What Has Allbirds Brought To China For A Year?

Sustainability is undoubtedly a very hot business term in recent years. In this special environment this year, the major brands have increased their related inputs.

In May 28th, Allbirds announced cooperation with Adidas. The two sides will explore the development of renewable materials and upgrade the production and supply chain system. From material selection to production technology, and even transportation of goods, renewable energy and fuel will be used.

This is not surprising. Adidas has been doing quite a lot in its sustainable development. Since 2015, it has worked with Parley, an environmental protection organization, to produce Adidas x Parley series of marine waste plastics and gradually expand its output. Allbirds is a representative brand that advocates sustainable and environmental protection. It mainly trades in natural materials such as wool, eucalyptus and sugar cane. On this year's world earth day, Allbirds also announced that it became the first fashion label to label the whole product with "carbon footprint".

In fact, for today's sports brand, sustainability is already an important part of commercialization and commercialization.

Nike released the "Nike impact report" in fiscal year 2019, which shows that 76% of Nike's footwear and clothing used recyclable materials in 2019 fiscal year, and 99.9% of Nike's footwear products were reused in the manufacturing process through the signing of factory recycling or energy conversion. Among the domestic brands, Anta has launched the "training and plastic" environmental protection and environmental protection series, which is made from recycled plastic bottles as raw materials and regenerated polyester fabrics made by healthy environmental protection technology.

In 2014, Allbirds launched a crowd raising campaign for the design of the minimalist wool sports shoes at a price of 95 US dollars. In the 5 days, 970 supporters were sold, and 1064 shoes were sold out, which raised 119 thousand US dollars, far exceeding the expected 30 thousand US dollars. This idea almost immediately touched the nerves of pop culture and soon became one of the most popular lifestyle brands in the United States. (related links: all the chips started up for 4 years, valued at 1 billion US dollars, and how to sweep the wool sports shoes Allbirds into the technology circles and fashion circles) at the beginning of this year, Allbirds announced that the Baillie Gifford and Fidelity Management Research lead D financing is coming to an end. As a result, the value of the new brand that has been established in less than 6 years will reach about $1 billion 400 million.

Regional expansion is the way of brand growth. On the 4 th of 2019, Allbirds opened its first Chinese store in Shanghai, so it was also the first time in San Francisco, New York and London that the brand opened stores in Asia, and Tmall flagship store and brand official website were also synchronized.

Today, Allbirds has opened 4 offline stores in China, and Tmall flagship store has attracted nearly 60 thousand fans. According to the data provided by Erick Haskell, President of Allbirds global business, the rate of repeat purchase in China has reached 25% in the past year.

Turning on the product reviews of Allbirds Tmall flagship store, you will find that the frequency of "comfort" and "comfort" is very high. Many people buy it for mom, Dad, or even grandparents.

Haskell also noticed this. "We may be one of the most suitable footwear brands for gifts." And the important reason behind this is that shoes are comfortable enough, plus minimalist design, high-end brand positioning, and sustainable and environmental protection. Haskell said that Allbirds has a wide range of consumers, from young people to elders.

Allbirds is indeed well prepared to enter the Chinese market. Haskell revealed that before the Allbirds officially opened in China, they had set up a local team of 20 people in Shanghai, covering various departments such as market and retail store. After analyzing the Chinese market, they began to focus on the fashion and leisure brands, so they had a lot of cooperation with fashion bloggers. "Chinese consumers are more concerned about fashion than the US and the UK," said Ding Yiting, director of China's Allbirds market.

At the very beginning, the focus of Allbirds China's publicity was on sustainability and environmental protection. But 6 months into China, they conducted a consumer survey and found that Chinese consumers are more enthusiastic about the new technology behind their shoes. Consumers are very curious about how trees can make shoes. It also allowed Allbirds to adjust its narrative style in China, emphasizing technological innovation. At present, they are also looking for the right way to make the production process behind the product more clearly displayed in front of consumers.

"The most important decision standard for most consumers in the world is not sustainable," Haskell said. In other words, at least for now, sustainability and environmental protection can only play the role of icing on the cake. Comfort, or minimalist design, is more attractive to consumers. So far, Allbirds's achievements in China, sustainability and environmental protection may not be the most important key words.

But from another angle, the change of publicity strategy reflects an important brand feature of Allbirds: DTC (Direct-to-consumer), that is, directly facing consumers. Specifically, there is no wholesale channel, no retail sales channels, no third party platform, through its own channels to do sales, direct communication with consumers.

But this strategy has also had to be localized in China. For example, Chinese people are accustomed to shopping on the third party platform and do not often open the brand official website. So Allbirds opened flagship stores in Tmall and Jingdong. But from page design, user interaction, brand story to price, logistics and customer service, they operate directly with their own team. In the final analysis, they are still direct battalions.

Haskell believes that China's third party e-commerce platform enables the brand to directly reach the huge passenger flow and retain the right to control the key issues for the brand. For example, last year, double eleven, Allbirds did not participate in any discount activities, but still hit the highest sales record in the year. "The third party platform will respect our decisions and trust us," he stressed.

For Allbirds, mastering the operation rights of the third party platform is not only to protect the consumers' experience, but also an indispensable part of the whole company's operation.

For example, for a long time since the establishment of Allbirds, only one product has been sold in the official website, that is, classic wool shoes. But in fact, wool shoes have undergone over 40 iterations and fine-tuning, and these adjustment proposals are directly derived from consumers.

Another example is the launch of many Allbirds products from consumers: the first ballet flat shoes in Taobao's flagship store are women who say they want a pair of shoes that can be worn on working occasions; because the British consumers say that they often need rain proof shoes, and socks are launched because consumers want to wear socks together.

We are all talking about the DTC strategy, and we need to communicate more with consumers. But the real essence and value of DTC is to make use of consumer data and feedback.

In order to find the core consumer, Allbirds also spent a lot of time. Like Allbirds in the US, the initial consumers of Allbirds in China are still high tech practitioners, so Haskell and the team spend a lot of time attracting this group, opening shops in their clustered cities, attending science and technology summit, building science and technology communities, landing various social activities.

In addition, following the trial in Chengdu at the end of the year, there are separate WeChat account accounts for all Allbirds offline stores in China. For them, this channel can be used to do routine customer service, solve more specific problems, and make consumers more accessible.

More importantly, this is also conducive to Allbirds to be more grounded. For example, the weather in Guangzhou is hotter, so the push content of stores in Guangzhou can also be changed, which is ultimately decided by the store manager. Such stores are also more conducive to creating community atmosphere.

"The past year is still in the stage of explaining the brand, focusing on community building," Ding Yiting said. With the entry into China for more than a year, Allbirds's brand positioning has become clearer and its product line is becoming more and more mature. Now it can "go deeper", such as launching joint names for more cooperation.

To find the brand of Allbirds cooperation and many, Ding Yiting divided the following 3 directions: sustainability, creativity and healthy fitness. In other words, Allbirds China needs to add more slowly along these three directions on the basis of its original brand.

Back to the beginning of the topic, in the face of the annual carbon emissions of 7 billion tons of shoe industry, although supporting the brand in China's main pillar may not be sustainable and environmental protection, but brand investment in this area may bring great value in the long run.

McKinsey's global chief purchasing officer survey released in October 2019 showed that social responsibility and environmental sustainability have become the top priority of garment enterprises' development strategy as consumers and government departments pay more and more attention to environmental issues. In this survey, the overwhelming majority of respondents said that in 2025, more than half of the clothing materials would be made up of sustainable materials. The outbreak of the new crown pneumonia has further stimulated consumers' attention to health and sustainability. According to Accenture's latest report, "the new crown epidemic situation may permanently change consumer behavior habits, and will bring long-term structural changes to consumer goods and retail businesses". The report shows that 54% of respondents said they would make more sustainable choices when shopping, and may continue to do so in the future.

At present, in addition to casual shoes, Allbirds also launched socks and professional sports shoes, and began the category expansion. Haskell said that the ultimate goal of Allbirds is to become a multi-channel vertical retail brand that focuses on sustainable products in the world.

According to Allbirds's public statement, D financing will focus on supporting research and development of materials, and promoting the innovation of sustainable technology programs, thereby further reducing the impact of brands on the environment. In the future investment of the whole business, this round of funds will be used to provide positive and sustainable solutions for the climate crisis, such as renewable agriculture, renewable energy in the supply chain of the entire company, and the elimination of raw plastics. With the help of capital, if they can really lead sustainable and environmental protection, as Lululemon does in sports and leisure, Allbirds will have unlimited potential in the future.