Produced | Tiger Sniff Commercial Consumption Group
Author | Zhaoxing, Tiger Sniff Author
Edit | Miao Zhengqing
On March 14th, the softened sunlight passed through the classical window frame of Yaibai and reflected on the white hanger.Different from the usual compact display of Uniqiku stores, a gentle spring color system is hung on the hanger. This is Uniqlo: C (C series here) by Uniqlo and former Givenchy creative director and high -definition designer ClarewaightKeller. 2024 spring and summer 2024series.
At the scene, a friend of a fashion publication editor -in -chief lamented that this season is really French.From product style to display at the conference site, Uniqlo obviously hopes to emphasize the quality and tone of the C series.
The C series is a key node for Uniqlo for women’s clothing.The release of this spring and summer series is the first time that Uniqlo has invited ClareWaightKeller to China (Tiger Sniff Talking with it). It can be seen that it attaches great importance to the Chinese market, especially the Chinese women’s clothing market.
Uniqlo: C2024 Spring / Summer series release site, picture source: Uniqlo shooting
At the end of last year, Uniqlo announced that the total revenue of Greater China in the fiscal year in 2023 recorded a total revenue of 15.2%increased by 620.2 billion yen (about RMB 30.4 billion), and the operating profit increased significantly by 25%to 104.3 billion yen (approximately about itRMB 5.1 billion), all reached a record high.The high -growth part of the cornerstone is a large number of stores, but this does not mean that Uniqlo has no hidden concerns in the Chinese market.
Recently, Uniqlo’s parent company, Japan ’s Nobuka CFO Okazaki Kyoshi, revealed in an interview with the Japanese Economic News that the number of Chinese Uniqi stores has exceeded Japan, but the revenue of single stores is only half of Japan.”” “.
It is not satisfactory to the vertical comparison with the Chinese market. In fiscal 2023, the revenue of Chinese single stores decreased by 3%compared with fiscal 2019.
He announced that it plans to close the loss of Uniqlo stores in the next 2 to 3 years and concentrate the opening of stores in areas and gold areas with more people.
At the beginning of March, Wu Pinhui, the global executive director of the Fast and Uniqlo Greater China District, also told Tiger Sniff that Uniqlo will focus on the construction of the city flagship store this year, “to open some large -scale new stores.”
In other words, Uniqlo will focus on improving the efficiency of revenue in Chinese stores.
The Chinese market is self -evident to Uniqlo.According to the first quarter of fiscal year in FY2024, the Uniqlo business in Greater China contributed 22.2%of the revenue of the Fast and maintained a high proportion.
Cheng Weixiong, the founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd. and experts from shoe and clothing, told Tiger Sniff that the important nodes, products, channels, and promotion methods of Uniqlo eagerly improving the revenue of single stores need to be adjusted accordingly.Strengthening women’s clothing is an important part of product strategy adjustment.
Zhou Ting, the dean of the Institute of Institute, told Tiger Sniff that the C series meets the diversified and personalized needs of Chinese customers, and also allows Uniqlo to have more fashion elements on the basis of leisure comfort.This plays an important role in improving customers’ arrival rate and can enhance the input and output ratio of stores.
Determination of women’s clothing
“The Japanese market is integrated, and the Chinese market is very diverse.” Cheng Weixiong believes that Uniqlo’s revenue in Chinese single stores is lower than Japan, and its single position cannot meet the complex needs of China’s huge market.Although there are many SKUs, they are concentrated in basic models. “There is no fashion model, how can customers be attracted to the store to buy basic models?”
Fashion women’s clothing is an important engine to improve customers’ store rates.
Beginning in 2023, Uniqlo has significantly increased its investment in the women’s market. It is specifically reflected in the design strengthening of the style of single products, the brand joins the designer, and the expansion of the shoe, the number and style of the bag products, and so on.
The C series is Uniqlo’s very feminine designer series.Earlier, Uniqlo: U is more neutral and minimalist launched by Uniqlo and former Hermes creative director Christophelemaire.
An editor -in -chief of a fashion publication told me that she was impressed by the military green in the spring and summer color matching of the C series, “high -level color”.At the same time, the pants version of the military uniform set was very good at her.The dark gray suit suit wearing Clare was also praised by many fashion people at the scene.What I was impressed was a loud sigh: “It’s not like Uniqlo.”
The emergence of the C series shows some determination of Uniqlo on women’s clothing.
People close to the top of Uniqlo told me that Uniqlo hopes to enhance the overall texture of Uniqlo women’s clothing through the C series and use the version and tailoring design in the series to daily products.
CLARE told me that Uniqlo started with men’s clothing, and there may be some difficulties in understanding a very feminine style.Therefore, in the process of communication with Uniqlo, one difficulty is to bring the feminized design language accumulated from past experience to Uniqlo.
She mentioned a few details: “When you use liquid fabrics, you must cut it in a specific way. The folds and seams must be done well, so as to make the clothes as the thinnest as much as possible withoutAs for making some parts too big and unbalanced. “
At the same time, CLARE also uses a large amount of cotton and transparent fabrics to create a feminine feeling.Compared with her and Uniqlo’s first UNIQLO: C autumn and winter series, the nature of the spring and summer season gives her more room to play.In design, the feeling of leisure and laziness is even stronger.
Zhou Ting believes that the C series still has a lot of room for improvement in the diversity of style and color.
I asked CLARE, and she told me that designing clothing for luxury brands and popular brands is obviously different: “I always work hard to refine the design to make it more concise. While maintaining design innovationWithin the range to achieve the best business benefits. “
Therefore, the C series can add a lot of complicated details like previous design.
Channel optimization
As of the end of fiscal year in 2023, Uniqlo has accumulated 1031 stores in China, accounting for over 40 % of Uniqlo’s global stores, and exceeding 800 stores in Japan, which is the most single market for stores.
Okazaki Ken said that Uniqlo was planned to open 80 stores in China in the fiscal year of the FY2024, closed 50 stores, and increased 30 nets.After the fiscal year in 2025, “the net increase may be at a low level within several years.”
In other words, Uniqlo will optimize offline channels in China.
“Uniqlo is known for its many SKUs, so Kaidian stores in accordance with its positioning and demands.” Cheng Weixiong said.
The insiders of Uniqlo told me that Uniqlo plans to get more unique points like Shanghai Huaihai Road flagship store and Beijing Sanlitun flagship store to build a large store.
At the same time, Uniqlo’s future expansion in Chinese stores will also be considered in consideration.Okazaki Ken said: “If you open a store in a large area of e -commerce, the product will have the product.”
“Building the retail system of the product with the line as the core, the upgrade of the offline store function is to provide experience and services, and replace the conventional product display and sales, which is an inevitable development trend of retail.” Zhou Ting said.Uniqlo’s Chinese e -commerce business accounts for 20%, which is 15%higher than Japan, but Uniqlo is still a brand mainly based on traditional store retail, which can explore more digital retail methods.
The goal of the Fun Metro Group is that after 10 years, the annual sales revenue of each store, including Hong Kong and China, China and Taiwan, to the same level as the domestic Uniqlo business.
“The choice of Uniqlo is correct. Take the brand’s high -end route and maintain the core motivation of profitability.” Zhou Ting said that not only Uniqlo, all brands should use customer power to drive brand growth, rather than determine brand growth at the speed of opening.
Last year, Uniqlo’s hot girl T was still in front of it; this year, UNIQLO: C sword finger texture and advanced.