Morrie Joined Yang Deming &Nbsp; GAP Bet On Gold Partners.

　　 An ordinary summer Saturday. Gap (Gapu) China's managing director, Lorenzo Moretti, stopped on the busy Nanjing road. After watching the whole day, he telephoned his working partner, Yang Deming, President of Gap China (Redmond Yeung): "very interesting... Shanghai women like short skirts and high heels all the time. Even if they hang out on the Nanjing Road, they also need to wear a very slim bodice.

It is a required course for Mo Ruidi and Yang Deming at the weekend to reach agreement on the issue of Chinese consumers before the overseas call conference with the US headquarters every Monday.

In June 24, 2010, Gap, the old fashions of America. Retailer Finally announced to enter the Chinese market, but its distribution in Shanghai and Beijing's first four stores will not be open until the end of the year.

"It's a torture to me." Morris, a former chief operating officer of Tesco in China, said to "Global Entrepreneur": "observing consumers in a store is my greatest pleasure." From the era of Tesco, Morris was famous for his good analysis of consumer demand, so in Gap, he was responsible for front-line management of stores, products and personnel. The task of making fun of it falls on Yang Deming, President and chief operating officer of Best Buy, the latter's task is to open stores, negotiate real estate developers, and get as much support from the government as possible.

From either point of view, Yang Deming and Morris are an interesting combination. Yang is foreign, but in fact his character is more mature and calm. He is not right inside, but he always shows amazing openness and passion to understand people's needs.

"Abandoning the unified system and adopting the" double headed management system ", Yang joked to" Global Entrepreneur ":" it is not because we are cheap, but because of complementarity. "

But in the eyes of outsiders, this complementary combination has a notable weakness: the international retail brands they serve before are known for their slow action in China. Morris was responsible for the expansion of Marks & Spencer in the Asian market. The British department store spent two years in China only to open two stores. Although Best Buy, the world's largest household appliance retailer, has spent 9 months in China from the first store to the second shop, and 7 stores in 3 years have also shown signs of unwillingness to comply with the local price war in the Spencer. Prior to this, it was generally accepted that the decline of Gap in the US market was due to its slow response, so that many competitors, such as Zara, who were known for their quick reaction to the supply chain, had robbed many businesses.

Therefore, Gap, represented by Yang Mo, may face a more difficult situation in China than in the US market: Although Gap has been declining in the US market for 5 consecutive years in net sales and sales per unit area, it still enjoys popularity and relies on pricing strategy to maintain its profits by 10% annually. In China, it has to be empty handed, and must face rivals who are constantly eating away at its market in the global market - Zara, H&M and UNIQLO have already entered China in the first 3 years. This situation is so unfavourable that it has led to the view that Gap's entry into China is more like a passive reaction made in the face of shrinking market space. Therefore, although it is sure that there will be "business" in China's second tier cities with olive consumption in the consumption level, it is still unknown how it can occupy the Chinese wardrobe.

"The Chinese wardrobe is always mixed with brands, and we believe there is room for Gap." Yang Deming said. This requires him and Mori to rely on his knowledge of the Chinese market to find the market segments of Gap. In addition, compared with the sale of physical stores, Gap has always regarded online sales as a magic weapon for its breakout. Therefore, Gap's Chinese online store will start in October. In addition to the adult clothing series, Gap will also focus on the development of baby and children's wear series. In Mori's view, Chinese children's clothing is not "cool" at all. It is not what a new generation of Chinese parents want.

This is also Yang Deming's consensus: " Gap It will be a "clothing supermarket" for the whole family.

At present, the biggest magic weapon in Gap is the design style. After years of being boring and unchanging by the fashion industry, it has to return to the "cool, confident and casual American style" - this style was identified 18 months ago by Patrick Robinson, who worked for Giorgio Armani, Paco Rabane and Anne Klein, and is known for her "clean collocation" style. Patrick Robinson, who has been a member of the Robinson company, has been able to return to the "cool, confident and casual American style". He is trying to make the cowboy series become its flagship product when Gap started in 1969. Some analysts believe that the sales of men's and women's jeans from Gap will probably account for 20% to 30% of global sales.

But apart from style, Gap is not so sure about everything in China.

"It is difficult for me to define whether Gap is a fast fashion company or a classic fashion company. I tend to think that Gap is sandwiched between the two, or both. " Said Morris. The advantage is that Gap seems to cater for the two categories of consumers who pursue fashion and classics. The disadvantage is that it may be too vague and undesirable.

This makes Mori the ability to subdivide consumer demand. Ever since the era of Tesco, he has been diligently engaged in "real dialogue with customers". This time, he changed the topic from food price to freshness: the proportion of each person's clothing and accessories, frequency of change, matching habits, brand loyalty (especially for jeans) and so on. "Compared with some other fast fashion brands, our products focus more on the bottom half." He said, "the frequency of replacement of undergarments by ordinary Chinese is 20%, which is lower than that of the mature market. We hope to use our pants and skirts to cut into this area and increase this frequency."

Judging from the transformation of Gap's global business model, it has been able to meet Morris's special requirements in the Chinese market. In the past, from the judgement of popularity to design, production and shelves, the supply chain operation cycle of Gap "core products" was 9 months, while Gap last year developed a "fast popular product line" with a shortened cycle of 2 to 3 months. At present, these two kinds of product lines generally account for 50% of the stores. Although it still has a certain distance from Zara, which has a period of 30 to 40 days and the fastest 7 days, Gap is looking forward to "fast popular product line". It can finally make Gap react more quickly to consumers. Morris said that Gap has now been able to specifically change the size of consumers for different markets. "In this market, only we and UNIQLO do this." {page_break}

At present, four large Gap shops over 1000 square meters have been opened in the central commercial area of Shanghai and Beijing, including Nanjing Road, Huaihailu Road and Wangfujing, which are Yang Deming's expertise. With the accumulation of close ties with China's real estate developers, Yang has let Gap get a golden position for a "latecomer". For example, the new Dongan Plaza in Beijing has changed to Gap. It has removed and integrated six small retail shops so that Gap can get enough space. As a senior vice president of Ports fashion before best buy, Yang joined Gap as a "proper regression" by his former colleagues. "At the end of the career of best buy, the management of specific stores is managed by the United States, which has caused great restrictions on Yang's performance." The person commented. Nevertheless, his good communication style has brought the best buy into the virtuous circle of government relations: compared with the conservative, understated and stereotyped relationship of the former president of the Asia region in the government, Yang's involvement has made the communication between best buy and the government more proactive. He is happy to attend business meetings and make speeches at the invitation of Wang Qishan.

"The general practice of the brand is to stay in the shopping center first and wait for the opportunity to find a bigger store." Yang Deming said: "I am trying to make Gap's" China come out "not to let this process last too long.