Fast fashion was at its craziest from 2010 to 2016. Many Chinese consumers walk by the store and cannot help itching their hands. At the height of exaggeration, most of the wardrobe of the post-80s generation is probably fast fashion brands, but now many people only choose discount products occasionally, and still think the quality is average.
Fifteen years later, in 2020, the middle-aged “post-80s” demand for quality gradually exceeds the desire for novelty. Although the “post-90s” who are almost established also visit fast fashion, they are obviously not crazy. The “post-00s” are more picky and rebellious, and fast fashion brands are also facing a new crisis and turning point of development in China.
Industry Bottleneck
Fast fashion brand development speed is slowing down gradually, in luxury goods sales, light luxury fashion, popular logo counter attack, fast fashion brand presence and competitiveness is gradually reduced, this is the so-called boom-bust.
With the popularity of e-commerce channels, more and more consumers are accustomed to online shopping, and offline has long been unable to become the main direction of main trend.
Over the past two years, the prices of Zara clothes sold in China have fallen by an average of 10% to 15%. Muji has repeatedly suffered quality problems and cut prices in China 11 times in a row. But that hasn’t stopped fast fashion brands from fading in China.
The awakening of consumer consciousness
When “fast fashion” emerged, most of the audience was born in the 1970s and 1980s. Now it has been more than a decade. The post-90s and post-00s are two different classes, and their consumption has changed from brand marketing driven to consumer driven.
What consumer takes seriously is not the novelty of design, the discretion of price, however I like it or not, can highlight my characteristic and individual character.
Consumers are beginning to wake up to the new consumption concept, increasingly tired of low quality and cheap goods. More and more people are exiting the cycle of constant consumption of mediocre goods and not buying cheap mass-produced clothes.
Competition intensified, has collectively slowed down shop opening
Competition has suddenly increased, and from 2017, fast fashion, especially in The Chinese market, is no longer easy to do. All the fast fashion brands that have done business in China in recent years have done the same thing, which is to reexplore the Chinese market.
2018 was a turning point year for fast fashion brands in China, with the number of new stores in that year dropping as much as 39% compared with 2017. In 2019, the decline was slightly reduced, but also reached 18%. Combined with the impact of COVID-19 in 2020, the number of new stores for fast fashion brands in China is expected to slow further.
In conclusion, it is just like the 500-5000 Chinese local clothing brands that were squeezed out of the market by fast fashion brand.
