In fact, it is very difficult for Gap and other American brands to catch up with Zara brands. For example, Zara owns garment factories all over the world, giving it a certain control power and allowing it to react rapidly to the emerging trend. This "vertical integration" structure enables fast fashion brands to keep sending new models to stores, usually in small quantities. However, fast fashion retailers are also facing increasingly stringent scrutiny because they rely heavily on low paid factory workers, many of whom work in dangerous and harsh environments. Another reason is the environmental impact of fast fashion.

In any case, because they do not own any factory, it takes much longer for Gap to find new designs and put fresh styles on shelves. The company hired a new chief designer this year, but peck said that their new product will not be available until next spring, because the brand has already purchased most of the inventory it needs for the rest of the year, and this detail fully shows how far behind it is in terms of speed and flexibility.

"Vertically integrated supply chains will take many years to implement, and billions of dollars must be invested in the right way." "This kind of thing can't be completed overnight," said Andrew Billings, senior manager of NorthHighland retail and consumer business at New York consulting firm, AndrewBillings.

But that does not mean that the whole process cannot be speeded up. Even without its own factory, a company like Gap can "work with the design team to reduce the number of sampling steps and speed up decision-making". Billings said, "they may be able to produce products within 15 weeks, which is much faster than their typical fashion schedule, because the latter will take more than 45 weeks."

Besides, American brands are also burdened with the historical burden left by the rapidly fading shopping center culture. Many of the stores that are expected to close are expected to be located in shopping centres, which are suffering from reduced traffic volume and declining sales. Gap The national retail chains that once dominated these shopping centers, such as J.C.Penney and Sears, are also in trouble. Meanwhile, e-commerce is heating up.

In contrast, William Sussman, WilliamSusman managing director of ThreadstonePartners, a consumer and retail consultancy in New York, said that foreign brands opened in the US have been boosted by the best commercial real estate. He said that overseas retailers were accustomed to operating all stores as flagship stores with high turnover and high turnover from the very beginning.

but Declining brand The most urgent task, in the words of retail experts, is to bring inspiration to the outdated clothing product camps. For J.Crew, this means less fashion modeling, such as its "Tilly" super short sweater, which has been widely criticized and eventually overloaded. For Abercrombie, it means reducing Logo to attract a new generation of consumers, who are tired of being naked. brand marketing 。 As for Gap This means restarting its basic product line that has become insipid and undefined.

But it has not done so yet. The brand seems to continue to stick to its basic strategy, though it has launched a series of dazzling choices. Gap offers at least 11 categories of women's jeans: really tight, tight straight, see a girlfriend, see a real boyfriend, see sexy boyfriend, always tight, curved tight, real straight tube, perfect waist, thin and long leggings and leggings jeans.

"Creativity has no direction, no self, these shoppers can see." Davidson Hudson, an online fashion magazine Editorialist, said, "Gap needs to tell you that these two editions are very important for this season. These two are the styles we support. They are your perfect mates.

H&M Daniel Culler, President of the US region, has put forward similar proposals to his American competitor, DanielKulle. He said that in the US, H&M still saw "tremendous growth opportunities, and this is the case in the coming years".

Cooley said in an interview: "if we can't continuously update our product camps, we can't catch up with the trend one after another and launch the right series. Then customers will go elsewhere. " "We must keep our customers curious." He said, "in this way, they will come to your store constantly to see what new products are available today."