To sell more online or hope brick and mortar sales recover? For Chinese fashion the only certainty is uncertainty
- For some labels hit by a collapse in sales, the risks of switching to online stores are too great. For others, such as Chictopia, it’s a strategy that works
- No one knows if customers will buy more, or less. Leading designer Masha Ma hopes life will go back to normal, but Alicia Lee may scale back her collections
Humour is hard to come by at the moment, but a T-shirt design depicting a baijiu bottle logo on a disinfectant spray container by Beijing-based brand Plastered has had people cracking a wry grin. (Baijiu is a fiery Chinese spirit.)
Not that the brand’s owner, or many other independent Chinese designers, have much to smile about when they look at fashion sales during the current coronavirus pandemic.
Many companies rely on selling their clothing in physical stores and malls, which have mostly been empty or closed for the past two months.
Although there has been some experimentation with online sales, there is a general feeling that the carefully cultivated image and prestige of a brand – not to mention its pricing – run the risk of being diluted if sales are conducted by a third party via live-streaming. It is understandable, but it has meant losing out on the recent surge in live-stream sales.
