6 Billion Of A&F Is Overwhelmed By Fast Fashion.

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, American teenagers

The brand has fallen into a new dilemma again.

stay

And the electricity supplier squeeze, the American youth clothing retail group

(NYSE:ANF) almost lost all opportunities to turn around.

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, Abercrombie &Fitch has invited investment bank Perella Weinberg Parners LP to deal with the sale, and has begun to contact potential buyers. Abercrombie &Fitch once raised concerns with naked men marketing.

The company said in a statement on Wednesday that buyers had expressed interest in the deal.

The new Albany company in Ohio is negotiating with at least two potential buyers.

However, the company also said it would no longer comment before the end of negotiations.

At present, Abercrombie &Fitch shares are at the lowest level in 17 years. Stock prices have fallen 49% in the past year, and their market capitalization has shrunk from the peak of US $6 billion 500 million to about $1 billion today.

The group's earnings report earlier this year showed that its restructuring plan had not worked.

In the three months ended January 28th, sales fell for the sixteenth consecutive quarter, down 7% to 1 billion 40 million US dollars in the same period last year, while net profit slumped 31% to 39 million 800 thousand US dollars.

In the year of 2016, Abercrombie&Fitch sales increased further from 6% in 2015 to 11% in the year of 2016, while the total sales volume of the Abercrombie&Fitch was basically 1 billion 840 million dollars in the previous year.

Due to the sluggish performance of Abercrombie&Fitch, the group's annual sales in 2016 decreased by 5% to 3 billion 327 million US dollars, and net profit fell 88.9% to 3 million 956 thousand US dollars in the same period.

Like other teenage clothing brands in the US, Abercrombie&Fitch is also dragged down by the shopping habits of teenagers. Now the millennials prefer online shopping or H&M or Forever 21.

CEO Fran Horowiz also admitted that the group has been trying to find a new way for the brand to compete in the competitive fashion market. However, under the fierce competition of fast fashion brands and electric providers, Abercrombie & Fitch is obviously in a weak position.

In the past year, Aeropostale Inc., American Apparel Inc. and Wet Seal have been filed for bankruptcy.

GlobalData Retail general manager Neil Saunders pointed out in a research report earlier this year, "Abercrombie&Fitch has not been able to resonate with consumers like before. In essence, it has lost its existence."

From the failure of brand performance, how did Abercrombie&Fitch fall to the stage of selling?

Abercrombie&Fitch, the main marketing tool of naked men, was once popular all over the world, and enjoyed the popularity of young consumers.

Like American Apparel, Abercrombie&Fitch is popular with cool, sexy and rebellious marketing, becoming a controversial clothing brand.

On the one hand, the marketing of naked men has attracted the attention of consumers. On the other hand, it has caused Abercrombie&Fitch lawsuits to get entangled. Many complaints have been received over the years, claiming that they are suspected of discriminatory recruitment and prefer to hire white people and Americans instead of other ethnic groups.

A good looking but poorly served clerk becomes the symbol of Abercrombie&Fitch.

But the good news is not long. The cumulative negative comments made Abercrombie&Fitch gradually become a negative case of sexy marketing, causing widespread social boycott.

It coincides with the fast fashion brand's launching period, and consumer shopping habits are changing rapidly. Under the fierce competition, Abercrombie, Fitch & amp; E is losing ground.

In the fall of 2013, Abercrombie&Fitch ranked second on the brand list that young people no longer liked, second only to Gap.

So in order to save the performance, in recent years, the group has been committed to reversing the brand image of Abercrombie & Fitch, abandoning the naked male marketing strategy of the former CEO Michael Jeffries. Sexy marketing is no longer used as marketing material. The main business of the store will be consumers, and the salesmen will no longer be the brand "model" but the "brand spokesperson".

Naked men marketing can really catch the eye of consumers quickly, but it also makes the brand a brand apart from "sexy".

Without the memory of "naked men", "night shop wind" and even strong perfume, what elements should Abercrombie&Fitch rely on to rebuild their brand image in the hearts of customers? This is a problem that the brand has not yet solved.

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As part of the pformation, the company has made a major reshuffle on the personnel structure.

The controversial chief executive, Michael Jefferies, was sacked in December 2014.

At the same time, the Group executives also exchanged blood, including Lisa Lowman, the design director of Aaron Levine and Hollister, who joined the company in 2015. In the same year, she also appointed Stacia Andersen as the president of Abercrombie & Fitch brand, Kristin Scrott as the president of the brand, but only in February of this year did the group announce its president and chief marketing officer, the new CEO, who had been vacant for 2 years.

In order to reduce the loss, Abercrombie & Fitch had to close its stores on a large scale to reverse its declining performance.

Last year, the group closed about 60 shops.

At the end of last year, Abercrombie & amp; Fitch lifted the lease of flagship store in central Hongkong, and made a compensation of about HK $125 million to the owner. It is expected to withdraw from central stores this year.

In addition to closing the flagship store in Hongkong, the brand is also planning to withdraw from the South Korean market this year.

According to the world clothing and shoe net, the brand will continue to shop around the globe in this year.

In addition, Abercrombie & Fitch also abandoned the original youth consumer market, instead of choosing a more mature more than 20 year old young job hunter, and decided to break away from the season's unsalable goods first, but the bad thing is that consumers do not buy it.

A fashion retailer in the US has accepted the fashion headline, saying that Abercrombie & Fitch has been re pformed in October last year and plans to create a brand new high-end image.

The pformation of Holister has been on the right track, but Abercrombie&Fitch has not improved.

Some analysts say that ZARA and other fast fashion with the best business mode in the world are making panic on the Abercrombie, Fitch and other American teenage clothing brands. Fast fashion is more flexible and agility. It can quickly control the latest fashion trends, and accurately look ahead according to the needs of inventory, thereby reducing price promotions and quick turnover inventory, enabling consumers to continue shopping for new products, actively responding to external factors such as weather, and maximizing profits.

In the Chinese market, Abercrombie & Fitch entered a relatively late stage, and the exposure of the shops was far less than that of other overseas fashion brands that had entered the Chinese market earlier. Compared with H&M, UNIQLO and Zara, the fast fashion brands were priced at a higher price, while the American style of Chinese consumers did not have many concepts.

If the brand positioning of Abercrombie & Fitch can be described by the sexy casual clothing brand for young people before pformation, then the Abercrombie & Fitch positioning after pformation is more ambiguous.

Abercrombie & Fitch also tried to strengthen the business of electronic commerce, but also failed to achieve positive results.

According to an article in Business Insider, the failure of Abercrombie & Fitch pformation can be seen from the official website. The sale of products on the shelves is as large as 60 percent off to 40 percent off of the sales promotion. Of course, on the one hand, the poor performance of the brand, on the other hand, there are problems in the brand structure, such as too many kinds of single products.

Although the brand tries to introduce some products that cater to the current trend, compared with the design of Zara fast fashion brands such as Abercrombie and Fitch, the design is still not fashionable and inferior to fast fashion brands in terms of price performance and supply chain.

But last month, the company's Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister entered the Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Zalora, the effect remains to be seen.

Up to now, Abercrombie & Fitch has not found a clearer brand positioning, but it is certain that the brand is no longer the pronoun of "Youth".

It is noteworthy that another US teenager brand American Apparel officially declared bankruptcy in October than Abercrombie & Fitch 2015 in October. The peak value of American Appparel exceeded 500 million US dollars, and had more than 600 million US dollars turnover. However, its performance slipped from 2009, and it recorded a loss of US $75 million in fiscal 2016. In January of this year, American Apparel was purchased by Gildan Activewear group for us $88 million.

More interesting reports, please pay attention to the world clothing shoes and hats net.