The Epidemic Affects More Than 800 Stores Around The World, And I.T Group Also Needs To Deliver Live Goods.

Without the attack of the new crown pneumonia outbreak, the major fashion trends will be the same as in previous years. However, with the spread of the epidemic, the impact on the fashion industry can not be underestimated: many brands of offline stores have closed down to avoid epidemics, and are suffering from cost pressures such as inventory, rent and personnel. Even H&M, the world's second largest apparel retailer, was not spared. In March 18th, the company announced that it had temporarily closed all its stores in Germany and the United States to 1050. Previously, H&M also closed 1/3 of its stores in mainland China.

According to the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on Global trade, the global textile and garment industry will lose more than 1 billion 500 million dollars (about 10 billion 400 million yuan). In the face of the epidemic, how to win the tide of fashion in China is a matter of life and death and the future breaking battle. Among them, I.T, which has more than 800 shops in the world, is a leading multi brand fashion retail group. It is also the trend of fashion seekers and many stars.

To this end, the reporter interviewed Zheng Jingshan, chief business officer of I.T group, and heard what impact she had revealed on the 32 year old Chinese wave brand. How to take the crisis in the epidemic situation as an opportunity to boost the fashion industry?

The epidemic spread to more than 800 stores.

The I.T Limited (00999, HK), which was born in Hongkong in 1988, is the trend and fashion initiator of a generation. It is also regarded as the earliest trend card in China. The group has more than 350 brands, including izzue, FIVE CM, b+ab, Bape, Aape, Undefeated, OFF-WHITE, KENZO and so on.

In recent years, the mainland market has become a strong growth engine for the I.T group. The I.T group's interim report on /2020 in 2019 showed that the total turnover of the company reached HK $4 billion 15 million in the 6 months ended August 31, 2019, and the retail revenue in the mainland market increased by 1.3% to HK $1 billion 856 million, accounting for 46.6% of the total turnover of the company. However, the new crown pneumonia epidemic affected the sales of I.T group stores in the mainland years ago. "The outbreak of the epidemic directly affects the real economy under the line, and the flow of people in shopping malls has a direct impact on the clustering industry such as retail sales." Zheng Jingshan told reporters directly.

As of August 31, 2019, I.T group had 834 stores in China. "We have been doing business during the epidemic season, but there are few guests." A I.T store clerk told reporters. After visiting a number of business circles, reporters found that not only I.T shops need to face problems.

In addition, with the outbreak of outbreaks in the epidemic, the fashion industry is ushering in a new examination. "Our sales in overseas stores will also be greatly reduced due to travel restrictions. With the development of the epidemic, some cities in other countries have begun to stop work. Zheng Jingshan said that I.T group's brand Bape, Aape and other plans in the second quarter of this year in Miami, New York and London and other places of business plan, now also be affected.

However, when it comes to whether or not to cancel the opening plan of the new store, Zheng Jingshan thinks: "the planned shop opening has not been cancelled, and the progress of individual shops has been suspended. The specific time can only be determined according to the local actual conditions and needs to wait and see."

17 years ago, the 15 year old I.T group withstood the impact of SARS. When it came to the impact of the new crown pneumonia on the fashion industry, Zheng Jingshan admitted that there was still time left for everyone to sprint, but the remaining period was less than half a year. "For this year's situation, we can only face the situation with a positive attitude. The autumn and winter (starting in September) of the fashion retailing industry is a relatively large period of time. We still have time to recover the losses."

The shop assistant is transformed into a merchandise anchor.

Tide card itself is characterized by seasonality, and its popularity cycle is becoming shorter and shorter. Inventory backlog is a fatal pain for fashion tide brand enterprises. Affected by the epidemic, many shops under the buying shop and brand line are blocked, making the tide brand industry difficult.

In order to convert inventory into cash flow as soon as possible, many tide cards have launched online sales, and I.T group has launched the first round of large-scale trial recently.

"Live broadcast requires a lot of cross sectoral collaboration, which is a relatively new attempt for us. The first five days of live broadcast, the cumulative number of people watching more than 270 thousand times, through live broadcast driven ITeSHOP small program visits increased by nearly 4 times. Zheng Jingshan said that although the I.T group's e-commerce started relatively late, it has been accelerating its development in recent years and constantly optimizing consumer shopping experience in practice.

At the same time, I.T has entered Tmall's electronic business platform since 2016, and its performance has increased by more than 3 times in the past four years. "Of course, live broadcasting also exposes some problems, which need to be summed up together by different departments in the later stage to form valuable experience." Zheng Jingshan said.

At the moment of the rapid development of the electricity supplier, the tide makers are expecting the end of the epidemic to usher in the consumption rebound, but also start the layout of the new consumption mode from offline to online. "We will not abandon the development of the physical storefront, insist on constantly optimizing the commercial layout, visual transformation of existing stores, and pay more attention to detail and efficiency improvement." Zheng Jingshan told reporters that the I.T group will further intensify its online and offline business integration so as to seize the window after the outbreak.

"In the live broadcast of our trial, most of the participants were employees inside the company, many of whom were retail colleagues in offline stores." Zheng Jingshan said with a smile that the traditional salesmen had gained a lot in the process of changing their hosts to the goods. After the anchor's consideration, I.T group will implement the "two legged" walking mode. "In the future, anchors will have mature red nets and our own employees. But these need the company to find out the corresponding retail pattern.

Everything has two sides, and crises can also become the opportunities. "First of all, the sense of quality, we will have more requirements for the authority, culture and quality of the brand." Zheng Jingshan believes that tide shop wants to improve profitability and needs to enhance the "experience economy".

Secondly, it is to accelerate the integration of online and offline industries, and form a benign mutual complement at the early stage. Offline entities provide consumers with a guarantee of on-site experience, a place for social needs, and of course, a brand's sense of credit and security, while online services can break the constraints of space and achieve transactions. Zheng Jingshan said that the trend of online and offline fashion trends will be more dynamic and anti risk.