Under the impact of e-commerce, how should traditional physical clothing stores operate?

After opening a clothing store for more than ten years, the profit is getting thinner and thinner, and the pressure is getting bigger and bigger, so I can only choose to quit. "Chen Xia, who has been in the clothing business for more than ten years, was very sad at the moment when he decided to transfer the store. With the impact of e-commerce, industry competition, rising rents, labor wage pressure, and reduced passenger flow, more and more physical stores in Lanzhou finally chose to close down or transfer because of poor management or not optimistic about their development prospects.

In the face of the surging tide of the Internet, how is the operation of offline stores in Lanzhou? How to develop in the future? Lanzhou Morning Post reporter recently conducted an investigation and interview for this purpose.

1

With the transfer and closure of shops, the prosperity of the past is no longer there.

Once upon a time, all kinds of clothing stores on the street were regarded as fashion vane. However, in recent years, with the increasing popularity of online shopping, street clothing stores seem deserted. On May 8, a brand luggage store on Zhangye Road was filled with all kinds of handbags, and advertisements for low-priced sales were constantly placed in the stereo. "In the past two years, business has become increasingly difficult to do, the house has been subletted, and the rest of the goods will not be done after processing." The owner told the reporter helplessly. In another clothing store nearby, Ms. Li, the owner, is playing with her mobile phone bored. Although the store has just bought a batch of summer clothes, there are very few customers. She told reporters that according to the situation in previous years, it is already the peak season. As long as there are more customers in the store, business is always better, but not necessarily now. In the past two years, there have also been customers who just look at the store and don't buy it. When some customers hear that the price is higher, they either leave directly or return to a very low price. If you don't sell it, customers will say it's cheap online. "In terms of operating costs, physical stores can't compete with online stores PK, and the rents of physical stores are rising year by year, and operations are struggling." Ms. Li said.

In addition to the accommodation, entertainment and catering industries, traditional department stores, street clothing stores, bookstores, gifts and other practitioners report poor sales. Among the closed transfer shops visited by reporters, department stores, street clothing stores, bookstores and gift shops accounted for nearly 80%.

2

Shopping channels have been broadened and physical stores have become "furnishings"

"Now many people try on clothes in physical stores and then buy them online. Many people regard physical stores as fitting rooms. Even if the asking price is lower, customers think there are cheaper ones online. " Liang Zheng, who sells down jackets, said that under the impact of e-commerce and WeChat business, consumers' shopping habits have changed. In the eyes of many people, online stores have replaced physical stores as the first choice for consumption.

"I used to go shopping once a week, but now I can't go shopping once a month. It is very convenient to buy things in online stores, and there are many choices. If it is not suitable, you can retire at any time. " Citizen Zhang said that she not only solved the problem of "food, clothing, housing and transportation" online, but also paid for entertainment activities online. In this way, physical stores are more passive. During the interview, many physical shopkeepers told reporters that if the goods are not sold well, the merchants will inevitably press the goods; If the goods are pressed, the merchants will not be able to turn around; Lack of liquidity will limit purchases; The style of clothes can't keep up with the times, and it can't keep customers. As a result, the operation of physical stores has fallen into a "vicious circle" and may not be able to get rid of such a dilemma in the next few years.

Zhang Chengwei, who runs a brand sporting goods store in Gannan Road, told reporters that when he started his business eight years ago, because brand products were popular with young people, the demand was often in short supply. But in recent years, online shopping has become popular, and many customers come to the store to secretly write down the product number and buy it online. Despite their best efforts, they still can't change the bleak fate of business.

Zhang Chengwei also felt helpless when he watched many small shops close for several months because they couldn't make money. "I have been doing this for many years, and I have accumulated some old customers, and I can barely survive. As for those young people who have newly opened stores, it is difficult to maintain them for a long time. "

three

Business in the wholesale market is not as prosperous as it was in previous years.

For more than 20 years, the eastern market has been a gathering place for retailers such as Lanzhou and even Gansu to wholesale goods. With its low price and flexible management mode, it attracts retailers all over the world to purchase goods in batches, which is very lively. However, when the reporter visited the eastern market recently, he found that it is no longer as prosperous as in the past, and "business is not as good as in previous years" is the general feeling of wholesalers.

Wei Min runs a children's clothing wholesale store in the eastern market. From 2005 to now, she has been running this store for 10 years. In Wei Min's memory, 20 12 years ago was the most prosperous time in the store. She told reporters: "At that time, it was the peak season for children's clothing wholesale. Every morning, people were waiting at the door to get the goods. We were so busy that we didn't have time to eat all day. Those two years should be the golden age of the eastern market, and the business households here earned a lot of money. "

When talking about the business situation in the past two years, Wei Min described it as "getting worse every year". She told reporters: "20 1 1, the sales of our store is more than 2 million. In 20 15, the sales volume was only10.3 million, down by nearly one third. This year, the situation may be worse. It has reached the peak season of sales, but the number of customers who come to pick up the goods has not increased, and everyone does not order in large quantities as in previous years. " In interviews, Wei Min often shows nostalgia for the prosperous scene of the oriental market a few years ago. "At that time, the market was crowded, people could not be idle all day, and business was particularly prosperous. Now many stores don't open until 10 in the morning. In the afternoon, there were almost no customers in the market to pick up the goods, which was deserted. "

four

Peer competition is fierce, the cost is too high, and business is unsustainable.

Nowadays, walking on the street, it is not difficult to find that there are more and more shops that "bump their faces". Under the current situation that it is more and more difficult to find a good job, entrepreneurship has become the choice of many people, and industries such as catering and clothing, which have a low starting point, are listed as the first choice, but the competition among peers has also entered a white-hot stage. Looking at the coffee shops all over the street, the business is booming, followed by Grace Wai Wong, a citizen, but he has been losing money since opening, and he transferred the store in less than a year. After the business failed, Grace Wai Wong couldn't help sighing, "This is a strange phenomenon. Once a project is ahead, imitators are everywhere, and similar stores have sprung up. Faced with such a situation, many people dream of' everyone making money'. The string of hot pots and braised chicken rice on the street are the best examples. "

"At that time, one family was rushing to open, and now it has fallen down one after another." Zhao Yukun, who is engaged in catering industry, analyzed that fierce competition among peers will not only divert customers, but also make customers lose their freshness, resulting in no money and no winners.

"The cost of opening a physical store is too high to afford." Outside the Oriental Market, Mr. Chen, who is engaged in children's shoes business, stood in the store and sighed constantly. He told reporters that his shop area is less than 20 square meters, and the annual rent will be nearly 65,438+10,000 yuan. Water, electricity, taxes, sanitation and other expenses need more than 10 thousand yuan a year. There are two employees in the store, with a monthly salary of 2,500-3,000 and a yearly salary of 60,000. In this way, the annual cost is 6.5438+0.8 million yuan, and only by earning at least 654.38+0.5000 yuan every month can you break even. In some shops in Lanzhou, the annual rent is hundreds of thousands or even millions, and the operating pressure is even greater, and only a handful of them can make profits. During the interview, many shopkeepers also reported that the transfer fees of shops in Lanzhou were generally too high. Before the business was bad, they were often transferred before the lease period, but the expenses such as pre-renovation were not paid back, so the transfer fees were increased. In the long run, the transfer fee will be higher and higher.

The reporter dialed the transfer number of a shop on Wudu Road in the name of renting a house. The lady who answered the phone was very enthusiastic. "We also rented this store, and now we want to rent it out." The lady introduced that the annual rent plus transfer fee for this 50-square-meter shop is 300,000 yuan. She told reporters, "The price will not be lower."