Key Points of the Article:
1. Down jacket consumption exhibits clear seasonality. From November 2022 to October 2023, the sales on mainstream e-commerce platforms reached 83.558 billion yuan, with a volume of 182 million pieces, indicating a high-speed growth phase for the market size.
2. From 2015 to 2020, the average price of down jackets in China increased by more than 200 yuan. The price hike of down jackets was mainly influenced by the rise in raw material prices, industry standards iteration, and brands' high-end strategies.
3. The internal competition in the down jacket track is primarily reflected in raw materials, product design, and scenario expansion. More sophisticated fillers, superior product parameters, and more eye-catching tailoring designs are becoming the choices of more and more brands.
Recently, a "cliff-like temperature drop" has swept the nation. Under the cold wave, it's that time of the year again to stock up on down jackets.
Not long ago, NetEase Yanxuan launched a thousand-yuan-plus down jacket "China Goose · Flame Series". Subsequently, the topic "Can you accept domestically-produced down jackets above a thousand yuan?" surged on Weibo's hot search, dominating the list for several days. Discussions about the price increase of down jackets seem to have become an annual winter staple.
Social media discussions about domestically-produced down jackets also reflect to some extent that people's subconscious perception of domestic down jackets is still at a "low price" stage.Domestic mid-to-high-end down jacket brands have not yet captured consumer mindshare, indicating significant room for market development.What factors influence the price of down jackets? What trends exist in the inwardly competitive domestic down jacket market? Where is the next growth opportunity for domestic down jackets?
China's down jacket market is in a rapid development stage. According to China National Garment Association data, the market size was 76.7 billion yuan in 2015, surpassed a hundred billion to reach 106.8 billion in 2018,and grew to 156.2 billion in 2021, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.6% from 2015 to 2021.
Although the domestic down jacket market has a considerable size, China's market penetration rate is only about 9%, much lower than the over 30% in European developed countries. Currently, this indicator is highest in Japan, with a penetration rate of about 70%. There is huge potential for the domestic down jacket market in the future.
According to Moojing Analysis+ data, during the period from November 2022 to October 2023, the sales on mainstream e-commerce platforms reached 83.558 billion yuan with a volume of 182 million pieces. Down jacket consumption has obvious seasonality,with the autumn and winter seasons being the main battlegrounds for down jackets. Especially in November and December, when temperatures plummet combined with the consumption festivals buff such as Singles' Day and Double 12, the cumulative sales in these two months account for over 60% of the annual total.
The down jacket market is highly competitive. According to data from Moojing Analysis+ mainstream e-commerce platforms, the concentration of the domestic down jacket market is relatively low, with the combined market share of the top 10 (CR10) brands being 24.5% over the past rolling year.China is a major producer of down and feather, annually producing more than 40% of the global output of down materials. China is also a major down jacket manufacturing country with a cost advantage, which is why e-commerce platforms are flooded with numerous "unbranded" down jackets. Currently, active brands in China's down jacket market can be roughly divided into three categories: professional down jacket brands, sports and outdoor brands, and fast fashion brands. Professional down jacket brands expand outward with down jackets as their core product. The top 5 brands in terms of sales belong to this category, with Bosideng having the highest market share of 5.5%, followed by YaYa with a market share of 4.8%. Sports brands represented by Adidas and fast-fashion brands represented by Uniqlo treat down jackets as seasonal products, emphasizing more on functionality and design sense.
Recent sales data show thatmainstream down jacket brands on the Chinese market are concentrated in the mid-to-low-end price range below 1000 yuan. Of the top 30 brands in sales, 22 have an average selling price of less than 1000 yuan;there are also three light-luxury brands on the list with an average price over 3000 yuan, namely Descente, Canada Goose, and Moncler. Foreign brands occupy the mid-to-high-end market, generally priced at a thousand yuan and above.
Excluding Semir's children's brand Balabala with an average price of around 290 yuan, the sales rankings of domestic brands are mostly concentrated in the 400-600 yuan price range, such as well-established national down jacket brands YaYa and Yaloo, Bosideng's sub-brand Snow Flying targeting the mid-to-low-end market, and men's clothing brand Romon; only Bosideng stands out in the mid-to-high-end market with an average price of around 1003 yuan, along with the brand Gaofan with an average price of 1208 yuan. Gaofan, positioning itself in the 1500-3000 yuan mid-to-high-end market, is a "new aristocrat" of goose down recently, topping the women's down jacket brand list on TikTok during Singles' Day with first-day GMV breaking 20 million.
Looking at the sales volume of each price range, mid-to-low-end down jackets under a thousand yuan remain the market mainstream. Nevertheless, it is an industry consensus that the price of down jackets is rising. According to statistics from the China National Commercial Information Center, from 2015 to 2020, the average price of down jackets in China rose by over 200 yuan, from 432 yuan to 656 yuan.
The overall price increase of down jackets is partly due to the demand for brand upgrading.As we analyzed earlier, the mid-to-high-end market is occupied by a large number of international brands, and domestic brands are relatively scarce, generally priced below a thousand yuan. Canadian brands entered the Chinese market in 2018, and even with a pricing of tens of thousands of yuan, the enthusiasm of consumers to purchase, queueing up in the cold, demonstrated the high-end market potential and accelerated the process of premiumization of domestic brands.
Taking Bosideng as an example, the brand began to significantly adjust its prices from 2018. According to Guosen Securities' research report, in 2017, Bosideng brand products below 1000 yuan accounted for 47.5%, but by 2018 the proportion dropped to 12.5%. A Dongxing Securities research report also showed that in 2017, the average tag price for Bosideng was between 1000 and 1100 yuan, but as of 2021, it has exceeded 1800 yuan.
Bosideng's pricing strategy is also related to its circumstances at the time. Previously, due to strategic errors, the brand faced issues such as store closures and stock clearance for a prolonged period. Additionally, the outdated brand image was falling behind in the tide of the times. Looking at the overall sales distribution of Bosideng currently, Bosideng's premiumization strategy has begun to take effect, with the sales volume of mid-to-high-end products priced over a thousand yuan accounting for more than 40%.
In recent years, affordable brands such as YaYa and Snow Flying have also begun to expand upwards. The most expensive down jacket in YaYa's Tmall flagship store is priced at 5999 yuan, and there are also many star-endorsed models above a thousand yuan.
The high-end journey of local brands still needs to withstand market testing,but another important reason for the price increase of down jackets is the rising production costs. Huachuang Securities' research indicates, the cost structure of down jackets mainly consists of down, fabric, accessories, and labor costs, with the proportion of down being around 45%. Image source: Huachuang Securities
As the core raw material for making down jackets, the price of down has continued to rise in the past few years. According to data collated by DT Research Institute, in 2016, the price per kilogram for 90% white duck down was 200 yuan and for 90% white goose down nearly 400 yuan, but by 2022, these two materials surged to around 360 yuan and 640 yuan respectively.
Apart from the rising cost of raw materials, the advancement of industry standards has also increased the cost of down jackets.In April 2022, the new national standard for down garments GB/T 14272-2021 was officially introduced to the market. The main difference between the new and old national standards is the adjustment from the term "down content" to "down cluster content", hence the standard for down jacket fillers changed from "down content value not less than 50%" to "down cluster content value not less than 50%, and the content of down filament and feather filament no higher than 10%".
The primary difference between the two lies in the fact that 'down content' includes both down clusters and down fibers, where 'down clusters' refer to the fine, soft feathers found on the skin of birds, typically spherical in shape, composed of down fibers and down nuclei. To save costs, some merchants substitute down fibers for down clusters, resulting in a significant reduction in the actual thermal insulation effect. The new national standard has undoubtedly enhanced the overall product quality of the industry, as well as correspondingly increased production costs, which in turn have been passed on to the sales end, causing consumers to feel that down jackets are becoming more expensive.
Research by iMedia Consulting in 2023 shows that Chinese netizens have a price preference for down jackets concentrated in the sub-1000 CNY range, which is currently the main battleground for domestic brands, with less than 15% of users being able to accept down jackets priced over 1000 CNY. In the future, domestic down jacket brands still need to find their own moats to convince consumers to willingly pay a premium for their brands.
In the competitive field of down jackets, brands are paying more attention to product quality and design differentiation. Specifically, the following aspects are noteworthy:
• "Warmth Champion" goose down enters public awareness, becoming an increasingly popular choice among brands;
• Intensified competition over down jacket raw materials, in terms of quality and concept;
• The emergence of a large number of designer down jackets, providing consumers with a variety of choices.
With the popularity of Canada Goose, goose down jackets have gradually become popular, and Moojing social listening data shows that in the last rolling year, the volume of discussion on mainstream social media platforms reached 1.206 million, with a year-over-year increase of 121.28%; the latest research by iMedia Consulting shows that 73.88% of consumers prefer to choose goose down jackets. According to Moojing Analysis+, on mainstream e-commerce platforms, products filled with goose down nearly account for 20% of the market share, and among the top 10 selling down products, 3 are goose down jackets.
Compared to duck down, goose down is scarcer in production because geese have a longer growth cycle, requiring 8-12 months to mature, and are mostly farmed in cold northern areas, while ducks only need a 3-4 month maturation period; the market consensus is that the warmth of goose down is superior to that of duck down, with larger and fluffier clusters. These factors lead to goose down jackets often being linked to high-end products, with an average product price above 1000 CNY.
Moojing observed that in order to differentiate goose down jackets, the provenance and quality of goose down have also become a significant selling point. For instance, the Titanium Light series by Snow Flying touts naturally-raised goose down from Changbai Mountain, while the black gold series by Gaofan features goose down from the internationally renowned region of Hungary. In contrast, the discussion on social media about Netease Yanxuan's "China Big Goose" featured premium goose down from the quality region of Western Anhui for its filling.
In an increasingly competitive market environment, concepts such as down fill power and loft have also become a focus point of marketing strategies for various brands. In the past, the market was flooded with down jackets that had a little over 100g of down filling and a loft of around 600; nowadays, "extreme cold protection" has become the mainstream concept, with jackets sporting loft over 700+ and down fill weights of more than 200g becoming commonplace.
More noticeably, today's down jackets look better. With the "value on appearance economy" in trend, consumer aesthetics are also evolving. Warmth is only the baseline for down jackets, and more and more people are starting to care about the fashion attribute of down jackets. In a 2022 research conducted by DT Research Institute, "style design" became the first factor consumers consider when purchasing down jackets, followed by down parameters and price. Moojing e-commerce listening data from the past year shows that the outward design of down jackets is also a priority dimension considered by users in reviews.
Bosideng, Duck Duck, and Gaofan have successively brought domestic down jackets to Fashion Week, and other brands are also making efforts in product design, from cutting, color selection to fabric choices, to IP co-branding, breaking the stereotype of down jackets being monotonous and bulky, and transforming it into a fashion item, catering to consumer aesthetic preferences.
Vertically, the raw materials and designs for down jackets have already spiraled to new heights, while the horizontal category expansion is also a clear market trend, with down products increasingly adapted to more life scenarios .
First, in recent years, the popularity of outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, and skiing has brought new opportunities to related industries and has expanded the application of down jackets to outdoor scenarios. According to Moojing Analysis+ data, the total sales of down products targeting outdoor scenes reached 4.17 billion CNY over the past year, an increase of 46.6% year-over-year.
Besides launching waterproof and windproof down jackets suitable for outdoor activities, many brands are also combining hard shell jackets with down jackets. Hard shell jackets are an essential item for outdoor scenes and are highly regarded by young people as the "autumn-winter warm pairing," maintaining high popularity on social media. According to Moojing social listening, the volume of hard shell jackets on social media reached 2.13 million in October of this year, far exceeding the 1.22 million voice of down jackets.
Outdoor brand Camel's three-in-one hard shell jacket is a best-seller in this category, with cumulative sales of over 200,000 on the Tmall platform. Unlike the mainstream hard shell jackets with fleece linings found on the market, this three-in-one hard shell jacket also offers a down liner filled with white duck down and goose down, greatly enhancing warmth retention, enabling consumers to easily deal with low-temperature outdoor scenarios.
Moreover, various down products also meet consumers' varied daily warm-keeping needs, such as down hats, down scarves that are lighter and more skin-friendly compared to fleece fabrics, and also provide better wind protection, regarded as essential items for winter in the north; down comforters have also become the choice for many families' winter bedding, being lightweight and breathable (the only downside might be overheating), with sales on e-commerce platforms reaching nearly 3 billion CNY in the past year.
China is not only a major global producer and manufacturer of down and down jackets but also a large consumer of down products, with future market prospects remaining broad under a penetration rate of less than 10%. According to CITIC Securities data, China's down jacket market is expected to maintain rapid growth, with the market size projected to reach 195 billion CNY by 2024.
The Chinese down jacket industry has not formed a monopoly, and there are many players within the track. As a diversified market, down jackets cater to audiences of all age groups and consumer levels. How to create differentiation and establish a brand moat is a challenge that each entrant must face. The intense competition within the track is a reflection of changing consumer expectations, from single to personalized needs, from one scenario to diverse scenarios. Whether it's laying out a full product line or targeting niche areas, brands need to continuously monitor market trends and address core customer pain points to stand out from intense competition.
