Uniqlo regards Apple as an opponent

In 2015, it was a mixed blessing for Uniqlo.

On the one hand, due to the increase in labor force, the production capacity of Fast Retailing (Fast Retailing), the parent company of Uniqlo, was reduced from 90% in China to 60% to 70%; on the other hand, various types of negative news. It has never been stopped.

In spite of this, Uniqlo provided a beautiful transcript. According to the financial report released by Fast Retailing Group in the first three quarters of fiscal 2015 (September 2014 - May 2015), the Group's revenue increased by 23.9% to US$3.27 billion, and its profit increased by 36% to US$230 million. Obviously, the Chinese market has contributed a lot.

At the same time, Uniqlo continued to expand in China. As of the first half of 2015, the number of UNIQLO stores in China was close to 470, which is about the total number of H&M and GAP stores in China. During the "Double 11" period in 2015, Uniqlo won the championship in apparel category with sales of 600 million yuan.

Although the current upward trend is good, many industry observers believe that Fast Retailing Group will face challenges. One of them is how to maintain the increase of profitability in the face of a setback in the development of the US market, thus surpassing Zara and H&M to become the world's number one.

In 2015, on the occasion of one year of listing in Hong Kong, Fast Retailing Group accelerated the globalization strategy led by Uniqlo.

According to reports, Fast Retailing Group is already the largest clothing retailer in Asia in terms of revenue.

However, Fast Retailing Group is obviously not satisfied with this. Fast Retailing Group's ** and chief executive officer, Yanai, said in an interview in Hong Kong that the company can rely on its own efforts to raise the global ranking from the current fourth to first. The world’s largest apparel retailer is Zara’s parent company and Spain’s Inditex SA.

Pan Ning, CEO of Fast Retailing Group and a senior executive vice president of Greater China, said in an interview with the media: “Fast-selling group will accelerate the promotion of global strategy with overseas UNIQLO as the center of gravity. It is expected that overseas UNIQLO will expand at a rate of 200 stores per year. The Chinese market is about to take up half."

Fast Retailing Group expects that the total revenue of the Chinese market this year will be close to 15.09 billion yuan, and will strive to achieve the goal of UNIQLO's 1,000 stores in the near future.

Regarding the impact of e-commerce on the sales of brand clothing such as Uniqlo, in Penning's view, it is more new opportunities. “The company will also focus on the operation of online stores while expanding physical stores. Now it is gradually forming an O2O mode of organic interaction on the offline line, borrowing strong online sales to establish a brand image, and expanding and expanding the market by offline stores.”

However, Uniqlo's e-commerce road is not smooth.

Uniqlo formally settled in Jingdong on April 17, 2015. Penning also said at the time that cooperation between the two sides could achieve complementary advantages. Unexpectedly, cooperation lasted less than one year. Due to the adjustment of Uniqlo's e-commerce business strategy, Uniqlo’s official flagship store of Jingyi Store was closed on July 20.

In fact, compared with "fast fashion," Yanai is more willing to define Uniqlo as a technology company. In an interview with the media, the Japanese richest man who has been for many years even rumors that: UNIQLO's only competitor is not Gap, but Apple.

Compared with the ever-changing competitors such as ZARA and H&M, the number of Uniqlo's products can be said to be pitiable—this is just like the Apple Store. According to media reports, 70% of Uniqlo's products are basic models, and the inventory unit is maintained at around 1000 models.

The design director Mou Zezhi directly compares the improvement process of the Uniqlo's basic model with the iPhone's iterative update. In other words, in the view of many people, the production mode of some UNIQLO products is similar to the “small step run and rapid iteration” that the technology industry is familiar with.

The “evolving” HEATTECH series is typical. Since it was launched in 2003, HEATTECH has continuously improved products based on user feedback, iteratively updated it, and upgraded from the most basic of keeping warm to anti-static. Since 2013, Camellia oil has been added to women's clothing to achieve moisturizing function, and in 2014 it will This ratio increased by another 30%.

In fact, Uniqlo's love for the “fundamentals”, the path to make the garments, and even the preaching of the brand story now seem to see the shadow of technology companies.

Uniqlo attaches great importance to the development of basic funds. "Unlike other companies, there are fashion topics for each season. We pay more attention to the products themselves, and continue to test, improve and improve them year after year," said Yuki Tatsuki, Senior Vice President of Global Research and Design at Uniqlo.