Fashion forward Uniqlo – Lessons for the Middle Eastern Fashion Retailers

Published on The 2021 MECS+R Directory, 29th April 2021

By Ritesh Mohan, Author of Simplifying Retail, Founder & Influencer, www.RetailRitesh.com

Fast retailing’s, Japanese brand Uniqlo became the most valuable fashion retailer last month.

While penning down this article, Fast Retailing’s market capitalization stands at $105.6 billion, edging out Inditex’ s $98.2 billion. This news caught my immediate attention as I am a great follower of Uniqlo & did a shopping haul when I visited their stores in Singapore and Thailand. Let’s try to understand what makes Uniqlo brand offerings so unique & lessons that can be adopted by the Middle Eastern retailers.

The company has almost 2,300 Uniqlo stores globally and Asia accounts for 60 per cent of them including Japan and China. In 2019, the brand has also entered India with their flagship store in New Delhi.

Uniqlo is a fast fashion brand – A Myth. Most of the people have this misconception that the business model of Uniqlo is similar to that of fast fashion brands like Zara, nasty girl, forever21, H&M etc.

Having worked with forever21 & being a passionate retailer, I can confidently say Uniqlo business model is different to fast fashion retailers.

Uniqlo does not believe in “disposable fashion”. For Uniqlo, making a quality garment with quality fabric is of utmost importance, good product that would fit many different types of people.

Staying true to its positioning. They have found their niche (mojo) in producing – the ultimate everyday clothes. People shop there to find great essential pieces as well as a fine selection of minimalist clothing. It is a go to showroom for cheap techwear clothing.

Believing in sustainability way before than western brands. Uniqlo offers far fewer designs than its competitors. This model makes them more sustainable. See the below infographic for the comparison of styles.

As consumers become more aware about “Sustainability”, Uniqlo would have already established their first mover advantage in this arena.

Producing less also makes it possible to create timeless garments that are made to last, which is the core purpose of the brand.

Vision translated to Merchandise Mix Uniqlo’s strength is in their tops especially T-shirts and woolen- cotton mixed Knitwear are of high quality and does not burn your pockets.

70% of the knits are made out of natural fabrics, compared to fast fashion retailers who use only 20% of natural fabrics for its knitwear. Overall, Uniqlo uses 30% of cotton in its collections and only 20% of polyester. For its fast-fashion competitors, polyester is usually the preferred material choice.

The main reason for their success is the founder Tadashi Yanai’s vision and belief to move beyond the primary mission to enrich people’s lives by providing truly great clothing to offer customers everywhere the world’s best stores, service and products.

Their Vision keeps them firm on the ground and pushes them to innovate new fabrics like “Heat Tech” which is unique offering exclusive to Uniqlo.

To end this article, it’s important to mention about Uniqlo’s, one of the biggest corporate social responsibility campaign i.e. their Recycling effort. For example, they have moved tens of millions of discarded Uniqlo clothing to needy people around the world.

They are indeed making a change to the world.

About the author

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 23 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion, and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. Author of the book “Simplifying Retail” and popularly known as #retailritesh. Check out www.retailritesh.com

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the publisher or its members.