The market potential of garments in the domestic market is great

The scale of domestic apparel sales continues to expand, but sales growth has slowed down. The data released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that from January to July this year, the total retail sales of clothing, shoes, caps, and needle textiles by enterprises (units) above designated size was 617.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.9%. Compared with the growth rate of 17% in the same period of last year, the percentage down 5.1%. According to a report recently released by the China National Garment Association, domestic apparel sales grew steadily in the first half of this year, but the overall growth of the industry slowed down due to the overall economic situation. It is worth noting that, while the growth in the first and second-tier markets is relatively slow, the rapid growth of the large-scale third- and fourth-tier markets has shown strong dynamism and large room for growth. This has become a major bright spot for domestic apparel sales.

According to the data, in the first half of the year, the retail sales of apparel products of national key large-scale retail enterprises increased by 6.6% year-on-year and 4.7 percentage points lower than the same period of last year; the unit price of apparel products sold by major national retail enterprises decreased by nearly 10 compared with the same period of 2012. In percentage points, the decline is significant. In contrast, apparel sales outside the first and second tier markets have shown signs of activity. In the first five months of this year, the total turnover of the 40 units monitored by the China Textile Industry Federation’s circulation branch reached 268.755 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.92%. Among them, the total turnover of the apparel professional market was 134.355 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.15%, showing strong vitality.

In the context of shrinking international market demand and a slowdown in the growth of the domestic market, many apparel companies have encountered considerable pressure in their production and sales. The acceleration of urbanization and the rapid growth of the domestic clothing market in the third and fourth tiers have expanded the market space for domestic apparel companies. This change in consumer trends will inevitably attract more companies to “plow” deeper, and the first-line clothing brands in China as well as the sportswear brands that previously fell into the collective wave of discounts have all brought channels down on the agenda.

Compared with the situation of fierce competition in big city brands and sluggish sales growth, the distribution of clothing franchise stores in third- and fourth-tier cities is more likely to solve the problems of inventory digestion and rising costs. Coupled with the increasingly loosening purchasing power, the third and fourth tier markets have become ineffective. Less clothing business performance growth point. According to industry sources, accelerating the sinking of channels is not just because manufacturers are targeting the vast three or four-line market, but one reason that cannot be ignored is that foreign brands are accelerating their penetration in networks and physical stores, which has led to domestic apparel companies. Have to speed up the pace of intensive farming.

While the apparel industry is focusing on channel sinking to grasp business opportunities in third and fourth-tier cities, it must also attach great importance to the growth of the online market. For some time now, the upsurge of online sales has risen, and online sales of all major apparel categories have grown substantially year-on-year. According to a recent online survey, last year, online shopping spending from domestic counties and even villages and towns increased by more than 80% over the previous year. Data from Taobao, a well-known shopping site, showed that in the first five months of this year, sales including women's wear, men's wear, children's wear, underwear, and sportswear increased by more than 58% year-on-year, and apparel accessories appeared over 150% year-on-year. increase. This shows that the rising sales of online clothing, the development of online and offline integration is imperative. It is not difficult to see that the market potential of apparel sales is still very large and worthy of deep digging.