interface news reporter | Zhu Yongling
interface news editor | Ya Hanxiang
"Babies, welcome the little dragon home!" On January 4, actor Jia Nailiang skillfully introduced him to the camera in his Douyin live broadcast room The clothes - a red knitted sweater with "dragon" printed on it. Later, he posted the photo on his Weibo. The reason why
promotes it so hard is that this is a brand he founded together with Semir. On December 1, 2023, Semir and Jia Nailiang signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Almost a month later, the brand called "Shuku" appeared in Jia Nailiang's live broadcast room.
After Jia Nailiang, Semir reached a cooperation with Batu & Bogu, another top Douyin anchor, on December 18 to jointly establish the parent-child outdoor sports children's clothing brand vivid-box. However, this brand is not currently on the market.
Picture source: Jia Nailiang Weibo
At the moment, Semir is addicted to the live broadcast room and seems unable to extricate itself.
At Semir’s 27th anniversary celebration held on December 18, the company clearly expressed its determination to increase its live broadcast e-commerce – it announced the official launch of Semir’s live broadcast Wenzhou base, which covers an area of 16,000 square meters and has a live broadcast room. , product selection center, shooting base, etc.
"Live broadcast is becoming a new engine for Semir's growth." Qiu Jianqiang, chairman of Semir Apparel, said in his speech at the opening ceremony of the live broadcast base.
To this end, Semir has also made corresponding arrangements in the organizational structure. In June 2023, Semir established a separate live broadcast division, with Douyin as the core, to comprehensively deploy multi-platform live broadcast business. In July, Semir Apparel invested 20 million yuan through its investment company to register a wholly-owned subsidiary, Zhejiang Sensheng Buxi E-commerce Live Broadcasting Co., Ltd.
"It is reasonable for Semir to increase its investment in Douyin live broadcast. As a new channel that has developed rapidly in recent years, the latter has changed the consumption scenarios of users to a certain extent. As a brand with an omni-channel layout, Semir must cater to this change." Shanghai Cheng Weixiong, founder of Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., told Jiemian News.
However, the current live broadcast e-commerce is still driven by low prices. As a brand that highly relies on offline franchise channels, Semir must also consider the balance between developing live broadcasts and protecting the interests of franchisees.
This also explains to a certain extent why Semir cooperates with the platform’s leading experts to create a brand.
Semir store (picture source: "Semi Information" public account)
"This can avoid the conflict of interests between online e-commerce and offline franchisees." Cheng Weixiong said that the cooperation between brands and experts is to get what they need, and the brand can It makes up for the supply chain and brand management capabilities that Daren lacks, and Daren can provide influential sales channels. This cooperation model of
is not the first of its kind by Semir. There is a similar operating logic behind some celebrities’ own brands.
But whether this model can truly create a large-scale brand depends on subsequent operations. "The most important thing depends on who is in control. If it is controlled by experts, the clothing company will play more of a supplier role. If it is controlled by a clothing company, it will make overall brand planning based on insights into user needs. In this regard More control." Cheng Weixiong said.
For Semir, its performance growth since 2020 has been weak, which may be the motivation for it to increase its focus on live broadcasting to seek new growth.
Before 2020, Semir's annual revenue had recorded growth for seven consecutive years, reaching a peak of 19.34 billion yuan in 2019. However, in 2020, Semir's revenue fell sharply by 21.4% to 15.21 billion yuan; in 2021, it increased slightly by 1.4% to 15.42 billion yuan, which has not yet recovered to the level of 2018; in 2022, its revenue fell again by 13.5% to 133.3 billion.
But during this period, Semir's e-commerce business showed a certain explosive potential.
In 2021, Semir’s online channel is the only channel to record double-digit growth. In 2022, against the backdrop of Semir's overall performance decline, online channels maintained revenue that was basically the same as the previous year.
It is worth mentioning that in 2022, Semir's online channels surpassed offline franchise channels for the first time and became the channel that contributed the most to the group's revenue.Specifically, Semir's online channel revenue will reach 6.45 billion yuan in 2022, accounting for 48% of total revenue - live broadcasting contributes a lot to this. According to Qiu Jianqiang revealed in the aforementioned speech, Semir's e-commerce live broadcast performance will break through in 2022 3 billion yuan.
But online and offline are two different ways of playing. Semir, which started through traditional channels, also needs to adapt and face challenges.
For example, e-commerce has a low gross profit margin.
In the first half of 2023, the gross profit margin of Semir’s online channels was 41.68%, while the gross profit margin of direct sales channels was 70.39%. High return rates also drive up sales costs and inventory risks. In the first half of 2023, Semir’s return rates on Douyin and Tmall platforms were 38% and 42% respectively.
In addition, due to the different gameplay of each e-commerce platform, Semir still has to comply with the rules of the platform at this stage, making it difficult to form a global resource integration and overall planning, and unreasonable resource allocation may also occur.
From a longer-term development perspective, compliance with platform rules may also lead to the weakening of the brand's own proposition and value. This is also the risk that Semir may face by betting heavily on a single platform and channel.
"The game between the commonality of the platform and the personalization of the brand will definitely continue. This process of mutual integration and mutual challenge is not only the growth of the platform, but also the growth of the brand. Brands cannot all become appendages of the platform, otherwise There is no need for a brand," Cheng Weixiong said.
