Strategic Transformation Of Urban Race Track Brand

    Since the announcement of strategic circuit conversion and return to practical brand in the second half of 2019, the development status of urban beauty, known as "the first brother of personal clothing", has been paid close attention to by the industry. When the company announced the return of practical brand for one year, Securities Daily interviewed Xiao Jiale, CEO of metropolis beauty. From Xiao Jiale's narration, we can see that the strategic track transformation of urban beauty has begun We believe that the business performance will be improved significantly in the next three years Xiao Jiale told Securities Daily.

Brand positioning "practical"

It has been 22 years since the city beauty was founded. According to the development track of FuPan company, it has gone through three stages. In the first stage, the company's products, brands and channels have developed together. Since then, it has transformed into a fast fashion brand, and in 2019, the company announced its return to the utility brand.

As for the company's brand positioning, Xiao Jiale told the Securities Daily that there are differences in the development environment of enterprises in different periods. At the beginning of its development, the channel, product and supply chain capabilities of urban beauty have significant advantages, and the number of stores has increased rapidly. In this process, it has improved the brand power and management power of urban beauty, and brought high growth to enterprises. However, with the rise of the Internet and the growth of urban beauties, the internal organizations ignore the on-site perception, friend business dynamics, products, etc., which makes the product innovation unable to keep pace with the speed of scale expansion. Therefore, in the second half of 2019, the company started the "second venture", requiring the front, middle and back office of the company to investigate the stores every month, so as to achieve "site, reality, reality" to create a better understanding Consumers' products are more in line with the market demand. At the same time, store optimization, through the digital and scientific layout of new stores, reduce the loss of stores. Stores not only pursue quantity, but also pursue quality. There are five types of shops in urban beauty, which are comprehensive type, youth type, fashion type, community type and popular type. The market positioning of each store type is clear. Different store types correspond to different consumer groups, and different store types have different product structures. Urban beauty people implement fine planning on the standard and structure of each store type.

At present, the company has been steadily advancing in accordance with the established strategy. In the first quarter of 2020, affected by the epidemic, most retail enterprises are affected to varying degrees, which is no differential impact. However, this has accelerated the city beauty in store optimization, online development, organizational structure optimization and other aspects of the pace.

From the performance of the company's newly released interim report data, we can also see signs of performance improvement after the positioning conversion: the gross profit margin is 48.7%, which is 7.6% higher than that of the same period; the operating cash flow is improved from - 262 million yuan in the first half of 2019 to 294 million yuan in the first half of 2020.

    Xiao Jiale told the Securities Daily that after the brand positioning shifted from fast fashion and sexy to practical, functional, comfortable, healthy and cost-effective, the company focused on classic products and launched more high-quality and upgraded new products. At present, it has been affirmed by consumers, "some new products listed in June and July have sold out more than 50% in 30 days, and it is expected that the operation will be completed in the second half of the year It can be significantly improved. "

Increase the growth point of future performance

According to Xiao Jiale, there are corresponding adjustments in the internal organization, stores and supply chain, so as to optimize the supply chain management, product research and development, commodity planning and commodity operation capabilities, improve efficiency, reduce costs and improve quick reaction ability; strictly control costs, optimize organizational structure and reduce unnecessary expenses. In addition, the flagship store model will be gradually carried out in other cities; franchisees will be promoted to expand in non first tier and second tier cities to fill market vacancies; the structure of franchisees will be optimized and hierarchical management will be implemented.

    After the positioning adjustment, the company will once again accurately "portrait" the 59 million online and offline members accumulated by the company before, and "reconstruct the digital membership system through digital transformation, open up the information island of member data between various channels and stores, and deeply understand the real needs of consumers, purchase motivation, wearing occasions, value realization and price matching degree, so as to provide a reference for the development of digital membership system Further meet its needs, lay a digital foundation, and improve the operation efficiency of the city beauty. " Xiao Jiale told Securities Daily.

In view of the company's current situation, Xiao Jiale said that the future profit sources will mainly include "increasing the proportion of online business, optimizing stores, strengthening the advantages of underwear, building home service as a new profit growth pole, and incubating new brands (household clothing)" Moreover, with the initial success of strategic adjustment, Xiao Jiale analyzed, "I believe that investors will have more confidence in our future. The construction of e-commerce channels, the incubation of new brands, the development plan of shopping center channels, the image transformation of existing physical stores and the adjustment of product structure are all the growth points in the future. I believe that the business performance will be greatly improved in the next three years. "