Two open letters were issued in the week of return, one to all employees, and one to all ** businessmen. In the open letter, problems such as losses, ugly products, expensive, and poor quality are all attributed to the problem of the first chain, and this is also the top priority of Zhou Chengjian's return - to solve the problem of the first chain through digital transformation. Under the foreshadowing of the establishment of an e-commerce company and the relocation of the headquarters in the early stage, the digital transformation of Meibang Apparel is in full swing, and it is expected to achieve initial results in 2023. However, under the continuous competition of fast fashion brands such as Peacebird and UR, it may not be enough for Meibang to only achieve profitability.
Moving knife ** chain.
On January 30th, the entry "The founder of Meibang responded to the ugly and expensive clothes" appeared on Weibo hot search, "The clothes are old-fashioned, **expensive, and can't be sold" is the consumer's complaint about Metersbonwe, Zhou Chengjian also humbly accepted these not very good complaints, and responded in an open letter to all ** businessmen: "Next, Metersbonwe will upgrade its product development strategy, and on the basis of fully understanding consumer needs, it will express the 'brand aesthetic context'." ”
In the open letter, Zhou Chengjian also summarized the problems of Meibang Apparel in recent years. "Through market feedback analysis, I deeply found that the company's outstanding product quality, cost, and delivery are one of the core reasons for the loss over the years. In Zhou Chengjian's view, the emergence of this series of situations is ultimately due to the company's management model, and the production and procurement personnel failed to do the basic requirements of quality bottom line, cost bottom line, and delivery bottom line standard management in the first line of business, so as to mislead the first business, so that the first business does not know what kind of quality, cost, and delivery standard should be settled.
Based on this, my first mission when I returned to the position of the main person in charge of the company was to solve the problem of the first chain. ”
Zhou Chengjian's first move back in power was on the ** chain, and this sharp blade is the digital management mechanism. "It is necessary to use the digital management mechanism to solve the severe problems and challenges such as serious abnormalities in quality, cost and delivery in the past few years to ensure a healthy flow of funds. Zhou Chengjian mentioned in the open letter. Next, through digital transformation, it has become what Meibang wants to do to help improve the quality, reduce costs, and increase efficiency of the first chain.
On issues related to transformation, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily interviewed Meibang Apparel, but did not receive a reply as of press time.
There are different views on the transformation of Meibang clothing industry, and some voices believe that Meibang clothing, which has been hovering in the trough for a long time, has tried to transform this time, perhaps it is a little late, but in the view of Cheng Weixiong, a brand management expert in the footwear and apparel industry and founder of Shanghai Liangqi brand management, at present, the live broadcast track is still growing. The current Meibang clothing needs to break through. When funds are limited, it is better to go online. After entering the live broadcast e-commerce, Meibang Apparel integrates brand resources, first-class resources, and brand development routines, and then outputs through the live broadcast track, which is a breakthrough for Meibang.
Live streaming for life.
Set up an e-commerce company and relocate to Hangzhou ......Now it seems that Zhou Chengjian has made a layout for the digital transformation of Meibang clothing in advance. In July 2023, two live broadcast e-commerce companies will be established under the 100% control of Meibang Apparel, led by Zhou Chengjian; In October, the office headquarters of Meibang Apparel moved out of Shanghai and settled in Hangzhou to learn live broadcast e-commerce, which was also led by Zhou Chengjian.
According to data, in the first half of 2023, the proportion of online sales of Meibang clothing exceeded 30% for the first time, reaching 319%, and online sales are about 1$2.6 billion. This may be a big step forward for Meibang clothing, but in the industry, Meibang clothing still accounts for a small proportion of the online apparel. According to public data, in the first half of 2022, the proportion of Peacebird online has exceeded 40%, and Semir Apparel will reach 48% in 2022.
Although the transformation of Meibang clothing is late, it has also achieved initial results. According to the financial report data, in 2023, Meibang Apparel is expected to achieve a net profit of 59 million to 85 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10717%—110.33% to achieve a turnaround. However, it is worth mentioning that although the net profit is positive, the non-net profit is -38.9 billion to -36.3 billion yuan, which also means that the main business of Meibang clothing is still not profitable.
Whether or not it can achieve profitability has always been the heart knot of Meibang clothing.
In 2016, Zhou Chengjian handed over control of the company to his daughter Hu Jiajia. According to incomplete statistics, in the more than seven years since Hu Jiajia took over, Metersbonwe has only had a positive annual net profit, and the cumulative loss of all net profits during this period is nearly 3.2 billion yuan. On January 5, Hu Jiajia, who could not make a profit with Meibang Clothing, resigned from his positions as chairman and president; On January 22, the founder Zhou Chengjian returned and once again led Meibang Apparel on the road to profitability.
At the end of 2023, on the occasion of the relocation of the headquarters of Meibang Apparel, Meibang Apparel said: "In 2024, Metersbonwe Group will go all out to achieve the goal of comprehensive profitability. ”
In the view of Wu Daiqi, CEO of Shenzhen Siqisheng Company, for the clothing industry, especially fast fashion, the impact of online short and live broadcast platforms is quite large, especially many celebrities will choose popular clothing with goods, so the share of fast fashion brand chains has been greatly eroded. It is still a more feasible way for enterprises to close some offline stores with poor efficiency based on operating profits, and at the same time open online live broadcasts and open up new channels. However, at present, the competition in this field has been very fierce, and Meibang Apparel entered the late time, and it is difficult to determine whether it can find a way to save the performance according to this.
In the fast fashion industry, the competition is not small. In 2023, the net profit of Semir Apparel is expected to increase by 6641%—82.1%；UR ranked first in the ** category during the "6.18" period in 2022, and Uniqlo, which had been at the top of the list for a long time, ranked second this time. At the same time, foreign fast fashion brands such as ZAR continue to lay out the sinking market in China and seize market share. For Meibang clothing that wants to make a profit, it is all competition, obviously, just to achieve profitability, it is far from enough for Meibang clothing.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Guo Xiujuan Zhang Junhua.
The company's official microblog.