage of development, far from the ideal of re creating brilliance."

Industry insiders believe that to measure whether a region's children's clothing industry has influence, at least several indicators should reach the overall leadership, first of all, the number and popularity of brands, especially the influence of high-end brands; Secondly, it depends on the number of channels, annual sales volume and market share, especially in large and medium-sized cities in China; In addition, there are other factors such as the popularity of a single model and the leading role of high-end brands in the trend. However, Ningbo children's clothing has not surpassed other regions in these indicators at least at present.

To Create Brilliance Again, Need to Read the "Three Character Classic" Well

Compared with adult wear, there are not many popular brands in the children's wear market, and the intensity of market competition is far lower than that of adult wear. This also provides opportunities for Ningbo children's wear brands to seize the opportunity to accelerate their development. In this regard, Chen Guoqiang, vice president of the China National Garment Association and director of the Institute of Industrial Economics of the China National Garment Association, believes that Ningbo children's clothing should take advantage of the basis and advantages of the developed adult clothing industry, read the "Three Character Classic" of technology, art and sales, and strive to create development advantages in the children's clothing market.

In Chen Guoqiang's view, technology refers to the indicators of garment production and processing, and quality control; Art refers to creative design, clothing design, brand positioning indicators; Sales refers to brand operation, sales strategy and sales volume, market expansion and strategy. The "Three Character Classic" of technology, art and sales is the three core elements of a good clothing enterprise.

Chen Guoqiang said that now the development trend of children's clothing has begun to integrate with adult clothing, and the trend of children's clothing becoming adult is obvious. Therefore, Ningbo children's clothing brands can learn from the experience of using adult clothing in production technology innovation, creative design and marketing, but need to deepen the fabric selection and design to meet the requirements of children's clothing. "Children's wear enterprises should boldly use the innovative means of IT technology in production, design and sales, introduce ERP, CAD, e-commerce, financial software, data monitoring and evaluation and other new means to achieve scientific management and operation; at the same time, with the strength of internationalization, children's wear brand enterprises can achieve leapfrog development." Chen Guoqiang said.

Zhou Xueming, Deputy Director of the Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology designer Salon suggested that over the past two years, designers from South Korea and many European and American countries have come to Ningbo to seek cooperation. Ningbo garment enterprises, especially the newly growing children's clothing enterprises, can have in-depth exchanges with them to promote the development of children's clothing industry through international cooperation.

Jiang Hairun, the chairman of the Children's Wear Professional Committee of Ningbo Garment Association and the general manager of Alfabe, told reporters that Alfabe has expanded e-commerce and increased its efforts to expand sales channels. He hoped that in the near future, the number of children's wear stores would grow to 1000, striving to enter the top 10 children's wear market in China.

News background

The domestic market capacity of children's clothing exceeds 90 billion yuan

At present, the demand of the domestic children's clothing market shows an explosive growth trend, which is a hot spot for the clothing industry. As the post-80s and post-90s generation with strong consumption power grow into the main force of parents' generation and social consumption, their demand for high-quality children's clothing is also growing day by day. In China, there are about 314 million children under the age of 14. Based on the average price of 150 yuan per set of children's clothing and the consumption of 2 children's clothing per child, the capacity of China's children's clothing market has exceeded 90 billion yuan. At the same time, with the acceleration of urbanization and the rapid increase of urban population, the scale of children's clothing market has been far more than 90 billion yuan. It is expected that in the next few years, the national demand for children's clothing will increase by more than 10% annually.