Apparel / Textiles & Accessories

During this year’s Amazon Prime Day and Wal-Mart’s special sales events, clothing is a favorite of consumers. Wal-Mart launched Deals for Days to "cater" Amazon's Prime Day event cycle. The event time is just to "circle" Prime Day. Online platforms that focus on apparel categories including Target, Kohl's and ThredUp compete in competition. A big promotion will be carried out during the Prime Day event cycle. Up to 60% discounts are given for dresses, shorts and hot-selling items in summer.

Amazon started "doing things" 2 weeks before Prime Day, and many products including clothing entered the "Ice Age" of prices. The "Prime Day Big Style Sale" campaign included sports and home products with a maximum discount of 40%. , And the maximum discount of Amazon's own brand is 30%.

According to a data released by BMO Capital, Under Armour is the best-selling brand under the clothing, shoes and jewelry (clothing, shoes and jewelry) category of Amazon, accounting for about 15%, followed by Carter's and Levi's, each accounting for about 11% , Amazon Essentials accounted for 7%.

Competition in the apparel field has become more intense than ever. Recently, Amazon replaced Wal-Mart as the largest clothing seller in the United States. Vincent Quan, an associate professor at a clothing college, said that if Amazon and Wal-Mart can keep up with the trend while selling basic models, it will not be a problem to sell thousands of miles. The turnover rate of fashion products is speeding. The higher the turnover rate means the more purchases, the fashion market is becoming more and more attractive under the two-way blessing of product development and consumer demand.

The "Golden Age" of Apparel Products

During the epidemic, travel was blocked, consumers were tired of dressing up, and the apparel market was in a downturn. With the advancement of vaccine development and injection work, this trend has been reversed. According to data released by the NPD Group in recent times, the sales volume of apparel products has increased by 46% compared to the same period in 2020, and has increased by 7% year-on-year.

NPD apparel industry analyst Kristen Classi-Zummo said that the rise in swimwear and jeans sales is a sign of a rebound in the market. So far, swimwear sales have increased by 19% year-on-year, and jeans sales have increased by 10% year-on-year.

According to the NPD survey of consumers in the spring, nearly 40% of women and 30% of men said that they are updating their wardrobes. Among them, the two extremes of fitness madness and home fat house are the two major heroes who have created the current situation. ". The epidemic has forced the consumption scene to shift to online. In 2019, the sales of online apparel products accounted for approximately 24% of the total sales of this category. In 2020 this proportion will rise to 34%.

Who is the leader?

According to a report from Wells Fargo Bank in March, with the help of the epidemic, Amazon on the apparel field successfully surpassed Walmart. In 2020, Amazon in the U.S. apparel and footwear market achieved a year-on-year growth of approximately 15%, exceeding US$41 billion, 20% to 25% higher than rival Wal-Mart.

According to the World Economic Forum, Amazon has more than 1.3 million employees worldwide, and the number is growing rapidly. Market analysts predict that Amazon will surpass Wal-Mart in 2022 and become the largest retailer in the United States.

After chasing me, both sides invariably aimed at the apparel track as the focus of the next wave of competition.

Wal-Mart has launched a number of sub-brands in fashion categories. Sofia Jeans is a jeans brand co-developed with actress Sofia Vergara (known to the audience for her role in the American drama "Modern Family", and once won the first place in the Hollywood actress income list in 2020). Eloquii Elements specializes in plus size women's clothing; Free Assembly partial Daily, Scoop is a boutique fashion store located in New York City. In addition to its own brands, Wal-Mart's other move is the same as Amazon's, that is, using cooperative brands as a market entry point. Partners include ThredUp, a website that specializes in second-hand clothing, which sells high-priced branded products at lower prices. Currently, there are more than 1,000 online brands, including brands that are exclusively operated by it.

Amazon's early cooperation with Calvin Klein and Adidas drew a lot of traffic to the platform. In the past few years, Amazon, which has been doing big things silently, has launched its own brands including Amazon Essentials, Lark&Ro, Spotted Zebra, Buttoned Down and other self-operated brands, completing the closed loop of apparel products from infants to men's business, from women's clothing to bulk categories.

Both Amazon and Wal-Mart refused to disclose the names and numbers of their brands. Coresight Research (a data analysis company) released its forecast results in May 2020. At present, Amazon’s own brands are roughly 111, and the number of products covered is 22,000, of which about 12,000 products and 87 brands belong to Clothing this category.

Amazon's attempt to promote the "B" in the fashion circle is not limited to this. In 2019, the limited series The Drop, jointly curated by the Kardashian sisters, was launched, and it was a great success. The blue blood high-luxury entry into Amazon has further opened the "gap between rich and poor" on the platform.

Amazon holds the online shopping data of a large number of consumers, and the "Golden Horse and Iron Horse" composed of more than 200 million Prime members is the user retention section that Amazon is proud of. This wave of consumers' food, clothing, housing, transportation, food and drink Lhasa all revolve around the online platform of Amazon. On the other hand, Wal-Mart has taken advantage of offline entities. Wal-Mart has more than 4,700 stores throughout the United States (Sam's Club is not included in the statistics).

Low-key vs. Punching

Although both Amazon and Wal-Mart are struggling to become the top-tier in the fashion industry, they still need to show more sincerity to prove to consumers that retail can also become a consumer haven for fashionistas. The low-price attraction is indeed tempting, but "all aspects" tend to drive out some consumers who yearn for mavericks.

Both Amazon and Wal-Mart need to optimize from their own fashion tastes. Not only do their product lines move closer to the mid-to-high line, but how to use existing products to work hard on outfit suggestions and marketing. On the surface, there are quite fast fashions such as H&M and SHEIN. The old way for the giants to get rich, but in traditional retail, it may not be a lie.

Janine Stichter, senior vice president of Jefferies' clothing and footwear division, said that avant-garde products are often the "last straw" that crushes profits. Basic models are unlikely to experience cold sales due to the changing seasons and the cycle of fashion, such as socks and home slippers, because of the rich usage scenarios, the probability of return and exchange is relatively low, and they will not be reduced to "cheap items" on clearance shelves. The opposite is also true. It is not difficult to understand why fashion items with rich details, single use scenarios, and high prices are more likely to be "spurned". According to Jefferies' statistics, the online return rate for women's clothing is 30%, and for men's clothing is 20%.

Social media's "banknote ability" has become a good way for the two companies to solve the tepid demand for fashion items. Amazon recently launched the "Internet Famous Products" section on its official website, which, as the name suggests, is intended to directly "import" online celebrity products for consumers. Wal-Mart has not fallen behind. From testing the live broadcast of the goods last year, to the large-scale cooperation with major social media, Wal-Mart seems to have gone further on the road to becoming an online celebrity retailer.

Wal-Mart is acquiring Zeekit. The "virtual fitting room" function developed by the company will analyze photos and give users a model of similar height, body shape and skin color, allowing them to try on them remotely. Consumers can also share the try on. To social networks. With the blessing of this technology, it is expected that returns and the accompanying costs will be reduced.

Amazon’s ancillary services centered on serving fashion categories are even more dazzling: Prime Wardrobe, a service similar to Stitch Fix’s trial-and-buy service; StyleSnap, an image recognition tool on the Amazon site. Users only need to upload a photo. The system can give product recommendations based on styles; Made for You will implement product customization requirements based on the size provided by users. These services are cumbersome on the surface, but the ultimate goal is to avoid "misunderstandings" that are prone to online shopping for apparel products. .

In addition, UPS pick-up service is also an attempt for similar purposes.

For Laura Bambrick, a mother of two children living in Naperville, Illinois, the ever-expanding apparel product lines of Wal-Mart and Amazon are the magic flutes that "bring snakes out of the hole", and it is hard for housewives not to be attracted. Bambrick's monthly budget of $150 is used to shop for low-priced items in Old Navy, Target, Amazon, Walmart, and Poshmark. More products come from Amazon and Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart’s Scoop, Time and Tru, Amazon’s Amazon Essentials and PrettyGarden are all online stores that their market "visited".

"Five years ago, I never thought that one day I would buy clothes on Amazon" Bambrick said. "Sometimes, the quality or materials are not so sincere, but the return policy is more biased towards consumers, and the trial and error cost is low, so it is worth a try. Although suffering from the phobia of choosing between Amazon and Wal-Mart, as long as the clothes can withstand the second washing, repurchase will become a matter of course. At present, consumers generally do not have high requirements for practicality, and Wal-Mart’s price is cut down. With the quality of the knee-cut product, it makes me "won't return", as if I am in the fresh food area of Wal-Mart, and so does Amazon."