Apparel - Fashion & Sports

Apparel market size in terms of retail value in China is huge estimated to be Rmb 520 billion (US$ 77 billion) in 2009, expected to reach over Rmb 740 billion (US$108 billion) by 2012 at CAGR of 7.5%, according to DataMonitor. China alone accounts for 32% of the Asia-Pacific market's value.

The apparel retail market consists of the sale of all menswear, womenswear and infantswear. The menswear sector includes all garments made for men and boys. It includes both outer and under garments. The womenswear sector consists of the retail sale of all women's and girls' garments including dresses, suits and coats, jackets, tops, shirts, skirts, blouses, sweatshirts, sweaters, underwear etc. The infantswear sector is calculated as sales of garments for children between the ages of 0-2 years.

Menswear sales proved the most lucrative for the Chinese apparel retail market in 2007, generating total revenues of Rmb 308 billion (US$45 billion), equivalent to 58% of the market's overall value. In comparison, sales of womenswear generated a share of 39% revenues of Rmb 205 billion (US$39 billion) with the balance of 3% toward infantswear.

The challenges for apparel players are huge from the current fragmented market, supplier sourcing, design, production, sales and distribution to supply chain management with fast changes brought by fashions, cultures, consumers’ preferences, life-styles and demographic shift and growth of purchasing power.

Currently, apparel retail shops are growing rapidly to capture shoppers and consumers needs. From early days of shopping apparel typically in department stores, to shopping malls, retail and discount chain stores, catalog shopping to online internet shopping. At the same time, standardization in low-cost based, prolific-output, storefront design, merchandizing and layouts, retail management, logistics, inventory management, customer services etc. is gaining importance as scale and speed are competitive advantages.

Both international branded players like Zara, CA, Uniqlo and H&M, and domestic key players like Lining, Shanshan, Lilang, Dongxiang, Youngor, Bosideng, Giordano are chasing different and similar segments of apparel and consumers. Our work in apparel focuses both on fashion and sport apparel more on the downstream retail that includes:

Growth strategy
Brand positioning and segmentation
Portfolio Segmentation and prioritization
Specialty retail chain stores standardization, execution, performance
Revenue growth management
New product launch