China was the Global Leader in the Production of Fast Fashion Brands

China was the Global Leader in the Production of Fast Fashion Brands
China, the second biggest economy in the world, makes for one of the most lucrative markets for producing and consuming fast fashion brands of clothing and other fashion apparel. Its population of over 1.3 billion people, coupled with the availability of low-wage workers, makes it one of the most attractive markets and ideal destinations for the manufacture of fast fashion brands, respectively. Fast fashion brands refer to the cheap or affordable clothing designs developed from the observed fashion trends on runway shows by fashion entities for profit maximization. These fashion brands are also characteristic of equally affordable production, designing, and manufacturing procedures associated with widespread manipulation of labor laws and disregard for environmental conservation toward meeting the growing consumer demand for trending fashion.
According to Simpson (2020), China was the global leader in the production of fast fashion brands in 2019. Both domestic and international fashion entities such as Zara, H&M Group, Forever 21, and UNIQLO are major contributors to the country’s leading trend in fast fashion brands CITATION Sim20 \l 1033 (Simpson, 2020). However, international fast fashion brands are currently facing different challenges affecting their competitiveness in the lucrative Chinese market. For instance, H&M Group closed approximately 60 stores across China due to the Xinjiang cotton controversy in 2021 CITATION Goo21 \l 1033 (Goodman, 2021). The Xinjiang cotton controversy led to a backlash from Chinese consumers who held that H&M’s failure to buy cotton from Xinjiang was an attack on the country’s economy and overall well-being CITATION Goo21 \l 1033 (Goodman, 2021). International fast fashion brands such as Zara and UNIQLO have also faced their equal share of challenges, including the shifting consumer demands in China and the growing influence of nationalistic tendencies in purchasing decisions. It is, therefore, imperative to explore the challenges faced by international fashion brands in China toward developing effective interventional measures for surviving the rapidly shifting Chinese market.
The fashion industry makes for one of the global economic sectors influencing and shaping the perspectives of individuals and groups across the social, political, and economic domains worldwide. For instance, the industry plays a significant role in developing socio-cultural perspectives on what, how, and when to wear certain clothing and apparel while dictating the socio-cultural representations of the fashion clothing and apparel designs available in the market. Business organizations in the fashion industry have to keep up with the demand for outfits or fashion wares that meet the consumers’ expectations of the perceived appealing socio-cultural fashion trends. Meeting such expectations often reflects increased sales volumes and long-term profitability and revenue generation leading to sustainable growth and development in the glamourous and highly lucrative industry. However, sustainable growth and development in the highly competitive industry demands more than creating appealing or trendy designs in clothing and other fashion apparel CITATION Por21 \l 1033 (Porwal, 2021).
Sustainable growth and development in the fashion industry demands the development and implementation of effective business strategies to meet the shifting demands and expectations of consumers and other stakeholders across the different stages of the industry’s supply chain. The designing, manufacturing, marketing, packaging, distribution, and consumption stages of the fashion industry’s supply chain account for integral features whose consideration is vital to the sustainable growth and development of such entities CITATION Por21 \l 1033 (Porwal, 2021). In essence, the fashion industry players have to invest in developing attractive clothing and apparel designs that influence the consumers’ purchasing decisions by emphasizing the stakeholders’ expectations across the outlined stages of production. The Chinese fast fashion industry is not immune to sustainable growth and development objectives, thus requiring the development and implementation of effective interventional measures across the outlined stages of production.
This paper seeks to unveil the challenges faced by international fast fashion brands in China and provide effective countermeasures to mitigate the identified issues toward ensuring sustainable growth and development of such organizations. The research study provides an effective framework for industry players, managers, and management scholars to develop strategic business strategies for addressing the challenges of shifting consumer and market demands.
The research study builds on the following research questions:
* What are the challenges facing international fast fashion brands in China?
* How can international fast fashion brands survive in China?
Provided herein is a comprehensive literature review on challenges facing international fast fashion brands in China and proposed countermeasures coupled with the research study’s methodology.
Literature Review
The quest to satisfy the demand for appealing trends in clothing and other fashion apparel coupled with consumers’ equally increasing complex expectations across the production chain in the fashion industry accounts for major changes in the glamorous economic sector. Global fashion industry players such as H&M Group, Zara, and UNIQLO are developing fast fashion brands of clothing that capitalize on existing fashion trends for increased competitiveness in the market CITATION Sim20 \l 1033 (Simpson, 2020). The outlined organizations tend to develop affordable clothing designs from the trending fashion styles observed on runway or fashion week shows worldwide towards profit maximization from the new and emerging trends. Fast fashion is a lucrative economic industry for both domestic and international brands in China. The fashion industry recorded a remarkable year-on-year growth rate of 7.8% in 2018 and was projected to replace the United States as the world’s largest fast fashion market in 2019 (Lu, 2015). The Chinese fast fashion market offers an attractive destination for international brands due to its large population, with the increasing middle-class population availing more disposable income for trending clothing fashion designsCITATION GMA22 \l 1033 (GMA Fashion China, 2022). The fact that the Chinese population is also increasingly aware of global fashion trends further contributes to the remarkable growth rate of the country’s fast fashion industryCITATION GMA22 \l 1033 (GMA Fashion China, 2022). Both domestic and international fast fashion entities capitalize on the ensuing demand for global fashion trends by developing affordable clothing designs based on the observed global fashion styles.
The recent exit of major brands such as Forever 21 from the highly competitive market, coupled with the diverse operational challenges other international fast fashion brands face, is cause for worry among the industry players CITATION Tif21 \l 1033 (Tiffany, 2021). In 2021, Inditex shut down all its physical stores in approximately 100 locations in China in preference for e-commerce platforms to sell its different brands, including Pull and Bear, Bershka, and Stradivarius CITATION Tif21 \l 1033 (Tiffany, 2021). C&A, a Dutch company in the International fast fashion industry, sold its entire Chinese business to Beijing Zhongke Tongrong in 2020 CITATION Tif21 \l 1033 (Tiffany, 2021). Esprit, another key player in the Chinese fast fashion industry, also ended its joint venture with the Muslane Group in 2020, adding up to the number of international fast fashion firms that have left the Chinese market CITATION Tif21 \l 1033 (Tiffany, 2021). The remaining international players, such as Zara and H&M, have also significantly reduced their operational activities in the Chinese market, with the former remaining with only 141 stores across the country CITATION Tif21 \l 1033 (Tiffany, 2021). Though H&M boasts of over 500 stores in China, the firm has witnessed a significant drop in total sales and a slowing growth rate but remains adamant about capitalizing on the country’s market potential for its variety of fast fashion brands CITATION Tif21 \l 1033 (Tiffany, 2021). Such trends necessitate exploring the Chinese fast fashion market towards highlighting the factors contributing to the slowing growth rate of international fast fashion brands in China and developing effective countermeasures to survive the increasingly competitive market.
Challenges Facing International Fast Fashion Brands in China
The increasing awareness of the Chinese consumers on the quality of their preferred clothing brands and their orientation to Chinese cultural clothing practices poses a key challenge to multinational fast fashion brands CITATION Tif21 \l 1033 (Tiffany, 2021). According to Retail Asia (2019), some Chinese consumers believe that international fast fashion brands are of inferior quality and do not meet Chinese fashion preferences. The imitation of trending fashions by international fast fashion brands thrives on Western designs that do not meet the socio-cultural expectations of Chinese consumers CITATION Ret19 \l 1033 (Retail in Asia, 2019). Chinese consumers are no longer attracted to fast fashion designs due to their countries of origin and instead prefer designs that meet their Chinese cultural expectations. Tiffany (2021) quotes Eddie Lim, a Chinese fast fashion brands veteran, reiterating that the lack of design localization is a key challenge for international fast fashion brands in China.
The international fast fashion brands’ failure to keep up with the expectations of their target consumers in China also makes for one of the challenges facing such entities in the Chinese market CITATION Boo22 \l 1033 (Booker, 2022). The brands are lacking in innovation and fail to evolve with the shifting consumer demands in the country while raising their prices. Chinese consumers prefer to buy domestic fast fashion brands as they meet their fashion tast...