Renee Hartmann: Selling to China’s Youth Market With eno

Renee Hartmann talked about selling to China’s youth market at Barcamp Shanghai 2009 by sharing her story and experiences co-founding eno, a Chinese casual youth apparel brand she co-founded with ex-Nike China partners in 2006. Today, their t-shirts and clothing are sold through 40 outlets in China and through their online shop.

They first started the company when they were working on developing China youth sports leagues, and felt there was an emerging trend of Chinese youth trying to express themselves more individualistically. Apparel was previously designed outside, brought in, and then localized for the Chinese market. They decided to start up a new brand that would be 100% focused on and designed in China. Their designs come from different methods, including in-house from their local Chinese designers, all under 25-years-old, as well as crowdsourced (a la Threadless).

Renee’s observations and insights:

• Some of the things that work in the US don’t work in China and vice versa. This is obvious. However, generalization like “only foreigners like Chinese characters and locals do not” is sometimes true, and sometimes not.
• Most Nike, Adidas, Kappa, etc. stores are franchised and the biggest challenge in China is a different retail process and environment. For example, there are less boutique stores that you can sell your brand in, unlike in the US where you might have Pacific Sunwear or Urban Outfitters.
• Shopping is social in China, with shoppers tending to come in couples or groups and less so alone. This affects both preferences and the decision-making process for purchases.
• People shop online in China for “really cheap stuff.” The online market is definitely growing, with examples being Taobao and Alipay, though most online purchases are still paid COD (Cash On Delivery).
• The youth retail apparel market is very sports-oriented, as opposed to lifestyle-oriented, which is flipped from the rest of the world. However, she sees this trend changing a bit, especially now with the Olympics having passed and a growing saturation of the sports-oriented apparel market (i.e. too many Nike stores on one street).

Renee shared that their challenge for themselves is to go from their current niche market to the mass market but do intent on remaining focused on China without expanding overseas.

An audience member asked the age-old China question of how eno handles counterfeiting. Renee says that eno tries to keep designs and trends moving fast and using limited editions to stay ahead of the counterfeiters.

Beyond clothing, eno is also enoVate, a design and marketing firm, and enoise, which is involved in music. More CNR Barcamp Shanghai 2009 coverage here.