8 million sold in one day, "outdated items" are selling well in the off-season

Behind the off-season sales is the clothing industry's clever response to the problem of high inventory. Through the innovative marketing strategy of the live broadcast platform, not only the backlog of inventory was cleared, but also a significant increase in sales was achieved, bringing a win-win situation for brands and consumers.

Behind the surge in off-season sales is high clothing inventory.

It was a hot summer day with the temperature outside at 40℃, but "snow" was falling in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room. The anchors wore thick goose down jackets to create a sense of contrast. In fact, this was Li Jiaqi's "off-season live broadcast special" announced in advance. Down jackets, woolen coats, cashmere sweaters and other warm artifacts with discounts of up to 50% were factors that attracted consumers to make quick purchase decisions. Because of the low prices, many winter categories were sold out in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room.

Not only Li Jiaqi, but also Luo Yonghao and other anchors' live broadcast rooms have added "off-season specials" this summer, including core categories such as down jackets, woolen coats, and furs. A merchant in Haining Leather City said that during the 618 period, the average transaction volume of their store live broadcasts exceeded 400,000 yuan, driving the store's sales to grow by 57% year-on-year.

Behind the surge in off-season sales is actually the apparel industry's eternal inventory problem.

The reason why brands are willing to sell at a low price of less than 50% off is to clear inventory and recover funds. Therefore, off-season sales have become a regular marketing strategy for clothing brands such as Bosideng and YaYa.

Everything has its A and B sides. Some people rush to clear their warehouses and get rid of their inventory, while others buy in when the price is low. Now is the peak season for many stock traders. "Buy at low prices in summer and sell at high prices in winter. There is no worry about selling goods." A stock trader in Yiwu told Tianxia.com.

After the operation of various links in the industrial chain, the inventory has found a way out, but for brands, "eliminating" inventory is one aspect, and the other is to grasp the market trend and innovate product categories. Brands such as Bosideng and Xue Zhongfei began to sell "hard-core sunscreen products" in the summer, taking a differentiated path from their peers.

1. 30% and 50% off sales, off-season down jackets are popular

When the hot summer meets 618, a non-seasonal category "comes out" in advance, and that is down jackets.

The report of "Pinghu China Down Jacket Index" in June this year showed that the sales of off-season down jackets reached a peak. The survey results showed that 36% of merchants in Pinghu's clothing city were fully or largely open for business, 43% of merchants said that the number of new orders had increased, and 33% of merchants said that downstream sales had increased.

In Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, the contrast of "trying on down jackets while turning on the cold air conditioner" also attracted many consumers to stop and place orders.

On Tmall, if you search for the keyword "down jacket", you can see that brands specializing in down jackets, such as Gaofan, YaYa, and Bosideng, are live streaming around the clock, and most brands' official live streaming rooms are labeled "off-season promotion". On Xiaohongshu, many merchants' down jackets are directly labeled "lowest price in 60 days" or "lowest price in 90 days" to attract consumers to browse and place orders.

Not only that, there are more than 520,000 notes about "off-season" on Xiaohongshu, most of which involve down jackets, woolen coats, etc. Some bloggers have even posted a guide on "How to buy off-season down jackets", and the posts have been hotly discussed.

The reason why off-season down jackets are so popular is because they are cheap.

Some savvy consumers have discovered that summer is the cheapest season to buy down jackets. Bosideng, which was on the hot search last year because of its high price, can also be bought at three-digit prices during the off-season. A Bosideng long down jacket that retailed for about 1,600 yuan last year was reduced by 800 yuan during the 618 period. A user posted his "wool order" on Xiaohongshu, saying that he successfully bought a short down jacket from Jiangnan Buyi at a 38% discount and shared his strategy. On some discount sale platforms, there are also a wide variety of brand down jackets with discounts as low as 20% and 10%.

Compared with expensive down jackets such as Bosideng and Jiangnan Buyi, the off-season prices of down jackets from established brands such as YaYa and Xue Zhongfei are more attractive. According to Chan Mama data, the "YAYA YaYa Down Jacket Flagship Store" on Douyin has had 53 live broadcasts in the past 30 days, with an average sales of 250,000 to 500,000 yuan per show. The top five popular products are all priced below 300 yuan, and one "casual short down jacket" has sales of nearly 5 million yuan in 30 days. In the "YAYA YaYa Outlet Flagship Store", the price of down jackets is even lower, with the core main models priced at around 199 yuan.

2. Achieve a counter-seasonal “reversal” in the live broadcast room

In this round of counter-season war, the live broadcast room has become the core sales venue.

Not only down jackets, but also cashmere sweaters, woolen coats and furs are hot sellers in summer. Taobao data shows that during the 618 shopping festival, off-season furs saw a peak in sales, with an average daily sales amount of more than 8 million yuan, an increase of 206% from May to before the sale.

In terms of transaction channels, nearly 60% of the transaction amount of fur comes from live streaming. Consumers who buy fur mainly come from first-tier and new first-tier cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou, among which the majority are consumers aged 30-49.

Yan Zi, born in the 1980s, is a merchant in the leather industry. During the 618 period this year, her "Yan Zi High-end Fur Factory Store" completed a counter-season "counterattack". During the entire 618 period, the average transaction volume of her store live broadcasts exceeded 400,000 yuan, driving the store's sales to grow by 57% year-on-year.

This category was once regarded as a representative of high-customer-unit products, but in Yan Zi’s live broadcast room, you can get it at a three-digit price as long as your hands are fast enough.

The reason why it can sell at a price far lower than that of its competitors is because of Yan Zi's differentiated business strategy - her father's family has been running a leather supply chain business, and Yan Zi, who has been immersed in the industry for more than ten years, has found a breakthrough: getting samples from various factories.

Therefore, in Yanzi's live broadcast room, you can see items sold at 10% to 20% off, but each item is unique, so you have to grab them. Many merchants in the industrial belt will also seize the off-season sales boom by selling off their tail goods.

Song Wu, a Taobao live broadcaster, told The World Online Merchant that the sales of this category on the live broadcast side increased rapidly, exceeding the same period last year. "On the one hand, it is the characteristics of the live broadcast room. The conversion rate will be higher if there is a dedicated person to explain. On the other hand, it is the policy support. This year we gave out red envelopes to achieve high conversions, such as coupons like 'get 50 off for every 500, get 100 off for every 1,000', and the conversion rate increased rapidly."

Qian Boyan, a women's clothing brand that grew up in the sweater industry belt in Puyuan, Tongxiang, Zhejiang, transformed from a traditional stall to live broadcast on Kuaishou in 2020. In three years, the number of fans increased by 9.71 million, making it the top merchant in the clothing category on Kuaishou. Summer is the traditional off-season for sweaters. "We also do off-season sales, with 20% or 30% discounts on down jackets and wool sweaters," said Qian Boyan.

If you search for "off-season" on Douyin, a large number of influencers and stores that are live streaming will pop up. YaYa has even turned on the "super long standby" function, starting live streaming at 7 a.m., with users constantly commenting on the barrage of comments, "YaYa's off-season promotion, limited time price cut, 'buoyancy'."

3. "Off-season sales" solves the problem of clothing inventory

Behind off-season promotions is the historical legacy of high inventory in the apparel industry.

In Song Wu's opinion, the clothing industry has been affected by the overall environment in the past two years, and competition has become increasingly fierce. Taking the leather industry he has observed as an example, many merchants in the industrial belts in Tongerbao, Liaoning and Haining, Zhejiang have stockpiled a lot of goods in the past few years. The overall decline in consumption has led to a large number of offline fur city customers and a backlog of inventory, so there is a strong demand for clearance. He added that this year many traditional offline cargo owners in Tongerbao went online for the first time.

The inventory problem that worries clothing people is also a good opportunity to make money in the eyes of inventory people.

Xixi, a girl from Guangxi, runs an inventory business in Yiwu. She saw the business opportunity of doing inventory business from the live broadcast room of anchors: those small commodities piled up like mountains and sold by kilograms are often in great demand. So she settled down in Yiwu Bazutang Inventory Street and started her own journey as an inventory "hunter".

Xixi’s goods are sourced from first-tier factories, and some are also sourced from peers and intermediaries.

"We started stockpiling winter heaters last month, as well as sweaters and scarves, and are planning to start buying them this month. We have already started shipping blankets." Xixi told The World Online Merchants that they had recently sold 10,000 blankets.

Xixi is shipping out the inventory of blankets

She believes that if you want to keep your product profit margin within a certain range in winter, you must stock up on goods that are out of season. Prices are low now. For example, a scarf that is out of season costs 3 yuan, but can be sold for around 15 yuan in winter. "We will buy anything that is warm or useful in winter, as long as the price is right." She said that more than 95% of the stock can be sold.

Compared with domestic stocks, overseas stocks have a bigger market. Xixi's products have good sales in West Africa and South Africa.

"In general, there is a shortage of products in the market. The return rate of clothing is the highest among all categories, and we basically have no returns," said Xixi.

The clothing inventory problem has always been a difficult issue in the industry, but some businesses are also trying to gradually lighten their inventory.

In the past two years, YaYa has revitalized its brand and made "selling down jackets in summer" a communication point. It not only sells goods in the live broadcast room in the off-season, but also moves the live broadcast room to the snow-capped mountains to attract attention. That year (2021), it won the top spot in Douyin's fashion women's clothing. Through a series of content planning, YaYa has mastered the template of off-season sales on Douyin.

Bosideng used another solution. On the one hand, it continued to promote off-season down jackets in the live broadcast room, and on the other hand, it attracted more consumers by expanding the seasonal categories. The slogans in the live broadcast room revolved around "off-season" and "sun protection", and the products also included sun protection clothing, sun protection masks, ice sleeves and other products.

Not long ago, Bosideng released its annual report for the 2023/24 fiscal year. Data showed that as of March 31, 2024, Bosideng's inventory turnover days had dropped to 115 days. It is obvious that the adjustments in the supply chain have been effective.

The clothing industry’s “inventory elimination war” is still going on, and some businesses have already delivered their results on this road to self-rescue.