The Fashion Brand Of H&M Group Nordic Lifestyle Is Coming To China.

Half a month ago, H&M group's brand Arket set up an official account on micro-blog on a low profile. Not long after that, there were sharp eyed fans searching for the wind, trying to find out their next move and looking forward to more interaction between the brand and the Chinese market.

As many people think, the next goal of Arket is China. This autumn, the brand will officially launch the official flagship store of Tmall, bringing women's clothing, men's wear and children's wear design to China. This is the first time that it has stepped out of Europe and is moving towards the Asian market.

In August 2017, Arket's first flagship store was completed in London, and gradually expanded to many European countries such as Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Holland and Belgium. Now it has opened 20 outlets. The European market was established as the focus of brand development at the beginning of its establishment. At that time, the brand had said that it would not consider doing business in China in the short term.

Arket, who first settled in Europe, soon attracted the interest of consumers including overseas Chinese and young students through meticulous physical environment and rich offline shopping experience. A consistent minimalist decoration and display is the first impression that the brand stores leave to many consumers, while the main Swedish style vegetarian cafe is the key to its separation from other clothing stores. These cafes are echoed with home cooking products such as cooking books, aromatherapy candles and other household products, so that consumers can perceive a more complete "Nordic life". Many people rush to shop to punch cards and create relevant content on social media.

Before long, Arket was regarded as one of the youngest brands of H&M group, and also the most famous brand of Nordic lifestyle. It has been continuously shared and discussed in many social media platforms such as Xiao Hong and micro-blog. From the daily wear recommendation to the "shop exploration" experience, some Chinese consumers who are walking on the front end of the fashion industry are gradually increasing their awareness of Arket. Clean, pure coloring and sharp tailoring make it a new force in the "cool" army, through the creation of a good quality foundation. Even if the price is slightly higher, there are still consumers willing to pay for it. In the UK, the price of the brand's pure white shirts is basically over 500 yuan, and the average price of the suits is over 1000 yuan.

The time has come to maturity. "We see the great potential of the Chinese market," Pernilla Wohlfahrt, Arket's current managing director, told BoF. In 2020, the brand will focus on digital expansion in the Chinese market and measure the possibility of further developing physical retail.

Like H&M group's other brand, Other Stories's strategy to enter the Chinese market in August last year, Arket also chose to cooperate with the third party e-commerce platform Tmall to observe the market reaction more reliably through online flagship stores. Moreover, considering the fact that the physical retail industry is badly hurt by the impact of the new crown epidemic, it still takes time to get back to normal. Online channels should be the best choice for the brand to expand its business at present.

But it also means that the physical stores that enrich the Arket brand concept and aesthetic value will hardly be able to be felt by more Chinese consumers for the time being. Online flagship stores need to shoulder more responsibilities in the absence of online shopping experience. In the eyes of many Chinese consumers, Arket is still a relatively new brand. Wohlfahrt believes that Tmall's flagship store is the first important window for its brand to tell Chinese consumers its overall vision and sustainable concept.

It is easy to see from Arket's established overseas brand official website that the website of brand flower is no less mind than entity store. In addition to displaying the latest developments in eight major categories and cafes, the importance of "sustainable environmental protection" is particularly prominent on the brand's official website, which is even more abundant than the physical stores.

In the physical store, most of Arket's clothing is classified and displayed in accordance with styles and colors. Each garment has its own coding, and each coding represents the material of the corresponding fabric. Organic cotton, recycled cashmere and wool, polyester yarn made from plastic bottles and other innovative materials have their own ID numbers. It is already a huge "clothing data archive".

Online websites have made further extensions and additions to these information. On the principle of mutual trust and high transparency, the real information of twenty fabric suppliers and raw material processing plants co operated with Arket is publicly displayed on its official website. In addition to basic information such as personnel size and professional qualifications, these partners provide detailed and comprehensive display of the technologies and related products provided by Arket.

Arket also released a product maintenance guide to provide specific guidance to consumers in order to extend the life of products and reduce waste. The H&M group's "old clothes recycling" strategy has also been extended in Arket. All second-hand clothing collected from customers will be reclassified and recycled. "We want to encourage consumers to form a more sustainable way of life," Wohlfahrt said. The most distinctive feature of the brand is beyond its Nordic soul, which is the core of sustainable development. This is also a major force in the Chinese market in the future.

Arket's choice of online move to China is particularly important for the H&M group, which was in trouble in the first half of 2020. The latest data released by the group showed that its net sales in March dropped by 46% compared with the same period last year due to the impact of the epidemic. The overall performance in the second quarter is expected to turn from profit to loss. However, online business is still growing, and its online sales increased by 48% in the first quarter, so the group decided to continue to increase investment and R & D on online channels. China is also a growth opportunity that must be valued. In the 2019 fiscal year, the mainland market contributed 12 billion 59 million Swedish kronor sales, up 7% by Renminbi and 12% by SEK. It ranks among the top five largest markets in H&M group. Since the middle of March, the largest number of market stores in the group have almost been closed, but China's demand has begun to recover gradually, stores are basically reopened, and sales are gradually increasing.

However, before entering the game, Arket needs to realize that it is not the only player who wants to win the Chinese mid end consumer market in fast fashion and popular fashion brands. In 2009, the Spanish high-end fashion group Inditex's high-end brand Massimo Dutti has already begun to layout the Chinese mainland market. In 2018, the group's Uterq Lu E also entered China through the electricity supplier, and opened a physical store. Japan's fast selling group's brand UNIQLO has also been promoting its diversified development. Through cooperation with designers such as Lemaire, JW Anderson, the brand is perceived more and more by high-end Chinese consumers. Domestic brands such as JNBY, Icicle and Edition 10 will also compete with them in product positioning and cognition. Enterprises such as di Su group and Mu have already laid down the concept store of catering and lifestyle. Arket's best practices will also be challenged.

Until this autumn, when the epidemic is no longer raging, if we want to write a new story in China, let the fast fashion slow down and wait for consumers to savor the Arket, whether it can really bring the fashionable and sustainable Nordic wind into China, perhaps the action can be "faster".

BoF China editorial director Queennie Yang contributed to this article.