On Taobao, 80% of the swimsuits come from the same place - Huludao, Liaoning Province.
This is a sexy business, starting from foreign trade, Huludao will sell swimsuits to the world, and gradually become China's famous swimwear industry belt. The data shows that in 2014, the annual output of swimwear exceeded 150 million pieces (sets), with an annual output value of 10.08 billion yuan, accounting for 38.7% of the country's total production.
Really let people start to know Huludao because of Taobao.
According to the world clothing and footwear network, the early Taobao swimwear merchants mostly hatched from this soil, and they directly contacted domestic consumers through the Taobao platform. With the upgrade of consumption, relying on the advantages of supply chain resources in the industry, the swimwear merchants in Huludao began to upgrade their brands.
For example, the “Little Peach Swimsuitâ€, which is known as the originator of the Taobao swimwear brand, has gradually transformed itself from the original channel to create its own brand “this momentâ€; the rising-back swimwear brand “Juvenile Qi†has also formed its own unique style...
The brand upgrade is not only the Huludao business, Taobao's swimwear industry is showing a new scene - brand competition is more white, relying on original design, corporate management and rapid rise.
In May, we and a group of Taobao swimwear merchants gathered in Huludao, some of them are local indigenous businesses, some from Ningbo, Xiamen and other places, trying to explore the survival of the niche swimwear brand. In a 10-hour chat, a clear trend is that Taobao swimwear is no longer just a single item, it is becoming more branded.
After the 80s, Zhou Jia was the local swimwear e-commerce leader in Huludao. The “Little Peach Swimsuit†he founded in 2005 was once synonymous with Taobao swimsuit. But this has become a past tense. At the beginning of this year, Zhou Jia’s own brand “at this moment†went online and was renamed from the original Taobao store, positioning a small clear, sweet style.
Compared with Zhou Jia's experience in the field of swimwear e-commerce and the transformation of the brand, since 2013, more and more latecomers have wanted to be a recognizable swimwear brand since its inception.
In the eyes of the founders of different brands, the meaning of swimsuits to consumers is not the same. In the view of Zhang Xiaoai, the founder of “Aimo†brand, the fashion of swimwear is a big trend. Another goal of Taobao swimwear brand “Li Xiaofan†is to put the swimsuit on the street and be in Huludao. “Girls’ Time†is more like a brand buyer’s shop, offering consumers a richer swimwear style.
They have gathered into a swimwear e-commerce, product positioning, founder background and geographical differences, resulting in different brand factions.
Buyers: The selection is king, but how to strengthen brand awareness
The most unsatisfactory of the swimwear merchants in Huludao is the products. The local highly competitive factories and stalls can solve the problem of selection at any time.
The small factory is flexible in operation and short in production cycle; the large factory makes foreign trade orders and the quality is guaranteed. Leveraging the advantages of different scales of factories, relying on relatively mature industrial belts, Taobao buyers and sellers who first went to the sea quickly earned the first pot of gold through flexible selection.
When Zhang Yan decided to start Taobao in 2013, the early dividends disappeared, and the channel dealers were at the crossroads of transformation and upgrading: going left - still selecting the king as the king, going to the right - forming an independent brand style.
The store “Girls Time†is the most typical mode of operation in Huludao, and the continuous and stable factory resources drive the growth of the store. In addition to selling the partner's stall brand, he also makes full use of the surrounding factory resources. Factories in industrial belts often rely on friendships for business, which is directly related to new priorities and low prices. For local businesses, the advantages of the industry belt are more obvious.
On the other hand, compared to the average store, "Girls' Time" is more like a precision-located buyer's shop. "Cardes" is one of the brands, the girl style, but it also highlights the trend of personality. Although there is no unified brand, the girl time is selected under this unified style and tonality. While delivering the same brand value, it provides consumers with multiple choices and becomes one of the fast-growing brand stores. Among them is one of the main brands,
Zhang Yan said frankly that the funds for dumping and research and development can be put on promotion. If the sales volume is not good, it can be “willful†and will be unloaded nearly 300 times a year.
When Xiaotao swimsuit faced brand transformation, Zhou Jia made a series of adjustments. For example, hire Ali professional managers to join the construction team, adjust the organizational structure; establish Hangzhou branch, strengthen operational and data analysis capabilities; strengthen the strength of designers, break through the original industry with a single and regular form of swimwear design. When brand buyers buy bottlenecks, this may be what Zhang Yan will do in the future.
Data School: How e-commerce old drivers use data to feed products
"Li Xiaofan" is a typical data school, from Ningbo, Zhejiang, where the e-commerce atmosphere is strong.
This is closely related to the founder. Before the founding of the brand, Lao Guo has nearly 6 or 7 years of experience in the operation of swimwear e-commerce, and has successively represented the online business of several first-line swimwear brands at home and abroad. At the same time, he is also a direct trainer for an e-commerce school.
In 2015, Lao Guo officially registered “Li Xiaofanâ€. At the beginning of the brand's establishment, Lao Guo mainly attracted traffic through the through-train, drill exhibition, Taobao and other delivery methods, and the new investment in the previous period was not small. Even so, the first year of Li Xiaofan’s creation, the effect of data-based practice was not obvious. “There were 4 designs in the year, 2 of which were inventories, and the products sold by the factory were designed by the factory.â€
2016 became the year of change for Li Xiaofan. Although the design cycle is as long as 6-10 months, Lao Guo still insists on originality. Finally, all the new 7 models in this year have been turned over, and the original design accounted for 55% of the sales. By this year, Lao Guo began to have a replicable methodology.
"The data must eventually return to the product," he said.
The through train data provides keywords for swimwear search, such as conservative, small chest, students, sports, etc. Some keywords continue to develop into trends, while others tend to be saturated. Lao Guo must first screen out keywords with room for growth. Next, Lao Guo combines them into a collection of big data such as keyword vocabulary and soaring tables, and adjusts them every week to accumulate.
These underlying data became the criterion for Li Xiaofan's selection and design, and became the basic logic of data feedback products.
Of course, the birth of the product depends not only on this part of the search data. Although Lao Guo believes in data theory, he has not given up the control of brand tonality and product design, but constantly explores the value and meaning that the brand wants to convey.
Tonality becomes the second hand involved in screening products. According to Lao Guo, the team will get inspiration and design elements from more than 200 foreign swimwear websites and more than 300 domestic and foreign ready-to-wear websites. Generally, the selection is 3-5 times, and the last 20 pieces are left, followed by proofing and upper body testing. In 2017, four original products, one of which was placed three times with the factory in 20 days, each 1000 pieces, is a good attempt.
"Data tonality" not only promotes product design, modifies styles, but also gradually helps to clear the brand style, positioning as a petty literary style.
Product Pie: How to defend the right to speak by product
After years of foreign trade in underwear and pajamas, in 2012, Zhang Xiaoai founded the swimwear brand “Ai Mozhen†and decided to make a long-term brand business.
Fujian is the birthplace of many well-known local sports brands. Located at the source of sports fabrics, Ai Mozhen is one of the few brands that dare to build their own factories and adhere to originality.
Zhang Xiaoai’s e-commerce company has more than 10 people, but designers, editors, photographers, etc. should be complete. Compared with the convenience of the selection mode, the period of self-production is relatively long, often 2-3 months.
Vacations are becoming one of the scenes for consumers to buy swimsuits, which means that swimsuits are more than just a swimming item, but a social tool for making beautiful photos. At the time of design, Zhang Xiaoai will take into account the multiple scenes of the swimsuit, and the positioning is simple and practical. But even if it is the most basic one-piece swimsuit, Ai Mozhen will go through multiple checks:
First of all, considering that girls are worried about their body problems, Ai Mou will use the design to adjust different parts of the waist, chest, thighs, etc., in order to achieve a slimming effect. Secondly, after the first draft, Ai Mozhen stereoscopically digitizes the image by further communicating with the editor, and adjusts the details of the detail on the basis of aesthetics. Again, looking for the right color pattern proofing, the company girls will try it on their own and review every detail. A new sample is sometimes repeated ten times.
In 2013, with the increasing number of fans, Zhang Xiaoai has set up more than 10,000 active fans through the establishment of a group to provide services for the elderly, and fans will in turn provide inspiration and product feedback. It is also from this time that Zhang Xiaoai gradually clears the user's portrait. Most of them are young mothers around the age of 30. They love fashion and often travel on vacation as a family.
Capturing their parent-child needs, Ai Moyu began to expand into maternal and child products in 2014 and became a key operational strategy a year later. At present, parent-child equipment has accounted for about half of the total turnover, and children's swimwear has also brought higher profits.
In addition to operating the community, Zhang Xiaoai also valued the opportunity to communicate directly with consumers, such as collecting more demand data through customer service. "Customer service can be retained in real time, multiple times, improve user retention, and clear reasons for loss." At present, the average response time of Ai Mozhen is kept within 5-10 seconds, and quiet transactions account for 80%.
The front end reflects the product power, the back-end customer service guarantee, when the industry return rate is generally 10%-13%, the return rate of Ai Mozhen is even less than 7%.
Although insisting on originality is very demanding on design, Emma is still getting new every week, with an average of about 200 sku a year. However, self-built supply chains also mean higher costs and inventory risks. "There are currently 20,000 stocks, and you need to find a suitable clearance channel." Zhang Xiaoai said frankly.
Diverse possibilities of niche business
When underwear becomes an investment slogan and becomes a way of life, swimwear is gradually entering more and more life scenes.
The decision-making time for consumers to buy swimwear is shortening and the frequency is increasing. J. Christopher Burch, chairman of the investment company Burch Creative Capital, said in an interview: "People often buy only one month before or even a week before the holiday, and many people will buy it during their vacation."
Compared with the home properties of underwear, the swimsuit's "tanning" is stronger, and even becomes a social standard in the holiday scene. “Now the swimwear is very popular, consumers are obsessed with showing off the swimsuit on Instagram.†On the other hand, there are a lot of good-looking underwear stores under the line. It’s still a bit shy to buy swimsuits.
As a result, e-commerce has become the first choice for many swimwear brands and one of their main channels for direct contact with consumers.
Zhang Yan, Lao Guo and Zhang Xiao Ai are all thinking about how to unite the various forces under the niche category to gather more traffic. They all thought of the content marketing tools on the Taobao platform.
In Zhang Xiaoai's view, in addition to micro-Amoy, the entire store can carry content. In addition, the theme, column live broadcast is also an effective channel to convey brand stories. Previously, Ai Mozhen tried an outdoor live broadcast, reaching more than 10,000 people in 2 hours. Since 2016, Lao Guo has clearly felt that the development of a single through train model is limited and requires a more diversified operational strategy. Content has become one of the future operational priorities of Ali Retail Platform, which is the challenge for Lao Guo.
In addition to the content, some brands that are unwilling to continue to deepen their swimwear are also planning to expand to more related scenes, such as diving, yoga, sports and outdoor, to find more possibilities for brand diversification. In addition, Li Xiaofan and other brands intend to go offline, with a more three-dimensional brand image and experience serving consumers.
Coming to the Huludao industrial belt, Lao Guo lamented the improvement of the supply chain. However, although the e-commerce sellers are everywhere in the industrial belt, the e-commerce atmosphere is far less than the southern region. On the one hand, it is difficult to absorb excellent operational talents. On the other hand, employees are more mobile, so they often operate on a family basis.
No more than the Huludao workshop-style office form, Ai Moyu and Li Xiaofan in the far south are in the brand's fierce competition environment, fully commercialized. "Unable to rely on the industrial belt, you must have an advantage in efficiency." In Lao Guo's view, in the management of the company, all parts of the product must be quantified, in order to liberate the owner itself.
Even the personalized customer service link can be quantified under data and standards. When the consumer asks, the customer service system automatically responds to the frequently asked questions, and can find relevant answers according to their own needs. “Ningbo, which has a high labor cost, hopes to greatly improve customer service efficiency through standardization and quantification, and at the same time improve substitutability. Once the old customer service leaves, the new customer service can quickly get started by relying on standardized rules.†Lao Guo said.
On the eve of the swim gold cycle from June to August, these brands have already prepared for the battle. As for how far you can go, there are always many possibilities for business.
For more exciting reports, please pay attention to the world clothing and footwear network.
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