"A few years ago, I was engaged in the business of down jackets, mainly transported to Russia by land. As a result, the ruble depreciated. After 30000 down jackets were sold out, I lost money2 million.”
Mr. Xie from Wenzhou has been engaged in the down jacket industry for more than ten years. According to Mr. Wen, there are at least 200 Wenzhou enterprises in Beijing that specialize in down jackets and sell them to Russia.
Due to the land transportation, Mr. Wen and his colleagues will generally start processing clothes from June. By November, these 30000 down jackets just arrived.
In previous years, when down jackets arrived in Russia, they were basically robbed.
Although the old people are brave, they have a high latitude and a relatively small population density. In winter, there is a great demand for such warm jackets as down jackets.
"After a heavy snow day, thick snow will accumulate in many parts of Russia. The aggressive nature of Russians means that they will not hide indoors. I have seen young people jumping from 4-5 floors to the ground in winter. Because the snow is deep on the ground and they wear thick down jackets, which play a very good role in protection. People are fine."
According to Xie, it is precisely because of this character that Russians generally have a preference for down jackets.
The Russian market is indeed a big market for down jackets. Among the recommended products of Sumitong's Double 11, the Russian region has recommended down jackets all the year round.
However, on Amazon, the down jacket market does not seem very optimistic.
Yiming, the clothing seller, fed back the winter clothing market of this year to the "blue ocean Yiguan website", egainnews.com.
According to Yiming, down jackets are not easy to sell for small and medium-sized sellers. The main problem is transportation costs.
"The biggest problem with down jackets is their size. The actual weight is not too heavy, but the size is really difficult to solve."
The down jacket, because of its "filling", makes the clothes more warm, but also makes the volume of the clothes "expand"
The short down jacket with fuller filling is also called puffer jacket or puffer jacket in the popular market. It is very vivid to use "puffer fish" to describe this kind of coat. Of course, literally, "puffer" itself means "blowing", which is also the origin of the name of this down jacket.
This kind of down jacket is quite popular in recent years, but its size is so large that ordinary sellers can not easily try it.
(The picture shows the puffer jacket on Amazon)
▌Cost hundreds of dollars, but the price is generally lower than 50 dollars?
At this end of the supply chain, there are high transportation costs and high requirements for timeliness. On the other hand, it is all cheap production costs.
The basic padding of down jacket, most goose down or duck down. Most of these two materials are produced in China and Europe. Because there are edible ducks and geese, the production is relatively abundant.
According to the color, goose down and duck down can be divided into white and gray. If the price of raw materials is sorted, it is white goose down>gray goose down>white duck down>gray duck down.
In China, duck down is obviously more than goose down. Goose down is more expensive.
In addition, down jackets have been strictly controlled by western consumer agencies for many years, because there are so-called "inhuman" means to profit, including not limited to plucking down alive, or "feeding ducks".
Under the influence of multiple factors, the price of raw materials for fluff remains high.
In addition, the waterproof property of down jacket is highly emphasized, which requires considerable investment in fabric selection and technology.
Common fabrics, such as artificial leather, have good windproof and waterproof properties, good warmth retention, but poor air permeability. Generally, you need to open your clothes for cooling after a while, which is easy to cause colds.
The more classic fabrics are generally nylon and cotton fabrics with special high-density coating. The down jacket made of this fabric is not only windproof and waterproof, but also warm and breathable.
If you want to sell a "qualified" and "popular" down jacket, it is doomed that the cost price will not be low.
According to Yiming, the production cost of a down jacket is as low as 100 or 200, and 300 or 400 is the normal wholesale price. There are five or six hundred high-end products. Such costs discourage many small and medium-sized sellers. Without superior resources in the supply chain, general sellers can't turn down jackets at all.
(The picture shows the wholesale price of 1688 down jackets)
On the other side of the high cost is the "rush" of consumers for low-cost products.
According to the data of seller wizard, among the top 100 products in sales volume under the keyword "Down Jacket" on Amazon,Up to $50Products forOnly 12,But the proportion of sales is as high as38.89%，First place.
(Source: seller spirit)
"This is a very real problem. The price of down jacket in the US station is very low, and it is basically unprofitable."
According to Li Xin, the seller, the down jacket market in the United States is really big, but the competition is also fierce. This leads to extreme compression of product profits. In comparison, the markets in Europe and Germany are relatively small, but the competition is much smaller, and the profits can be guaranteed.
"Some buyers are squatting on non brand products to collect wool. The value of down jackets is not low, and ordinary sellers can not afford the damage of the wool party."
High cost, high return rate and fierce competition have led to price involution. Under the combined effect of multiple factors, the profits of down jacket in Amazon America Station have been suppressed to a certain extent.(Text/Blue Ocean Yiguan of cross-border e-commerce)