Fast fashion is still losing blood on a large scale, but UR is growing against the trend.
According to statistics from Yingshang.com, the domestic brand UR opened a total of 39 new stores last year, second only to Uniqlo.
The brand also recently held a fashion show at its Guangsheng flagship store in Guangzhou and released a cooperation series with the emerging designer brand PrivatePolicy. The Guangsheng flagship store is located in Tianhe District. , the flagship store covers an area of 4,600 square meters, making it the largest store in the world. In terms of store design, UR usually uses different designs to achieve different store styles.
1
Accelerate digitalization and create a three-dimensional online and offline shopping experience
As a local brand, UR was not eye-catching at first, but the brand exceeded the 5 billion sales mark in 2019, and achieved a single-day performance of over 100 million on Double Eleven that year. This is one step closer to Li Mingguang’s prediction of UR’s sales performance of RMB 10 billion.
In addition to innovating products, UR has also begun to accelerate digitalization. “Creating a three-dimensional online and offline shopping experience” is a major goal of UR’s digitalization. Its founder stated this idea in an interview with China Business News.
A small store located in Shanghai World Boyuan Shopping Center is labeled as a UR smart store. The store completely combines big data and VR technology. As long as the customer picks up a piece of clothing, the display will display information such as the material and size of the product, and the fitting room also has functions such as virtual dressing in the mirror.
But for fast fashion brands like UR, “fashionability” is still the most important, and UR is facing a group of Chinese consumers whose consumption preferences are changing. Furthermore, UR must more accurately grasp Chinese consumers’ perception of fashion.
2 Be faster and more stylish than your opponents
At the beginning of its establishment, UR did not have the ability to compete with international brands, so it always focused on doing its own business. When it went from 1 store to 2 stores or 10 stores, UR invested a lot of money. It costs less to build a design center, build its own R&D team and solve supply chain problems.
From 2006 to 2010, the time and energy spent on basic capabilities in the past few years have pushed UR forward step by step. In 2010, UR’s sales exceeded 100 million. In the 10 years from 2010 to 2019, UR’s average annual growth rate exceeded 60%, and its sales in 2019 exceeded 5 billion. The month-on-month growth in sales and the impressive sales data of new stores prove that it is right to adhere to the product-first strategy.
Secondly, against the background of the swarm of international fast fashion brands, UR, which is faltering, can only firmly grasp the essence of the fast fashion model and outperform its opponents. Only by being faster and more fashionable can you gain a foothold. Stylish design and fast speed are the two DNAs of UR. Since its establishment, UR stores have always maintained new products every Tuesday and Friday.
For UR, building a global brand and creating higher-quality fast fashion are in line with the development of trends. In fact, the demand for fast fashion has always existed, and former fast fashion brands are dying. On the one hand, they cannot keep up with changing consumer preferences, and on the other hand, digital transformation is too slow. As for the requirement of “fast”, consumers have turned to a large number of emerging brands based on e-commerce such as SHEIN and FashionNova. Chinese consumers have made up for their need for “fast” from Taobao.
Brands such as UR and SHEIN are already upgraded versions of earlier fast fashion. According to Enniu data, the main fast fashion brand financing projects last year involved U.R. UR began to exceed the original fast fashion standards in supply chain, market and store design.
3 Digital transformation, making full use of data
In this digital age , the clothing retail industry needs to re-understand consumers through social media, technology and other channels, build a digital communication system, and establish new relationships with consumers.
At present, UR’s supply chain system is all outsourced suppliers: the cooperation time is long, the tacit understanding is high, and there is a complete supplier management system, including access Control of accuracy, time, quality and cost, etc.
In the face of future brand upgrades and scale expansion, existing suppliers need to think about how to optimize and upgrade, focusing on helping some willing and capable suppliers to become strategic Supply; at the same time, attract more high-quality external suppliers to enter the supply chain system, and coordinate with the design team and other multi-party resources. The modernization of management and the improvement of organizational management capabilities are an important prerequisite for moving towards higher goals.
In order to more accurately hit consumer demand points and improve product success rate, UR has made some changes to the team structure and product development methods:
Clear the responsibilities and goals of product planning, design and buying teams;
Purchase digital purchasing boards, use digital business decision-making tools to help teams plan selection and grouping products, balance rational and emotional judgments in the purchasing process, and at the same time build a relationship between buyers and design and enterprises.�The communication and collaboration bridge with the sales team.
The person in charge of operations of the UR Design Center said, “We hope that the product planning team will be absolutely rational and formulate category structure and sales demand plans based on data analysis; the design team needs to focus on fashion. , innovative, and international trends; while the buyer team considers more what is popular now and what the target market demands. After combining the two, they then select and assemble goods according to the design team’s design.”
Carry out online collaboration from planning, design, development, buyers, sales teams, dealers, retailers, etc. to optimize the procurement process; and be able to optimize the procurement process according to sales channels, store types, and business models Maximize sales by making better business decisions early in product development, reducing lead time to market and optimizing merchandise mix.
Another opportunity is that young Chinese consumers are increasingly accepting domestic brands. Take the top ten women’s clothing live broadcasts on Double Eleven as an example, 80% of which are domestic brands.
For UR, it has encountered a good opportunity, but the most important thing is to be prepared. </p
