UNIQLO Thousands Of Stores Planned To Be Blocked, And There Are Hidden Worries In The Parity Mode.

In 2012, UNIQLO entered China.

Tenth years.

However, in the face of the Anti Japanese wave in recent days, the company announced the suspension of 19 retail outlets in China in September 17th.

At the time of press release, these retail outlets have gradually resumed operations, but they are located in flagship store in Sanlitun, Beijing, and the brand logo is still covered with red paint.

In 2011, when Shanghai's first global flagship store opened in UNIQLO, Ryui Masa, chairman and chief executive officer of its parent fast Marketing Co., Ltd. revealed that because of its low brand recognition in China's two or three tier cities, it will speed up the pace of opening stores in China in the future, and plans to open more than 1000 large stores in 10 years.

The tension between China and Japan is undoubtedly an obstacle to its accelerated expansion.

So, will there be any adjustment to the plan of opening stores in UNIQLO in China? Recently, in an interview with the investor newspaper, UNIQLO said, "the situation is constantly changing and it is not convenient to answer."

According to its official website, UNIQLO China has 151 branches. Among the top five of the global sales of garment manufacturers, fifth of UNIQLO sales have increased by more than ZARA and H&M in Europe. The latter two are located in the first and third places respectively.

Fast fashion mode

The so-called "UNIQLO model" is actually a typical brand professional retailer business mode (SPA).

"This mode is actually a mode adopted by fast fashion enterprises, that is, abandoning the intermediate links such as agents and distributors, and thoroughly implementing low-cost operation. The store also adopts a supermarket based self selection mode."

Lin Jingxin, a well-known public relations expert, has studied the business model of UNIQLO in an interview with reporters.

In fact, UNIQLO is the product of a sustained economic contraction after the Japanese economic bubble burst, and Japanese young people are keen to buy cheap clothes such as UNIQLO, just like brands like Louis Weedon when they were in the prime of the economy.

"The background of this kind of fortune has formed the difference between UNIQLO's planning of product items and other fast fashion brands: window display, cost saving, and more realistic prices, making it more like a wholesale clothing market than ZARA and H&M brands."

Xu Zhenqun, a senior consultant with consumer goods division, told reporters.

In addition, Lin Jingxin and Xu Zhenqun believe that UNIQLO's innovation in marketing, especially online marketing, is the key to its success.

A typical example is the innovative marketing method in 2010 when UNIQLO cooperated with the popular social networking website Renren, that is, "queuing marketing".

"In queuing activities, netizens can also choose their favorite animals and scenes, which are very attractive to young people. When they are" fun ", they add incentives to form a source of motivation for netizens to participate in their activities. Many huge rewards have made netizens eager. At the same time, the concept of queuing is ingenious, and the concept of" attracting people so many people queues up "has gradually spread out, forming a queuing effect, attracting more and more potential consumers.

Lin Jingxin analyzed.

Thousand stores plan

When UNIQLO entered China in 2002, its marketing model became more and more popular after 2006.

As of September 21, 2012, UNIQLO has opened 151 stores in China, mainly in Shanghai and Beijing, all direct stores, and 14 stores will open at the end of September.

Ryui Seiso, chairman and chief executive officer of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., said that he plans to open 1000 stores in 10 years to cover China's first and second tier cities.

According to Liu Jing's plan to open thousands of stores in China, in the next ten years, UNIQLO will expand every 3 days at a store, and will adopt direct operation mode.

At present, the sales of UNIQLO outside the Japanese market are still low, but in the future, it will expand its overseas market, especially in the Chinese market.

According to the financial data in 2009, UNIQLO's turnover reached 685 billion yen.

Reaching 101 billion 300 million yen, the company plans to reach 50000 billion yen in the next 10 years.

Ryui Masa hopes that in the next 10 years, the share of Chinese market sales can surpass that of the Japanese market, reaching 10000 billion yen.

The flagship store in Shanghai, which cost $30 million in 2011, is currently the largest flagship store in UNIQLO with a business area of more than 3300 square meters.

"In the future, major stores will be smaller than flagship stores, but they will be 2~3 times larger than ordinary stores, at around 1000 square meters."

Ryui Seiso said.

However, under the current tense relationship between China and Japan, can UNIQLO achieve its desired results in accordance with the plan? Analysts believe that the impact will not be too great, while the official response of UNIQLO is "inconvenient to answer".

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Hidden worries in the parity mode

In addition to the problems that may be caused by Sino Japanese relations, UNIQLO's parity strategy and the large-scale planning of single store to bring pressure to its cost control and profit growth will make it more and more obvious in the future expansion.

Garment watchman Ma Gang analyzed the investors newspaper, the main sales of UNIQLO are basic clothing and spare parts.

"High quality attracts customers, but low prices make their profits limited.

Moreover, UNIQLO's clothing is not entirely fashionable. Compared with ZARA and H&M, its popularity is far from enough.

At the same time, he said that this popular and fashionable quality line is exactly the product characteristics of UNIQLO, and how to find a balance between parity, quality and fashion is one of the keys to its future development.

In addition, the area of UNIQLO stores is much larger than that of other brands, which will not only increase the cost, but also slow down the process of replication.

"And it will have 1000 cities in the future and more than 300 in the prefecture level cities in China, which means that it will open to 3 cities in every prefecture level city, and the prefecture level city may not be able to give it an average of 1000 square meters per store."

Xu Zhenqun said.

According to the data, the development of department stores will decline in the next few years.

The development of enterprises that are accompanied by department stores will also be full of frustrations in China in the future.