Upgrades to Charters from Metersbonwe

Using Information to Improve Market Response Speed

In 1995, the annual average sales of each franchise of MTS Bangwei was 500,000 yuan. With the aid of the information system Fuyou, this figure has more than tripled. Can you imagine that if an affiliate can complete sales for one week in two days, then the subsequent increase in profits will be several three times?

At the same time, the information system also greatly reduced the inventory of each franchise. This not only reduces the pressure on the franchisees' liquidity, but also avoids the profits of franchisees becoming the slow-moving goods in the warehouse.

With these two points, there is no reason why an affiliate system cannot thrive.

In 1994, the 25-year-old Zhou Chengjian did business in the Wenzhou clothing wholesale market. He found that the sale speed of casual clothes on his hands began to accelerate, and he felt keenly that this was a huge market that was about to erupt. So he decisively played the signboard of MTS Bangwei to produce casual clothes. At this point, the domestic clothing companies are still eyeing suits and other formal wear, and only a few foreign casual wear brands have just appeared in the local market.

Opportunities are not waiting for people, but Zhou Chengjian has only 4 million yuan in the hands of him and is simply unable to open up the market. He was inspired by Nike's operating model, and also used a virtual business method of "borrowing chicken eggs and fishing through the net." The so-called chicken-and-boiled eggs are brand-name production. He has found more than 60 companies in Guangdong and Jiangsu to work for them, and by using net fishing, it is natural to build sales channels through franchising.

In April 1995, the first franchise store of MTS Bonwe was opened in Wenzhou, which also marked the beginning of the introduction of franchise sales model into the Chinese garment industry.

This introduction is not smooth. In the first two years, although the number of franchised stores was rising at a rate of 50 a year, sales growth was much slower. It turns out that at the time, Meters Bonwe was implementing a "single money" distribution system. Clothing was directly distributed to all franchisees nationwide without detailed classification. It is impossible for every garment to sell well throughout the country. . The results can be imagined that the company sent a large amount of goods to the channel, the franchisee is not profitable, and naturally will not be restocked.

Zhou Chengjian quickly changed the distribution method and changed the franchisees to free delivery. Their orders were handed over to higher-level agents and sent to branch offices in various regions. Then they were sent to the headquarters. Finally, they were produced and shipped by OEM companies. Can wait for this process step by step to go down, the original best-selling clothing, sent to the franchise there, often only two ways out, or when the off-season commodity sale, or into a new inventory.

The issue of inventory has once caused Mets Bonwe’s “bag company” model to undergo the most painful test. This is also the most troublesome issue for the Chinese garment industry. It seems that clothing seems to be a product with a long sales cycle. However, in fact, the actual peak season of clothing for a season is only two weeks. It is very important whether an accurate forecast can be made and the efficiency of production, stocking, etc. can be accurately measured. If the overall operation is not effective, a large amount of inventory will deplete the company's profits. At present, the inventory of China's garment industry is sufficient for the Chinese people to wear for three years. In fact, Shanshan, which had ranked first in market share for seven consecutive years before 1999, and Youngor, who ranked first for four consecutive years after 1999, all worked hard to endure the huge cost of inventory. In many cases, the most distressing of the two companies is not how to increase sales, but how to find more warehouses for inventory.

Zhou Chengjian realized that the reason for the formation of inventory was because the information between the company and the franchise was poor and the response was too slow. This is a fundamental issue that concerns the future of the company. Since 1996, Meters Bonwe has begun to use information technology to improve the company's response to the market.

After several generations of updates, Meters Bonwe has integrated more than 1,200 stores and more than 200 foundry companies nationwide. Which clothing is sold in which city, how many pieces are sold in each store, which products are to be replenished, and which products are to be discounted quickly? These information can be fed back to the company in real time; and franchisees can look through the information system. To the latest products designed by the company, their orders can also be instantly transmitted to the foundry companies to organize production. The entire process takes only two minutes. From the time of ordering to delivery, it takes only two to four days.

Sales rose, inventory fell, and one-and-a-half drops, the franchisee’s profits increased significantly. As a result, more franchisees swarmed and franchise channels expanded rapidly. Nowadays, a garment bearing Mets Bonwe is sold every 2 seconds.

"What is competitiveness? The original processing cycle of an order takes 10 days. Now it takes only 2 minutes. This is the competitiveness." Zhou Chengjian showed his confidence in his information system. "When everyone uses the franchise model, I will start to change and upgrade the industry. The competition in the future franchise system will also be the competition in the entire supply chain."