“La Chapelle was filed for bankruptcy and liquidation” was on the Weibo hot search list last month.
Data show that at the end of 2018 La Chapelle’s inventory turnover rate was 250 one day per cycle, one The year can only go 1.5 rounds. The turnover rate of ZARA is about 30 days, which can last one year12rounds. This shows how serious the inventory backlog problem of La Chapelle is.
In fact, countless clothing companies are also facing the same challenge: high inventory.
According to statistics from the First Textile Network, In the first half of 2021, 88 companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges The overall revenue of listed textile and apparel companies was 1327.49 billion, however, its inventory items were as high as 960.87 Billion yuan.
A senior executive of a clothing company once said frankly: “At present, it takes a long time for clothing companies to digest these inventories, but there are still many factors behind selling inventory. Profit support is needed. Once the financial statements are ugly, banks will follow behind to collect debts. Therefore, more and more clothing companies are entering the inventory cycle.”
Whether it is the birth of the world’s richest manZara, or the media called China’s most mysterious tens of billions of dollars company at the beginning of the yearShein, pursuing its origins is driven by technology. ZaraThe reason why it can become the overlord of fast fashion, relies on a set of following The response system introduced by IBM; Shein relies on tracking user behavior data to predict fashion trends.
Since the beginning of this year, under the pressure of listed clothing companies 96 billion billion in inventory, such a track is quietly growing.
According to incomplete statistics from Chuangye.com, Since 2021, China’s textile and clothing SaaS track has /span>9 companies received financing, with total financing exceeding 1.5 RMB. Not only SoftBank China, Hillhouse Capital, etc.VC are pouring in, but also ByteDance, Kuaishou, Baidu, Lenovo Ventures, etc.CVC The layout has also started.
Now, the clothing industry is undergoing a major change caused by technology.
Based on3Trillion marketWhy is this track so popular?
Institutional analysis pointed out that China’s clothing market has reached 3 trillion yuan, but it is large but not strong. .
In the past era of mass production, clothing companies always had planning failures and production errors. All clothing companies would eventually encounter inventory problems to one degree or another. Therefore, this is why clothing companies have been constantly looking for more flexible production models.
In fact, in the clothing industry, the concept of flexible supply chain has already appeared 10 years ago. During this period, countless large and small companies were born, but few There are people who are successful in this field.
On the front end, customers have various needs. How can we serve customers well? On the back end, if it can be so flexible that only a few pieces can be produced in a batch, how can the high cost problem be solved?
Senior investors in this field told Chuangye.net that in order to achieve a flexible supply chain, it is necessary to promote the digitization of the clothing industry and to digitize a large number of previously tedious tasksSaaS automation. The development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and robots is injecting new opportunities into flexible production. In addition, clothing companies have rigid demands. Seeing that there are enough opportunities in the entire track, investment institutions will naturally make vigorous arrangements.
The digitalization of the apparel and textile industry has been a hot topic of institutional concern in recent years. In the upstream fabric segment, phenomenal players such as Baibu and Smart Fabric Internet have emerged.
According to Zhou Ziying, Vice President of Qingtong Capital Investment, there may be several driving factors for the increased popularity of clothing and textilesSaaS this year:
First of all, the sudden epidemic last year was a great test for most clothing companies.
Problems such as setbacks in offline retail and amplified inventory pressure have forced companies to seek new growth points to reduce the impact of the epidemic on business. More companies are beginning to focus on C2M production, trying emerging channels such as private domain or live broadcast e-commerce, and orders becoming increasingly fragmented, all of which have an impact on productionA large number of orders are given to traditional OEM companies such as Shenzhou International, but they have not yet been handed over to emerging apparel SaaS companies on a large scale.
Gao Fapu explained the reason behind it, “Whether the order fulfillment capability is strong enough and sustainable is the most important consideration for every clothing company when placing an order. ”Apparel TextileSaaSWhat the company wants to solve is how to make the production of clothing enterprises both flexible and low-cost. , and at the same time can meet the needs of international big names. It will take at least three years for these companies to really build a moat.
Remain restrained and make the single point deep enough first
For ClothingSaaS (SaaSisSoftware-as-a- The abbreviation of Service, which means software as a service, that is, providing software services through the Internet (), Gao Fapu is also one of the two major types of entrepreneurs in the track Advice was given.
The first type is data-driven, and it is more important to run through the model in the early stage. But in the later period, when such teams are engaged in industrial integration, how to handle the factory will often become a hurdle in front of them.
The other type is a team with an industrial background. They often have rich experience in understanding various factories and various channels in the cooperation process, so they often choose to start from the supply chain. .
Currently, the companies that are doing better in the industry all have a combined background of industrial + technology. What customers in the clothing industry are willing to pay for are products that really hit the pain points. , an in-depth understanding of business scenarios is the most fundamental, and technical capabilities and industrial resources help solve problems.
For example, Zhiyi Technology is a typical industry + technology comprehensive team. Among them, the founder and CEOZheng Zeyu is a graduate of Peking University and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University(CMU)Artificial Intelligence Master of Intelligence, former senior software engineer at Google in the United States. CTO Wen Miaomiao is a PhD in artificial intelligence from Carnegie Mellon University and a former Coursera data scientist. COOHe Zhi once worked for Ruhan Holdings and is a senior practitioner in the live broadcast industry. SVPHu Yuting once served as the head of the celebrity business group and supply chain of Ruhan Holdings, and has operated a design supply chain system worth nearly 10 billion.
For start-up companies, the most important thing to do is to focus and exercise restraint.
Gao Fapu said that in a large market, it is often more important to go deep in one vertical category first. Because the entire track is actually large enough, every aspect of clothing can theoretically be taken out of the company. For example, design, pattern making and other aspects can be subdivided into many links.
If entrepreneurs want to achieve full industry chain coverage from the beginning, it will cause greater challenges due to the understanding costs and friction costs of both parties.
For entrepreneurs, as long as you can do a single point well enough, you can ensure that only you can do it, and no domestic company can do it in two years. Being able to PK at least already has strategic value. Further down the road, entrepreneurs can choose a development path that suits them, whether it is a vertical or horizontal alliance, self-development, or cooperation with a large manufacturer.
“Flexible supply chain may at least double the growth potential in China, but most of today’s flexible factories are still relatively small and scattered, and a better way is needed to integrate these factories Organize together.”Gao Fapu said.
In this regard, Zhou Ziying also said that in the future, giants such as Alibaba may be able to integrate the upstream and downstream of the entire industry to achieve data interoperability on the production side, circulation side and sales side; industrial chain Each link will be supplemented by start-up companies with deep accumulation. This type is more of a combination of industry knowledge, cutting-edge technology, and emerging channel needs; because the market is large enough, the future of brands, platforms, and technologies will Everyone has a place, and companies with stronger integration capabilities can get a premium on capital.
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