The urban beauty exposes the short board, and it is difficult to continue to expand the store and build its own e-commerce.

Previously, the city beauty has been leaps and bounds in the mode of “big store opening + self-built e-commerce”, but today, this model has exposed its shortcomings. As for the related issues, the reporter contacted the urban beauty. As of press time, he did not reply to the interview letter.

"Urban Beauty Mode" short board exposure

“Do not close the store, his shop opened” was once the description of the development of the urban beauty market. It has experienced a negative growth in 2016 with a growth rate of 1,000 per year. In the first half of 2016, 238 stores were closed. Compared with the first half of 2015, City Beauty opened 649 stores.

In the underwear market, there are more than 3,000 brands and manufacturers, and there is no one big situation. According to the data given by the city's own people, the market share of retail sales in 2015 only accounted for 3.3% of the overall market.

Lu Shengqi, a marketing expert, analyzed that the inventory cycle of the beauty around 2013 was about 72.3 days, and in 2014 it had increased to 85.2 days. In 2015, the inventory turnover days of the urban beauty fell to 78 days. However, in 2016, the inventory cycle showed signs of rising. The extension of the inventory cycle will lead to an increase in the amount of capital, and it also reflects the slow sales of products in the market. Overall, the number of dishes in the city is increasing, but the market occupancy rate is declining.

Compared with the brands such as Odifen and Aimer, the mainstream department stores are super-selected. The starting point for the selection of urban beauty is the stores in the third- and fourth-tier cities and county-level cities. The mid-end market of domestic vacancies has been exerted. At present, the stores of Metropolitan Beauty have been deployed to 330 prefecture-level cities in China, and even penetrated into the more remote township market.

Xiao Mingchao, a marketing expert, believes that domestically, at the node of economic restructuring and consumption upgrading, mass-produced products have already had excess capacity and products. The middle and low-end markets have already promoted and bidding as the key factor in the decisive victory. Liren will position itself in the mid-end market. Under the general trend of slowing economic growth, it will inevitably be more affected by the relatively scarce mid- to high-end market.

“Urban beauty is mainly low-middle-grade products, and the price is relatively welcomed by the grassroots market. However, the urban beauty has passed the mature stage of development, and the market share has become saturated in the third- and fourth-line markets. In the first-line market, because of some limitations of the product itself. It is difficult to compete with Ai Mu, Manni Fen, Triumph, An Lifang and other products in the middle and high-end market. In addition, the domestic and local underwear brands in the third and fourth-tier markets continue to emerge, and the international underwear brands in the first and second-tier markets are targeting the Chinese market. In the Chinese market, the living space of urban beauty is suppressed," Lu Shengyu said.

Since 2014, the e-commerce channel has been growing rapidly. The e-commerce channel of Metropolitan Beauty has grown rapidly. In 2015, e-commerce increased by 1062.8% in the first half of the year. In the first half of 2016, the sales of Urban Beauty Online reached 165 million yuan, compared with the same period last year. An increase of 122 million yuan, an increase of up to 281%. The proportion of total turnover also increased from 2% in the same period last year to 7.5%. Li Chengdong, an e-commerce expert, believes that although its growth rate is staggering, the actual proportion is still too small and its online competitiveness is limited.

Different from other underwear brands attached to the third-party e-commerce platform, the city's self-built online platform, Li Chengdong told reporters that the brand self-built e-commerce, subjectively see the operation more autonomous, but the actual operation will not be easier, exist The disadvantages of high traffic cost, low user retention rate and poor user stickiness are that the cost of self-built platforms will increase with respect to brands with relatively small online accounts.

For self-built platforms, Li Chengdong believes that “its own strategy determines its own status”. Online shopping for young consumers is more accustomed to third-party integrated platforms such as Taobao, Jingdong and Vipshop. As a brand product, it should be as much as possible. Embrace the platform channel.

The so-called "micro-business impact"

The domestic underwear market has grown considerably in recent years. According to data from market research firm Mintel, the size of the Chinese underwear market has doubled in five years to $18 billion. Euromonitor expects that the retail value of China's women's underwear market is expected to reach US$25 billion by the end of next year, which is twice that of the US market. By 2020, this figure could grow to US$33 billion. According to the statistics of the city's own people, Weishang has occupied 10% of the entire underwear market. Metropolitan Beauty explained that “the rapid development of micro-business during the first half of 2016 also hit the mass market competitors”. Although the urban beauty said that the micro-business has a huge impact on it, in fact, the urban beauty itself is constantly increasing its alignment. The development of the field, and is involved in the field of micro-business. In April 2016, Metropolitan Beauty and Foshan Shikai E-Commerce Co., Ltd. reached a strategic cooperation agreement, and the two sides cooperated on the micro-business brand project.

“City Beauty blames the decline in performance on Weishang. More meaning is that the new Weishang channel has occupied more market share, and it is difficult for itself to get better development in this field.” Li Chengdong said.

In the first half of this year, the market demand for seamless rimless bras increased significantly, but the number of such products sold through the micro-commercial channel increased significantly, and the number of suppliers with no traces of rimless bras was small, resulting in urban beauty. The serious lack of such products has greatly affected performance. Lu Shengyu told reporters, "The urban beauty focused on the impact of the micro-business, this should be a judgment of the urban beauty on the popular bra style of the micro-business, but this is only a level of performance decline, and technically, soft The seamless bra with steel ring design can replace the non-marking rimless product."

Lu Shengqi believes that the current overcapacity of garment processing is a common phenomenon. Processing problems are easy to solve. Metropolitan Beauty has been rapidly opening stores, and processing relies mainly on Shantou and other places. Because it is in the low-end market, the premium is low, the lace opening of the product, the loose head, the deformation of cotton products, and some fabrics are the common problems that underwear products face.