Seize The Opportunity, Sock Boss Weimian Enters The Underwear Market: Be China CK

Opportunity: blank market for middle end users

As a niche e-commerce clothing brand with "socks" as the entry point, Weimian saw the neglected market of "socks" last year, as well as the annual sales scale of more than 10 billion yuan hidden behind the market. This time, Lin Wei, the CEO of Weimian, once again found a blank market, that is, the underwear market of middle class white-collar workers.

Lin Wei introduced that most supermarkets and underwear stores in China sell underpants for less than 20 yuan, and all of them are made of polyester cotton fabric, which is very stuffy to wear, and the comfort is not satisfactory. However, CK and other well-known underwear brands recognized by white-collar workers used an average selling price of more than 230 yuan to drive away a large number of consumers. "Middle end people recognize the brand, but not the price". Therefore, Lin Wei saw the "defect" of this market - the price is low enough and the quality is low, but the quality is high and the price is unbearable. Lin Wei thinks that as long as we can provide products of the same quality as CK underwear, but not so expensive, someone will buy it.

Conditions: Cooperation with JOCKEY OEM

Lin Wei said that the first batch of underwear products to be launched by Weimian in late April, covering six basic styles for men and women, use 100% cotton quality, which is equivalent to CK's quality, and the prices are between 30-80 yuan, far below CK's average price of more than 100 yuan.

Lin Wei said that the reason why products of the same quality can be sold at 20-30% of the price of CK underpants stems from the deep cooperation with JOCKEY OEM factory. As an underwear brand that was born 125 years ago, JOCKEY is even more famous than CK. This cooperation is also because JOCKEY has great confidence in the market gap of middle end people after learning about the situation of Victoria cotton and domestic underwear market.

Lin Wei gave some data: the annual sales of underwear in China exceeded 100 billion yuan in 2010, and will grow at an annual rate of 20% in the future. It is estimated that the total sales will reach 800 billion yuan in the next 3-5 years. The underwear market currently accounts for about 34% of the total. According to this proportion, it is estimated that the total sales of underwear in China will exceed 40 billion yuan this year, and the market volume of underwear in 2015 will reach more than 200 billion yuan.

Lin Wei said that the production cost of CK underwear is not high, and the high price is due to the excessive cost of brand bargaining and channel costs. After the cooperation between Weimian and JOCKEY, the value of the product itself will be restored after taking away the brand bargaining and channel costs, so that the quality can be completely the same and the price only accounts for 20-30% of CK's sales price.

Fali: About 50% of the revenue will be used for advertising this year

Lin Wei said that when Vibram cotton entered the underwear market this time, it did not want to compete with supermarkets and stores for underwear business, but to compete with famous brand products such as CK. In order to build brand awareness, Lin Wei plans to spend 40-50% of his sales on advertising in 2011. If Vibram's underwear sales this year can exceed 100 million yuan, then its investment in advertising promotion will also reach the level of 50 million yuan.

In addition, Weimian will also launch the underwear design contest of "who is the master of my lower body" in May to attract consumers' attention, and further emphasize the establishment of "clothing connotation" advocated by Weimian to show the unique brand value of Weimian underwear and create a confident, simple and bright style.

In Lin Wei's view, the process of focusing on the establishment and creation of clothing brands is exactly the process of returning the products on the e-commerce platform to the essence of commodities. "Many people always think that online shopping is good because it is cheap. Many e-commerce enterprises think that good logistics and good service are the most important. In fact, in the offline clothing market, consumers value brand and quality most. We hope to return the business focus to the pre-sales link, rather than blindly pursuing the after-sales link that can only add to the beauty".

Future: autumn clothes and trousers will be launched in the third quarter

From socks to underpants, Weimian has begun to expand its transition from the initial dream of establishing a "kingdom of socks" to "lower body comfort". According to Lin Wei, Weimian will launch autumn clothes and pants in the third quarter of this year, gradually expanding its product line to meet more users' needs.

Lin Wei said that only after the beauty and comfort of the products have reached a balance, will Vibram and Cotton consider related fields. At present, Weimian has begun to sell other products besides socks, including silk socks, which will also be involved in Weimian in the near future. However, Lin Wei and his team are also constantly exploring and considering the "upper body" products that match underpants, such as bras, "First of all, the satisfaction of selling bras will be relatively low, because it is difficult for consumers to be fully satisfied without the trial wearing stage; second, at present, the bra products of well-known brands tend to be shaped and beautiful, but Vician first values comfort. If comfort and beauty can not be balanced, we will not consider entering for the time being".