After acquiring GAP's Greater China business, Baozun E-commerce is now intensively opening stores. On January 3rd, a Beijing Business Daily reporter visited and found that GAP stores located in Joy City in the west of Beijing have started a major opening promotion. In just one month, GAP has opened five new stores in cities such as Beijing and Shenzhen. GAP, which had previously undergone large-scale store closures, is making a comeback to expand its market. Industry insiders point out that the strength of Baozun E-commerce is e-commerce operation rather than brand management. E-commerce operators are good at selling things, but they are not good at how to position the brand, target consumer groups, brand design, research and development style, etc. Therefore, taking over GAP's business in China only allows the brand to achieve limited improvement, and it is difficult for the brand to be reborn.
Continuously opening new stores
The GAP, which had previously undergone large-scale store closures, has returned. On January 3rd, a Beijing Business Daily reporter visited and found that GAP's store located in Joy City in the west of Beijing has officially opened. This is also the fifth new store opened by GAP in cities such as Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Beijing since December last year. Last September, GAP opened five new stores in cities such as Guangzhou and Chengdu. Among them, the Guangzhou store also specially invited Ouyang Nana to open the ribbon cutting ceremony and officially promoted her as the brand renewal manager. In addition to its regular price stores, GAP has also opened a new store in Chengdu Times Olay and renovated the children's clothing store in Beijing Spruce Olay.
From the overall style of the GAP store in Jingxi Joy City, compared to previous stores in the form of hypermarkets, the store has set up matching areas such as "urban functional style" and "simple texture style". The store staff mentioned to the Beijing Business Daily reporter that "the store style and display are different from previous GAP stores, emphasizing more on matching and display.".
The sharp contrast with this store opening is the large-scale closure of the previous store. In mid-2022, GAP closed some offline stores in multiple cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing. Many netizens on Xiaohongshu also posted information about GAP's store closures, and the clearance discounts for some store products were as low as 10% off. In response to this, GAP's China headquarters has stated to the media that "the fashion industry is changing rapidly, especially in the Greater China region." Therefore, GAP will regularly review its business strategy and model, including store combinations, and make corresponding adjustments according to the situation. "This is also a very important routine practice in the industry to best adapt to the new environment and ensure that customers are provided with the best products and services through appropriate channels, including having suitable stores in the right places."
In November 2022, as the wave of store closures continued to spread, Baozun E-commerce announced the acquisition of GAP's Greater China business for $40 million (approximately RMB 286 million), obtaining authorization for production, promotion, and omnichannel sales. Regarding future plans in China, a Beijing Business Daily reporter sent an interview outline to the media contact email of the GAP brand, but as of publication, no response was received.
Low price remains the selling point
After Baozun E-commerce fully embraced GAP, the brand also began to embark on a path of transformation. According to the third quarter financial report of Baozun E-commerce in 2023, the company stated that it will gradually transform GAP from a discount driven brand to a consumer driven brand. Sandrine Zerbib, President of Baozun Brand Management, also stated during the release of the 2022 full year financial report that GAP is a strong starting point for Baozun's brand management business and is currently in the early stage of transformation. Baozun Brand Management has established a professional Chinese team for GAP, promoting the research and operation of GAP's Chinese products.
However, in reality, GAP still needs to attract consumers' attention through discounts. The newly opened Joy City store in Jingxi has launched discounts such as "member exclusive, buy more and get more discounts"; During the "Double 11" period in 2023, some GAP stores also launched a "50% discount on selected products" campaign; It is also common to see bloggers posting discounts on GAP on Xiaohongshu. One account called "GAP Discount" has recently posted multiple posts promoting GAP Olay's one discount. GAP's Haikou Guanlan Lake store has also recently posted posts such as "Winter promotion, all products are as low as 40% off". Obviously, the relationship between GAP and discounts is still difficult to distinguish.
UTAbrand Yang Dayun, an investment in UTAbrand, pointed out that the overall inventory of casual wear and fast fashion industries is very large, requiring regular discount promotions to reduce inventory. "As a brand in the United States, GAP itself is also good at discount promotions, and low prices are deeply ingrained in the minds of consumers. Moreover, the brand's consumer group is mainly young people, who are relatively sensitive to prices. If there is no certain discount, consumers may not necessarily pay.".
Fashion expert Zhang Peiying believes that reducing discounts is relatively beneficial for protecting brand image, but it will bring new problems in inventory pressure, supply chain management, and other aspects. "For fast fashion brands, discounts are actually one of their main operating methods, so changing to discount driven may be phased, and ultimately, discounts or disguised discounts will still be adopted.".
Extracting surplus value
Baozun E-commerce actually has high expectations for GAP. The company stated in its 2022 annual report that the acquisition of GAP China business became the first milestone in the brand management of Baozun E-commerce, and brand management business will be a key sector for the company's growth and profitability in the next three years and beyond. The management of Baozun E-commerce has also proposed the strategic goal of GAP China to turn losses into profits by 2025 and double revenue by 2027.
However, it still faces significant challenges in practical operations. The company's performance report for the third quarter of 2023 showed that Baozun E-commerce achieved a total net revenue of 1.824 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%, with an operating loss of 136 million yuan. The operating loss for the same period last year was 26 million yuan, and the net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders of the listed company was 126 million yuan. The net loss for the same period last year was 169 million yuan, while the revenue in brand management was 296 million yuan, a decrease of 8.64% compared to 324 million yuan in the second quarter.
Yang Dayun bluntly stated, "The strength of Baozun E-commerce is e-commerce operation rather than brand management. E-commerce operators are good at selling things, but they are not good at how to position the brand, target consumer groups, brand design, research and development style, etc. Therefore, taking over GAP's business in China only allows the brand to achieve limited improvement, and it is difficult to revive the brand.". He further pointed out that GAP currently only has some residual value that can be extracted. By attracting consumers through online means at low prices, Baozun E-commerce can achieve good profits in the short term. In the long run, a brand that is difficult to survive locally will find it more difficult to achieve rebirth in a different region.
According to the 2023 third quarter performance report of GAP, a US clothing retail group, the group's total sales decreased by 6.7% to $3.77 billion, with comparable sales down 2%, including a 1% decrease for the GAP brand. According to foreign media reports, Fast Fashion Group GAP plans to reduce its stores in the North American market and will close 220 stores of the same name by early 2024, equivalent to about 33% of the total North American stores.
Zhang Peiying pointed out that the idea of "winning with the minds of consumers" is beautiful, but in reality, it is still necessary to make adjustments and innovations to the brand. "Baozun has channel advantages in the e-commerce field and strong supply chain advantages in China, but in further expanding the brand, sales and brand image are in a game with each other, and whether they can grasp the scale is the key.".