With the continuous cooling of the weather in recent days, the down jacket market has ushered in a small peak. On December 12th, a reporter from Huaxia Times observed during a market visit to Beijing that even though Canadian geese are generally priced at over 10000 yuan, they still have not dampened consumer enthusiasm. At that time, it was Tuesday evening, not considered the peak consumption period, but the Canadian Goose Sanlitun store had to wait in line for the salesperson to introduce it. According to the salesperson, the sales of down jackets were still quite hot, and some series even needed to be restocked; At the same time, offline sales of lululemon and Bosiden Extreme Cold series priced over a thousand yuan are also booming.
In contrast, small brand down jacket stores are rarely visited by people. However, on the online battlefield, it is a different scene, as affordable down jacket brands such as Duck and Snow Flying are extremely popular online. Although the battlefield is different, the sales goals were ultimately achieved, and the consumption classification is reflected in the down jacket market.
Consumer classification in the down jacket market
The severe cold weather continues to hit, not only is the down jacket market booming, but down jackets are also becoming popular.
On December 14th, a reporter from the Huaxia Times learned from Alibaba that data from the source factory direct sales platform 1688 showed that from November 1st to December 12th, the daily search volume of military coats on the platform increased by 236% year-on-year, the search frequency increased by 216% year-on-year, and the number of buyers increased by 50% year-on-year; During the same period, the daily search volume for Huamian Coat increased by 163% year-on-year, the search frequency increased by 159% year-on-year, and the number of buyers increased by 49% year-on-year.
The mainstream population of this wave of consumer replacement is more concentrated in college students. According to Alibaba, according to data from 1688, university dormitories have the highest proportion of delivery locations for military coats, cotton jackets, and Lei Feng hats; Some students are still inquiring about the possibility of customizing pet army coats and flower cotton jackets for stray cats and dogs in the 1688 strict selection backend; As of December 12th, there are 21894 source manufacturers (5140 factories) specializing in the production of military coats on the 1688 platform, and 21666 source manufacturers (5033 factories) producing flower cotton jackets, with a total of nearly 1 million products. Compared to down jackets that often have four or five digits, a military coat costs less than a hundred yuan.
In addition to the replacement of down jackets, down jackets priced below 1000 yuan are also popular. Down jacket brands priced below 1000 yuan mainly include Duck and Snowy Flying. In the Tmall ranking based on annual sales data, 7 out of the top 10 down jackets are priced below 1000 yuan, with the Snow Flying 2023 autumn/winter down jacket priced at 399 yuan ranking first. On the Tiktok live broadcast platform, Xuezhongfei and Yaya are also popular, with the highest sales of ducks reaching 287000 and Xuezhongfei 39000.
In terms of performance, both Duck and Flying in Snowy Snow have also reaped significant rewards. On December 15th, a reporter from the Huaxia Times learned from the duck industry that the duck brand has been established for 51 years and has achieved over a hundred fold growth since the stock restructuring in 2020; Last year, the brand's GMV (commodity transaction volume) exceeded 10 billion yuan, and this year has seen an increase compared to last year. In addition, Bosideng's performance data shows that in the first half of the fiscal year 2023/2024 (six months ending September 30, 2023), Xuezhongfei achieved a revenue of 265 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.2%.
Canadian Goose, Lululemon, and Bosiden brands positioned as mid to high end brands also have customers. Canadian Goose revealed in a conference call on its performance for the second quarter of the 2024 fiscal year that it achieved a 13% revenue growth in the Asia Pacific region during the second quarter of the 2023 fiscal year ending on October 1, mainly driven by the Chinese market; Lululemon's net revenue in the Chinese market increased by 53% year-on-year in the third quarter of fiscal year 2023; In the first half of the fiscal year 2023/2024, the Bosiden brand achieved a revenue of 4.421 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.5%.
Different market focuses
Although there have been breakthroughs in sales performance, the focus of different brand channels varies depending on their positioning.
Mid to high end brands such as Canada Goose and Lululemon place more emphasis on store channels. According to the disclosure made by Canadian Goose during the aforementioned conference call, as of October 1st, Canadian Goose, which is generally priced at over 10000 yuan, has a total of 21 stores in China, indicating strong demand for its brand in the market. On December 12th, our reporter learned from the Canadian Goose Sanlitun store that every customer came to their store with a staff introduction service. At that time, it was Tuesday evening, not considered the peak consumption period, but the Canadian Goose store had to wait in line for the staff introduction.
In addition to Canadian geese, lululemon has also increased its offline layout in China. It is understood that 29 of the 81 new stores opened by lululemon in the world last year were in Chinese Mainland. Calvin McDonald, chief executive officer (CEO) of lululemon, believes that lululemon is still in the early stage of growth in the Chinese Mainland market. "The Chinese market has huge potential, and we will continue to promote business growth through investment in talent training, store layout, digital channels and other aspects."
However, popular consumer brands such as Snowy Fly and Duck are increasing their online presence. Bosiden disclosed in the annual report that the Xuezhongfei brand has made efforts to break through online business and supply chain collaboration, and the innovation effect of business model has begun to show. In terms of traditional e-commerce platforms, through continuous efforts with Tmall, JD, Vipshop and other platforms, it has achieved stable development, and is also vigorously expanding Tiktok and other platforms.
At present, Tiktok Live has become one of the important channels for online sales of goods. The reporter observed that, compared with Yaya and Xuezhongfei's almost all-weather live broadcast in Tiktok, Lululemon usually chose to broadcast live on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 7:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m., while Canada Goose did not open a Tiktok account.
In the view of Cheng Weixiong, a senior brand management expert and founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., this phenomenon is not uncommon, after all, the product level and brand tone are different. Cheng Weixiong analyzed to a reporter from the Huaxia Times that "currently, most domestic down jacket brands focus on mass consumption and scale sales, while high-end brands such as Canada Goose focus on concept and value-added services. If you let them shout live online, it will definitely damage the brand's appearance."
Domestic down jacket brands compete for high-end products
For a long time, most domestic down jacket brands have focused on mass consumption, and the high-end market rarely sees the presence of domestic brands. However, in the past two years, some domestic brands have begun to launch attacks on the high-end market, such as SKYPEOPLE, a subsidiary of Gaofan and Ape Tutoring, which are priced close to international brands. Most of Gaofan's down jackets are priced at over 1000 yuan, with the highest selling price being 5999 yuan per piece; SKYPEOPLE has a higher selling price, with many down jacket products priced at over 5000 yuan and over 6000 yuan. However, from its official flagship store, the sales of SKYPEOPLE Skyman products are not high.
On December 15th, I asked the relevant staff of the company about the recent product sales situation of Gao Fan and SKYPEOPLE, as well as their future development plans for the brand, but did not receive any response.
And Duck Duck is also trying to become more high-end. According to the official flagship store, the Duck Duck Ice Shell Co branded Down jacket is priced at 4999 yuan for outdoor goose duck down jackets in the 2023 autumn and winter new product market. On December 15th, a reporter from Huaxia Times learned from Duck that it had launched Goose down jackets for over a thousand yuan per order last year, and this year it has been upgraded based on last year; In the middle of this year, the company also collaborated with the Icelandic government to directly purchase the world's rare Icelandic goose duck down. There is a special version of goose duck down in the Ice Shell series of fashionable assault jackets. However, in the official flagship store of Tmall, most products priced at 1000 yuan or more have poor sales. As of December 15th, the sales of the two products priced at 4999 yuan were 0 and 7, respectively.
The duck side explained to a reporter from the Huaxia Times, In the process of expanding the market, as the number of people purchasing down jackets increases, we see new demands growing in the middle. For example, people with stronger purchasing power and higher quality requirements will be willing to try down jackets. The pricing increase of the above products is due to the increase in product cost and value, rather than the price increase of similar products. The main price range is still between 399-799 yuan, and the overall national positioning of the brand remains unchanged "
In Cheng Weixiong's view, Chinese down jacket brands still need a long way to go towards high-end development. Cheng Weixiong told our reporter that the current path of high-end Chinese down jacket brands is somewhat impatient. The establishment of a high-end brand is more about product quality and product design, which accumulates a high reputation. However, this cannot be achieved overnight.