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interface news reporter | zhu yongling

interface news editor | lou qiqin

at 6pm on september 20, zara rarely started a live broadcast on xiaohongshu, which was synchronized with its douyin live broadcast. this live broadcast invited zara's co-designer harry lambert. in the past year, zara's main live broadcast platform was douyin, and it was only synchronized with xiaohongshu in special sessions. for example, when zara invited the founder of the co-branded brand studio nicholson to the live broadcast site in november 2023, it was also live on both douyin and xiaohongshu platforms.

the live broadcast in which harry lambert participated was mainly to promote the joint autumn and winter series of the two parties, which will be released at 0:00 on the 21st. in addition to accessories, the clothing products in this series are priced between 249 yuan and 1999 yuan, which is generally higher than zara's ordinary products.

different from zara's usual "show-style" live broadcasts shot in the studio, this live broadcast was set up in zara's limited-time experience space on anfu road in shanghai. fashion blogger angelene was invited to be the host. the live broadcast content mainly focused on designers exchanging outfit inspirations with fashion gurus wearing the co-branded new products - it also continued zara's live broadcast style, focusing more on brand promotion and image building than selling goods.

a week ago, zara opened a two-month pop-up store at the same location on anfu road in shanghai. to differentiate itself from regular stores, zara used curatorial ideas and specific products to arrange this double-layer space. the first floor displays zara's selected series and co-branded series, while the second floor combines zara home products to create an immersive exhibition hall with a "home" atmosphere, including a series of products customized for the chinese market.

with its business spread across 213 countries and regions around the world, zara often tends to treat all markets “equally”, but these measures now show that it is making more localization attempts in china.

zara has accelerated its localization in recent years. important measures include its first collaboration with a chinese designer in 2022, and it has maintained a rhythm of collaborating with chinese brands at the beginning of each year since then; in november 2023, zara tried out the "show-style" live broadcast on douyin, which has continued to this day.

however, these efforts have not yet yielded significant results. the financial report shows that in the first half of fiscal year 2024, which ends at the end of july 2024, inditex group's revenue increased by 7.2% year-on-year to 18.1 billion euros, while the proportion of "asia and other regions" including china fell from 18.4% last year to 16.6%. from this, it can be calculated that the revenue of "asia and other regions" in the first half of the fiscal year fell by about 3% year-on-year.

in fact, not only zara, but other international fast fashion brands that have experienced more than a decade of development in the chinese market have also bid farewell to the previous expansion-orientedzhang weiin the period of the main, it has entered the stage of deep cultivation of refined operations. if it wants to continue to stay at the table, the original standardized route of one set of practices that can be used all over the world will no longer work, and increasing localization is almost an inevitable direction.

this round of changes initiated by foreign fast fashion brands is also stirring up the chinese fast fashion market, and a new round of competition has quietly begun.

it is worth mentioning that on the night of the joint live broadcast of zara and harry lambert, chinese fast fashion brand urban revivo also tried its first "show-style" live broadcast on douyin, inviting model tian peixin and "harper's bazaar" fashion editor wei tian as hosts, as well as douyin's top bloggers piyou, fang yuan and actress zhao yihuan. similar to zara, this live broadcast with the theme of "autumn and winter trend release show" did not put any products on the shelves, but mainly introduced new products and displayed the brand image.

according to chanmama data, the live broadcast had accumulated 1.27 million views at about 75 minutes, with a maximum of 134,000 people online at the same time, far exceeding the popularity of urban revivo's daily live broadcasts. in comparison, zara's joint live broadcast lasted about 40 minutes, with 210,000 views and a maximum of 14,000 people online at the same time.