Last Updated: 2008.08.01
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To a New Stage:
“Clothes that Make News”
Most of our customers already have plenty of clothes. For them to purchase new clothes, there must be some new value added in design and/or function; we could call them “clothes with some news value.” To communicate the true value of our products to customers, we have to change all aspects of the shopping experience, including store design, the sales floor, lineup of products, and our service.
Our large-format store strategy is part of this change and a process for taking UNIQLO to a new stage. In our large-format stores, it is important for us to raise the skills of each staff member to provide customer services that enhance the display and raise the level of customer satisfaction. We aim to communicate the features of our products, offer new products each season, and help our customers make their daily lives more comfortable. The growth driver for UNIQLO is to continue to offer that something new that customers are looking for.
Large-Format Store Strategy on Track
To continue to grow, there are limitations on the strategy we have implemented thus far of selling basic apparel items through standard-format stores in the suburbs with between 700 square meters and 800 square meters of sales floor space. That is why UNIQLO has positioned large-format stores as its growth driver.
Under this large-format strategy, UNIQLO is opening stores in different types of locations, including urban street sides, suburban shopping centers, commercial facilities, and roadsides. At the end of February 2008, we had 38 large-format stores. In fiscal 2007, we opened megastores with about 3,300 square meters of sales floor space in Kobe’s Harborland and in Tokyo’s Setagaya Chitosedai district. Both of these have drawn strong customer interest.
Looking ahead, we will be working to increase the efficiency of these stores by optimizing the right lineup of products to take the best advantage of the strengths of these larger stores, while standardizing our customer service and store management.
Growth through Responding to Women’s Needs
Women’s apparel accounts for about 70% of the sales of the fashion apparel industry as a whole, but women’s items account for only about 40% of UNIQLO’s sales. We believe UNIQLO has considerable potential to increase sales of women’s clothing and look to higher growth in sales by responding to women’s apparel needs.
In fiscal 2007, we scored with skinny jeans, which became a great success, and were able to expand our share in the women’s jeans market. Customers who bought skinny jeans are increasingly coming back to UNIQLO to buy another pair of jeans. We want to take advantage of the visits of new customers to our stores by expanding the lineup of new kinds of products that are more fashionable and not just offering basic items.
Under our large-format store strategy, we have more sales floor space and can put more emphasis on offering coordinated items through improved visual merchandising. We will display new and attractive women’s apparel items in ways that are easy for customers to view and purchase. In large-format stores, we can display a wider range of goods and offer customers a much more enjoyable shopping experience.
