Sun Yihui, Bojun Software: The epidemic will impact the footwear industry throughout the year, and digitalization should be put on the strategic agenda

Under the "new coronavirus" epidemic, people across the country have entered a state of home isolation, and offline retail has suffered a great impact in a short period of time. Among them, it is difficult to bypass the offline try on and experience of footwear fashion category, is one of the most affected categories, many footwear brands in the first quarter suffered a crisis of revenue cliff decline. How to correctly judge the impact of the epidemic and actively respond to it is crucial for the future recovery and development of the industry.

Bojun Software is a retail digital service provider focusing on the field of footwear and fashion. Since the release of the first POS product in 1999, Bojun Software has been working in this field for more than 20 years. Today, Bojun Software provides ERP, omni-channel, smart store and other solutions for large and medium-sized shoe fashion brands, with more than 3,000 customers.

Sun Yihui, founder and president of Bojun Software, believes that the blow brought by the "new crown" epidemic to the footwear fashion field may not be limited to the decline in store revenue in recent months, and the entire 2020 May become challenging. The brand's full-year results are likely to suffer a knock-on effect from the grounding in production and sales in the first quarter.

The reason is that the production cycle of footwear fashion enterprises is generally six months to one year, and most footwear and clothing goods need to be produced in the off-season. However, under the epidemic situation, the employees of shoe and apparel enterprises, whether it is product research and development, production and manufacturing, or supply chain logistics, can not return to work on time. Therefore, not only the spring product sales in the first quarter will be stranded, but also the next autumn and winter clothing that should be centrally designed and produced in the spring will also be stalled.

At the same time, from the perspective of C-end demand, Sun Yihui believes that consumer demand for footwear fashion goods will not rebound after the end of the epidemic, because footwear fashion categories have a very strong seasonality. The absence of consumption in the spring will not directly lead to a surge in summer consumption of goods. Therefore, the entire field of footwear fashion will slowly recover to the original state and will experience a long recovery cycle. However, some specific retail categories may see a surge in demand, such as personal protection, disinfection and other supplies. These categories of goods originally belong to the minority consumer goods, but after the epidemic, may become consumers "hoarding" standing goods.

The epidemic has brought challenges to footwear fashion brands, not only in production and sales, but also in the digital process of enterprises. The "house" of the whole people cuts off the opportunity for brand owners to have direct contact with consumers offline, and also cuts off their ability to carry out on-site management of stores. This has awakened many brand owners who have not had enough digital awareness of consumers, goods, store operations, etc.

However, under the epidemic situation, on the one hand, the cliff-like income crunch makes shoe and clothing fashion brands more willing to increase digital investment; On the other hand, because some brands are not suitable for using pure SaaS digital products delivered online, service providers need to deploy and implement them on site. This means that under the epidemic, the deployment and implementation of digital products have to stop.

However, although the epidemic has brought a crisis to the entire footwear fashion field, it is also a "crisis" and "opportunity" coexist. In recent years, with the popularity of the entire retail industry, new brands in the field of footwear fashion have emerged in an endless stream. Sun Yihui said that the level of brands in the industry is uneven, and homogenization is becoming more and more serious. The big test of the epidemic has also brought market integration opportunities to the field of footwear and fashion, the weak will be eliminated, and enterprises that maintain competitiveness will survive the fittest.

After the pandemic, as more brands increase their digital awareness, the demand for digital products and services in retail will also rise. Whether to meet the digital needs of retail enterprises in a short period of time is a long-term proposition for retail digital service providers. During the epidemic, Bojun Software continues to receive new demands from customers. In the future, Bojun Software will also actively develop more digital and online products for retail enterprises to further promote the digital transformation of the retail industry.

Sun Yihui, chairman of Bojun Software

Recently, IAnalya conducted an interview with Sun Yihui, founder and president of Bojun Software, and conducted in-depth exchanges on the impact of the epidemic on the retail industry and the coping strategies of Bojun Software. Part of the content is shared below.