Outdoor Brand Transformation To Create Sunrise Industry And Great Future

Although many times have come to China, every time I set foot on this land, Knothe Jaeger will be excited. However, it is coming to China again and will be unveiled in July 24th. The eighth Asian outdoor products exhibition Before, Knothe Jaeger, the foreign consultant of this exhibition, had a slight anxiety: "after several years of rapid growth, we expect that the growth rate of China's outdoor products market will gradually slow down this year, and the competition of China's outdoor products market will become more and more intense."

As an emerging industry with people close to nature and advocating sports and leisure lifestyles, China's outdoor products industry has been regarded as a synonym for "sunrise industry". In the past 10 years of development from scratch and from small to large, the outdoor goods industry has shown great potential and attractive prospect in China. According to China Spin According to the data released by the association of outdoor products (hereinafter referred to as "China Textile Association"), the total number of outdoor brands entering the Chinese market in 2012 reached 823, of which 405 were domestic brands and 418 were foreign brands; in 2012, the total retail sales of outdoor products in China amounted to 14 billion 520 million yuan, up 34.94% over the same period last year.

However, behind a series of fresh data, the sunrise industry is also facing the old problems of increasing inventory, weak competitiveness of independent brands and insufficient product innovation capability in the Chinese market. Faced with the hidden worries in the prosperous market, many people of insight in the industry have issued a warning that China's outdoor products industry should guard against repeating the mistakes of the sports industry.

Great potential and fierce competition

In the past 10 years, it has benefited from the rapid growth of GDP, the gradual increase of the consumption ability of urban and rural residents, the acceleration of urbanization process and the upgrading of consumption. The outdoor sports advocating an active and healthy lifestyle showed a trend of rapid growth in China, and also led to the prosperity of outdoor consumption demand.

According to the statistics of China Textile Association outdoor products branch, from 2000 to 2010, the scale of China's outdoor products industry developed rapidly, and the average annual growth rate of retail sales reached above 40%, higher than that of the total retail sales of consumer goods in China.

After many years of rapid development, China's outdoor products industry still has profound potential for development. "China's outdoor leisure furniture and supplies Market Research and investment analysis report" pointed out that the market value of outdoor leisure industry in China will exceed 10 billion yuan, and the huge market potential is far from being released. "The 2011~2015 year China outdoor leisure furniture and supplies Market Research and investment analysis report"

Han Yungang, vice president of China Textile Association outdoor products branch, said: "at present, China's outdoor products industry is in a" growth oriented "high growth stage. It is expected that during 12th Five-Year, China's outdoor products market will continue to maintain rapid growth momentum.

Behind the growth of red data, the increasing competition in the industry is becoming the consensus of China's outdoor products industry.

Taking the number of outdoor brands as an example, in 2008, the Chinese market had 415 outdoor brands, which increased to 554 in 2010. In 2011, this figure increased rapidly to 717; 2012 statistics show that the total number of outdoor brands in the Chinese market has reached 823, which has almost doubled compared with that in 2008.

With the increasing number of domestic brands, a large number of foreign brands, especially the famous brands in Europe and the United States, make the competition of China's outdoor products market more intense. For example, there are 418 outdoor brands entering the Chinese market at present, which have exceeded the number of domestic brands. The advantages of foreign brands' R & D design ability, strong professionalism and good reputation often make domestic brands at a disadvantage in competition.

Many years engaged in outdoor products market research. shoes Clothing industry analyst Ma Gang said in an interview: "combined with the analysis of brand changes, the number of small outdoor brands of domestic outdoor products has increased rapidly, and the outdoor market in China has not yet seen an absolute monopoly and market share of outdoor brands. The number of brands will continue to increase, and the competition in the industry will become more intense."

Inventory growth slowed down

In addition to the competition in the outdoor products industry, the competitive strength of outdoor products industry has been further increased in recent years. However, the transformation of outdoor products is not a panacea for curing all diseases. The increasing inventory risk and the gradual slowing down of growth speed make China's outdoor products industry continue to feel the pressure of survival.

Take the famous outdoor brand Pathfinder as an example. This year's quarterly report shows that the inventor's inventory reached 250 million yuan, an increase of nearly 50% compared with the beginning of the year. In recent years, Lining, Anta, XTEP and other recent transformation of outdoor sporting goods brand report card is also not optimistic, the average stock rate of outdoor products has increased by 20%.

"The booming development of outdoor products industry has attracted more and more brands and capital involvement. Some brands are blindly optimistic, and actively expand their stores, plus the impact of the electricity supplier channel, and the high risk of inventory in the outdoor industry is likely to be bigger and bigger," said Zhang Qing, Principal Consultant and sports brand research scholar of Beijing key road sports consulting company.

In addition to the increase in inventory risk, the industry's concerns also come from the slowdown in the overall growth of the outdoor goods industry. According to statistics of China Textile Association outdoor products branch, 2012 of China's outdoor goods industry total shipments and retail sales increased by 36.1% and 34.9% respectively, the growth rate slowed by 33.1 and 16 percentage points compared with 2011. This is the first time that the growth rate has dropped in recent years.

In this regard, there are comments that simply "horse race enclosure", and neglect of brand building and store management, leading to some brand overall channel management confusion, brand positioning identical, product style similar, is the key issue affecting the development of China's outdoor products industry. "With the upgrading of outdoor consumption segments in the future, the pressure on China's outdoor products industry will increase further. The potential market is large and the purchasing power is insufficient. Overcapacity has become a hidden worry for the industry. " Zhang Qing said.

Early transformation, shaping the core

In May of this year, the China intelligence network had conducted a network survey on whether the outdoor brand will take the old road of sports brand. Eventually, nearly 60% of respondents thought that they would take the old road again. Only 15% of netizens thought that they would not repeat the same mistakes. It can be seen that China's outdoor products industry must not be fooled by the appearance of rapid growth. Instead, the industry should be adjusted in an early stage when the industry is in the process of rising. It will create a well-known brand in China while constantly improving the ability of independent innovation.

Industry experts Ma Gang said, from the outdoor equipment and outdoor sports types, the domestic outdoor brand manufacturing technology and technological innovation compared with foreign brands, there are still gaps, some domestic brands are even willing to do OEM for foreign brands. At present, most foreign outdoor brands seek cooperation, almost all of which are OEM production. Chinese enterprises are still at the low end of profitability. If this situation can not be effectively changed, the survival space of China's independent outdoor brands will continue to be squeezed. "

Besides the enhancement of core competitiveness, China's outdoor products industry needs to continue its efforts in product extension. It is reported that in addition to a small part of the professional market, China's outdoor products are mainly light outdoor products market. The consumption of outdoor products in China is mainly concentrated in basic outdoor sports such as hiking, mountaineering, photography and fishing. Outdoor equipment consumption such as camping, raven camping, etc. is relatively low. In addition, in the construction of production and marketing channels, China's outdoor products industry also needs further expansion, such as paying attention to the important role of electricity providers in promoting the development of the industry.

Despite the difficulties encountered in the development process, the prospect of China's outdoor products industry is still expected. As Han Yungang, vice president of the China Textile Association outdoor products branch, said, "overall, the growth of China's outdoor products market is higher than that of the European and American markets, but its maturity is far less than that of Europe and the United States. The development of outdoor sports is not only a matter of money and time, but also a change of life concept and lifestyle. From the perspective of market size, there is still much room for improvement in China's outdoor products market, and more and more people in China will understand and like outdoor sports.