How High Is La Natsu Bell'S Ambition?

Less than half a year, Shanghai La Natsu Bell The clothing Limited by Share Ltd (hereinafter referred to as "La Natsu Bell") has been doing a lot of action, starting from SPA business, promoting shop partner system, and investing in Internet apparel retailers recently. Although it was questioned at the beginning of the listing, the present strategy has not been successful, but at least has shown its positive side. Its ambition is never to do the Chinese version of ZARA.

　　 change

Since arriving at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October last year, La Natsu Bell has been actively seeking change, and has made new attempts in the whole channel expansion, operation mode and customer experience. "At least it is doing something after listing, which is worth affirming." A person who has had many years of business with La Natsu Bell said to the new financial reporter.

In mid February, La Natsu Bell announced the signing of the equity transfer agreement and the capital increase agreement with the online apparel retailer Hangzhou Agel Ecommerce Ltd, which is famous for its "seven grid" brand, hereinafter referred to as "seven grid", and will pay seven yuan 54.05% of its share in the 200 million yuan price.

In response, La Natsu Bell official said the move is in line with its O2O strategy and can help to consolidate its leadership in the Chinese popular female casual wear market. In fact, this is another step after La Natsu Bell's taste of Internet sales in the second half of last year.

In August last year, La Natsu Bell began to touch the net and set up flagship store in Tmall. 3 months later, the first time to participate in the "double 11" harvest more than 25 million yuan sales. Thanks to the direct camp mode, its more than 300 stores in the country account for 70% of the electricity supplier's shipments, and the delivery speed has been well received.

"Tmall did a good job, so this time we invested seven grids to further improve the online sales ability." The industry insiders said.

Public information shows that the seven grid is a well-known online apparel retailer, its brand includes seven grid, OTHERMIX and OTHERCRAZY. What La Natsu Bell sees is his experience in online marketing and promotion. He will use seven talents to improve his online sales ability and "make La Natsu Bell's own brand online platform an industry leader." Wang Yong, executive vice president of La Natsu Bell, said publicly.

In terms of business mode, although La Natsu Bell has as many as more than 5000 stores, it has been operating in a fully direct way. In January this year, there was also a slight adjustment in this model. La Natsu Bell launched the shop partnership system, and every shop assistant became a partner.

Each salesperson shares profits according to the performance of the store. The company sets the total remuneration of the shop according to the sales situation in the past year, which accounts for the proportion of the sales volume of the store. The store manager and the shop assistant share the total amount of the salary paid by the store. The wage adjustment of employees is "100% and sales performance linked", abandoning the former "fixed wage + commission" calculation method. In addition, the company gives the shop more freedom, and the store manager decides the number of the shop assistants according to the actual staffing needs so as to achieve maximum performance.

"It's like a shop run by a store manager and a salesperson, and their income is entirely dependent on their own efforts, independent management and more work and more effort." The industry insiders said so.

This method was tested in two cities in Shanghai and Chongqing in December last year, and was introduced to the whole country after January this year. Statistics show that more than 90% of the shops that have adopted the partnership system have achieved a year-on-year increase in sales and a significant increase in the average annual income of their employees. La Natsu Bell also said that in the future, the system will be further optimized and improved according to the actual implementation effect.

A partner at a La Natsu Bell store in Shanghai said to the new financial reporter that the pressure is high now, but "power is more sufficient, because we have done well, and the sales of the whole shop have also improved."

In terms of user experience, La Natsu Bell transformed the original simple brand store into SPA (Speciality retailer of Private label Apparel) private brand professional retailer business mode, displaying products according to category and life scenes, optimizing consumer purchase experience, increasing joint sales, thereby enhancing performance.

"A few years ago, La Natsu Bell began to build a large store of brand collections, but just put its brand in a shop, and had no relationship with each other. Now this method divides all products according to different categories and themes, and it feels more innovative, and consumers' purchase experience will be better." The industry insiders said.

　　 dispute

The La Natsu Bell brand was born in 1998. The stock company was founded in 2001 and is the main public leisure wear for women. Up to now, there are 8 brands (including 5 brands). Lane Bryant 2 men's wear brands and 1 children's wear brands.

In La Natsu Bell's listed prospectus, the most notable is its high growth rate and market share: its sales revenue increased from 1 billion 860 million yuan in 2011 to 6 billion 225 million yuan in 2013, with a compound annual growth rate of 82.7%. According to retail sales, the rate of 2013 was 5.7%, second only to bestseller fashion and E-land group. It even surpassed international brand ZARA (3.2%), UNIQLO (2.9%) and H&M (2.2%).

In the background of the downturn of the entire garment industry, La Natsu Bell's brilliant performance has not been fully supported by investors. In IPO, part of the sale in Hong Kong has not been adequately subscribed, and the subscription share is equivalent to 95% of the public offering shares.

"It has something to do with the environment, but investors are also skepticism about the high sales volume brought by its large-scale opening." The industry insiders said.

"When La Natsu Bell introduced Lenovo investment in the early years, he started shop. After 2010, its sales grew quite fast. After all, more than one store had more sales. But the flat effect to a single store may not be ideal. Wang Chieh, who worked in La summer bell and has long been concerned about it, said to the new financial reporter.

But Wang Chieh admits that even in this way, "at that time, money was used to open up the market and increase popularity, which is still a success in this sense."

Public figures show that by the end of 2011, the number of La Natsu Bell retail outlets was 1841. By the first half of 2014, the number has increased to 5671, covering 31 provinces throughout the country. And 83% of the listed fundraising funds will still be used to expand the retail network. According to the plan, there will be nearly 1 sales outlets in 2016.

In the eyes of Wang Chieh and many people in the industry, the way to drive sales alone is not long-term. But Xing Jiaxing, chairman of La Natsu Bell, has his own view: "with the growth of China's commercial sector, it is not very realistic for a single brand to grow on the old store. With the community-based shopping center, if you do not follow the store, you will stay away from the consumer."

As for investment seven grid, Tong Jiahua, who has been immersed in women's clothing industry for more than 20 years, is unable to understand. In his view, "seven grid has gone downhill".

Public information shows that the seven grid was established in 2006, and only started its own brand in 2009. Sales in that year amounted to 30 million yuan, and increased to 150 million yuan in 2010, an increase of 500%. It once became the fastest growing brand of women's clothing on Taobao.

However, before last year's "double 11", the seven grid said Tmall store had to hit 35 million yuan. And the sales of the brand new clothes of Korean brand clothing has rushed to 280 million yuan. "It (seven grid) has long been fading away, and now it is not in the first camp, so it sold to La Natsu Bell to catch the straw, but the benefits to La Natsu Bell are not so obvious." Tong Jiahua analyzed the new financial reporter.

Another controversial issue is the partnership system. At present, all of La Natsu Bell's stores are direct battalions, and after each shop "each has its own way", it has the suspicion of transformation and joining. It is considered that the concept is more important than the reality.

But in Tong Jiahua's view, pushing partnership system is in line with xingjiaxing's style. He said that Xing Xing has always relied heavily on retail terminals, and "advocates the accumulation of wealth, so it will be willing to share profits with others, and doing so will also help sales."

For the shop partner system Xing Xing Xing said: "it is only the adjustment of the management mode that the company should undertake on different scales, and there is no demand for joining, nor demand for fund raising."

　　 Ambition

In Tong Jiahua's view, La Natsu Bell can open so many stores throughout the country and will continue to explain the ambition of xingjiaxing.

On the one hand, money is in hand. On the other hand, parity is also important. This is somewhat similar to the men's clothing brand Hai Lan's home. Tong Jiahua said, La Natsu Bell can see in a second tier city, and the shopping mall department store center is relatively mainstream, but because the price is close to the people, actually subverted the original mainstream shopping mall pricing system recognition, so it can attract some consumers.

Another thing that Tong Jiahua admires is Xing Jiaxing's strong points in marketing. "As a boss, he even goes to the shop counter to observe customers and try to understand the psychology of consumers."

In terms of talent, La Natsu Bell also met with very good opportunities. In 2007, the French women's clothing brand AI Ge was in turmoil. "In 2008, many Eiger people, especially the sales, joined La Natsu Bell's team. At that time, we had a colleague from the bottom line to the store manager who later went to La Natsu Bell to be the marketing director. He accumulated all his experience in the way. A former executive at agge recalls the new financial reporter. Xingjiaxing also accepted people with ability without stingy.

Although La Natsu Bell Du is not bad in terms of marketing and price advantage, he has to admit that this mass fashion casual dress consumer group is usually not very loyal, plus many brands that can be chosen in the market. "There is no reason to buy it all the time." Wang Chieh said.

Tong Jiahua also believes that whether a brand goes long or depends on products to attract users, "no good products, users do not form a good reputation for products, or not". This is what he is worried about.

For the current situation of La Natsu Bell, Wang Chieh admitted that it is risky to continue large-scale opening. The key is "our research and development team is not very strong, and there are also some problems with suppliers, which may also affect products."

At the beginning of La Natsu Bell's listing, its design fashion and all direct camp mode made the media compare it to the Chinese version of ZARA, but it also clarified from various aspects that "there is still a big gap".

But in fact, La Natsu Bell never advertised himself as a fast fashion brand like ZARA. Its official website also defines itself as "a multi brand fashion group that is developing rapidly in China".

It is undeniable that La Natsu Bell also returns.