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interface news reporter | zhu yongling

interface news editor | lou qiqin

on september 19, internet celebrity zhang dayi posted on weibo that her taobao women's clothing store "my happy wardrobe" will postpone new products indefinitely. according to zhang dayi, this move is also "it's a store closure”。

the customer service of the "my happy wardrobe" store told jiemian news that the products currently on sale in the store can still be shipped and after-sales service is normal. at 8 o'clock that evening, "my happy wardrobe" was clearing out its inventory at a 50% discount on taobao live.

"my happy wardrobe" is a celebrity store founded by zhang dayi in 2014. it is classified as a "korean casual women's clothing store" on taobao, and its pricing is comparable to that of fast fashion. the so-called "celebrity store" refers to a women's clothing store with an internet celebrity ip. internet celebrities often take on the tasks of product selection, modeling, self-media operation, and live streaming. their core role is to rely on their own popularity to attract traffic to the store and enhance user stickiness.

"my happy wardrobe" is a leader among celebrity stores. public data shows that during the "double 11" period in 2016, "my happy wardrobe" achieved sales of over 100 million yuan and a turnover of over 20 million yuan in two hours, and its daily ranking once surpassed uniqlo.

benefiting from this, ruhan holdings, the online celebrity e-commerce company to which "my happy wardrobe" belongs, went all the way to listing and went to the united states to ring the bell in 2019. zhang dayi, who contributed about half of the gmv of ruhan holdings, held a 15% stake at the time and was the company's second largest shareholder.

however, celebrity stores are bound to the reputation of the celebrities themselves. one year after the company went public, zhang dayi was involved in a public opinion storm with alibaba executive jiang fan, and her stores were hit hard. in addition to the decline in sales, some consumers often use "my happy wardrobe" as a "buy-to-order" store to express their disgust with zhang dayi, that is, they will get a refund immediately after placing an order to meet the discount.

in 2021, ruhnn holdings was privatized and delisted due to unfavorable development. the prospectus and financial reports show that ruhnn holdings has never made a profit from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2020.

at present, "my happy wardrobe" has accumulated 12.41 million fans, but the monthly sales of the three best-selling products in the store are more than 300 pieces, which is far from its peak period.

zhang dayi explained on weibo that the decision to close the store was due to her personal character. she claimed that she was "a bit serious" and did not want to make things on an assembly line. on the other hand, it was also due to changes in the overall e-commerce environment. regarding the latter, zhang dayi pointed out two main problems.

first, the e-commerce platform ecosystem has changed from one platform dominating to multiple platforms sharing traffic. stores that originally started on taobao e-commerce are struggling with whether to switch platforms. zhang dayi said that even if they switch platforms, celebrity stores will still find it difficult to make money due to low gross profit margins and high operating costs.

second, many celebrity stores have gradually developed into corporatization, following the old path of traditional clothing companies. it is difficult for celebrities to work on the front line themselves. in addition, the iteration of e-commerce marketing methods has increased the requirements of the team, and costs in all aspects have increased, which has also squeezed profits.

“the core value of celebrity e-commerce should be small and beautiful, with flat management. only when celebrities are at the forefront can they truly achieve healthy profits while meeting the needs of fans.” zhang dayi wrote.

compared with the impact of the public opinion storm on the store, these common problems in the industry are the core reasons why zhang dayi chose to close the store.

in the past two years, many taobao celebrity stores that developed at the same time as zhang dayi have chosen to close, turning to live-streaming e-commerce platforms or moving towards high-end development. for example, sydney, an internet celebrity who originally ran a mass-market celebrity store, started selling mink coats worth over 10,000 yuan in her new store; the m, which takes the route of cost-effective luxury brand quality, comes from the team of mali, a celebrity store with millions of fans.

high-end is also the direction zhang dayi is trying to develop. she mentioned in her weibo that she will continue to sell new private clothes in the high-end "black label store" (the vever) under her name, but "there will not be many styles every month." the so-called "private clothes" refers to the private clothes that internet celebrities wear daily, which are usually replicas of big brands. this can be regarded as a return to the "small and beautiful" model mentioned by zhang dayi.

however, what zhang dayi did not mention is that compared to ordinary fashion stores, celebrity stores have to consider not only the issues of brand aging or outdated styles, but also the "life cycle" of the internet celebrity identity.

in addition to the blow caused by the public opinion storm, the group of internet celebrities is always constantly updated with the passage of time and the iteration of new platforms. zhang dayi, who returns to the "small and beautiful" model, may find it difficult to attract a new generation of young consumers, and is more likely to meet the needs of loyal old fans of the same age. as zhang dayi mentioned, at the age of 37 this year, her requirements for private clothes are different from those ten years ago. private clothes are no longer suitable for sale in the affordable "i am happy with my wardrobe".

in fact, in addition to the stores owned by top celebrities, many taobao women's clothing stores have also chosen to close in the past two years. the problems faced by top celebrities such as zhang dayi, such as rising operating costs and difficulty in making profits, also exist for ordinary women's clothing stores. the latter will also worry about how to attract traffic due to the lack of internet celebrity ips. the "workshop-style" small team also makes small-scale women's clothing c stores less able to resist risks.

to a certain extent, these problems have emerged with the changes in the e-commerce ecology and consumer environment in recent years.

several taobao women's clothing c-store owners have told jiemian news that traffic is particularly important for women's clothing stores, especially those without original advantages and highly loyal customer bases, in other words, those brands that are positioned at a low price and win by volume. internet celebrity ip is a way to obtain traffic, which is essentially a form of content marketing. in addition, the most common way is to create a hit product to sell in large quantities, but this requires high marketing costs and the risk of inventory backlogs, and has high requirements for cash flow and inventory management.as consumers become increasingly cautious and rational, and platform traffic becomes increasingly dispersed, neither internet celebrity ips nor blockbuster strategies are as effective as before.

it is worth mentioning that zhang dayi also owns a beauty store called big eve. the store currently has 1.07 million fans, and its best-selling product has sold over 10,000 units. zhang dayi responded to fans in a weibo comment, saying that the store will not close and "will definitely be there."