Is UNIQLO Doing Nothing Or Having A Unique Vision?

As a Japanese

Well known brands, the popularity of the Chinese market can be said to be household names, especially in July 2015 after the "Sanlitun" incident is more famous, and ZARA, H&M, GAP, driving the world's four largest.

One of the brands.

Many people have the impression of UNIQLO that "double 11" has been robbed and hot, and it has been Tmall's "double 11" clothing sales for the first time in two consecutive years.

But this sales incentive is based on generous discounts.

In fact, in the past year, not only is Tmall flagship store, but also the "double 11" day, the frequency of UNIQLO discount, price reduction and promotion is increasing.

However, for a brand, discount is a more common way of promotion, but too frequent discount is dangerous. It indicates that the company's stock has accumulated to an unhealthy level.

Net profit is much lower than expected, and overseas market is the only bright spot.

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, recently, UNIQLO parent company Xun marketing group released the latest quarterly earnings report.

According to the earnings data, sales in the first three quarters (from September 1, 2016 to May 2017 31) increased by 3% to 1 trillion and 480 billion yen compared with the same period last year, and net profit increased by 69.1% to 120 billion 100 million yen compared with the same period last year. However, sales in the third quarter increased 8.9% to 460 billion 400 million yen compared with the same period last year, while net profit fell by 4.5% to 22 billion 900 million yen, much lower than the Yen Yen expected by analysts.

According to the report, Japanese sales in UNIQLO grew by 1.2% to 653 billion 400 million yen in the first three quarters, while operating profits dropped 0.6% to 92 billion 600 million yen.

Among them, UNIQLO's sales in Japan in the third quarter increased by 3.5% to 198 billion 300 million yen compared with the same period last year, operating profit dropped by 18% to 23 billion 800 million yen, and same store sales grew 2.7% over the same period last year.

(including the sale of online stores), sales of Japanese UNIQLO e-commerce channels increased by 17.3% over the same period last year.

It accounts for 6.2% of total sales.

It mainly benefited from the sales of Bra, men's quick dry nine points shorts, and golden week, mother's day and UNIQLO anniversary promotions.

In recent two years, UNIQLO's performance in Japan is not obvious.

As of May 31, 2016, the three quarter report of XXX group 2015/16 showed that the sales volume of UNIQLO in Japan increased by only 1.1%, while the total profit fell 18.1% year-on-year.

UNIQLO Japanese same store sales fell 2.5% in January 2017, and this financial data has been down for 6 consecutive months.

Last February, sales in the same store in UNIQLO Japanese market increased by less than 1.5%.

By the end of February 2017, the total number of UNIQLO stores in Japan was 792, representing a decrease of 14 over the same period last year.

On the contrary, UNIQLO's overseas market is doing well, including strong performance in the Greater China region, South Korea, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

In the first three quarters of 2017, sales increased by 5.4% to 561 billion 500 million yen, and operating profit increased 61.3% to 68 billion 100 million yen.

In the Southeast Asian market, UNIQLO introduced UT, sporty clothing, women's shirts and skirts that combine local climate and culture with local consumers.

In the relatively weak US market, UNIQLO's efforts to close its poor outlets were narrowed in the third quarter.

In Europe, because of the 10 new stores opened during the third quarter, the cost rose and profits fell slightly.

By the end of the 5 month end, UNIQLO has 1071 stores in the world, opening 143 stores over the same period last year.

The report also pointed out that due to the rapid rise in costs, UNIQLO Chinese market continued to pursue a streamlined strategy, turning to digital marketing to reduce advertising expenses, and reducing distribution costs after the logistics assessment. These are important factors to promote the operating profit of Chinese market.

Fast forward group's growth in the third quarter ended May 31st was not ideal.

Compared with Zara, H&M and other competitors, the growth of UNIQLO's performance has obviously lagged behind.

"Do not work properly" launch smart buyers electronic screen

When the fashion industry is becoming faster and faster, fast fashion brand UNIQLO is slowly slowing down, and constantly introducing new marketing methods. Using technology to enhance store experience, efficiency and pformation is also becoming more and more important to UNIQLO's large clothing companies.

But can it become the engine of its future growth?

UNIQLO recently launched an electronic screen called "intelligent buyer".

At present, "intelligent buyer" has covered 100 stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin, Fujian and many other provinces and cities. This is not a simple advertising screen. When you approach the "intelligent buyer" within five meters, it will greet you with "say hi", slide the screen, you can browse new products in the store, wear suggestions and preferential information, and even have simple interactive games.

The interactive screen includes four sections: "new product selection", "preferential purchase", "fashion wear" and "interactive play". Customers can choose to interact with each other in order to get the information they want.

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After testing 100 stores, UNIQLO found that the interaction rate of consumer experience was 4-5 times higher than that of previous advertising and mobile terminals, and the turnover rate increased by more than 15%.

UNIQLO said that in the next one to two years, it will be promoted to all the UNIQLO stores in the country.

However, according to the world clothing and shoe net, consumers and salespersons are not familiar with its functions.

According to the salesperson of UNIQLO store, there are not many consumers who are interested in "intelligent buyer" and want to try it.

When asking a salesperson in Huahai Middle Road flagship store how to use "intelligent buyer" to get collocation advice, the clerk also said it was not clear.

UNIQLO is not the first time to test water intelligent consumption.

In 2015, it launched a smart clothing selection system called "Umood" in Australia. It can recommend clothing styles and colors according to the customers' mood. But because it can not replace the traditional fitting function, the system will be offline after several weeks of implementation.

In recent years, it seems to be a new breakthrough in UNIQLO, and the quality of products is constantly falling off.

According to the "unqualified information on imported industrial products" issued by the State Administration of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine in May 2017, tens of thousands of imported fast fashion clothes are disqualified.

The fast retailing group's UNIQLO list is on the list.

Seeking breakthroughs and changes can be solved not only by launching an electronic screen called "intelligent buyer".

"Intellectualization" is no longer a novelty. Every brand wants to attract consumers' attention.

But quality is the key to winning the brand, and the common problem of fast fashion brands is the quality of products, which is a widespread pain for users.

UNIQLO's ability to innovate is weakening or slowing down.

With the rapid pace of iteration of new technologies and tools, such as the Internet and mobile Internet, the emergence of social tools has made consumers more rational and at the same time becoming more subdivided and ethnic, and consumers have become more personalized.

The clothing market is developing towards further market segments, and the market demand is changing. Cheap, homogeneity and lack of individuality become the reason for more and more consumers to abandon fast fashion brands.

This poses challenges for UNIQLO positioning consumers from the age of 6, who are -60 years old. Personalized demand is inconsistent with the basic fashion and basic product positioning of UNIQLO.

At the same time, UNIQLO's large enterprise mechanism also led to a slow response to consumers' perception and feedback, resulting in a larger gap between the market and consumers.

If we only talk about cost performance and basic funds, UNIQLO is a model of the industry, a very strong brand, but if life is only basic, it is really boring.

Every person's life will be as tough as they are, and the food they wear will look almost the same.

Now the global fashion brands are beginning to implement young initiatives in order to avoid the marginalization of the millennial generation in the future, otherwise they will soon lose momentum in the fierce competition.

Although more and more brands are beginning to take younger as the next stage of pformation strategy, most brands are still in the exploratory stage.

However, one thing is very clear: in the face of market situation and future trend, if the brand can not be upgraded as soon as possible, it will miss the key opportunity to regain the market dominance, and UNIQLO seems to have gradually lost its strength.

According to the list of Boston consultancy's list of "the top 50 of the 2015 most innovative enterprises in the world", uniqo is the only top fifteenth in the list, the only clothing retail companies on the list, and other companies on the list including 3M, Amazon, apple, Ge, Google and so on.

For UNIQLO, innovation, technology and cost effectiveness are the means to attract young people. This is also the reason why it can not be fashionable, but it is also more popular than H&M and Zara.

But with the slow pace of technology and product innovation, another problem, which is not stimulated by new consumer demand, is the saturation of the market.

In the past year, UNIQLO has not been able to offer surprises to consumers and new products that are enough to detonate the market.

And there is a lag in product innovation. The style and design of the product are almost the same each year. Last year, the sales growth of UNIQLO in Japan was the slowest growth in 4 years.

In the fiercely competitive environment, brand differentiation is created. The more important is innovation, technology and cost performance.

Nowadays, driven by the Internet, the fashion business platform is bringing more challenges to the traditional fast fashion industry, which immediately responds to consumer demand and constantly creates freshness.

Whether they are developing new products or developing new users and channels, these leading companies are eagerly and dazed for the next growth engine.

"Eating old books" is always dangerous. Innovation is the most powerful weapon at all times to boost growth.

If the window period of UNIQLO is too long, the chain reaction to the bad thing is likely to be faster than expected, and the brand may enter the recession in advance.

More interesting reports, please pay attention to the world clothing shoes and hats net.