MUJI The World'S Largest Store Opened, Revealed What Major Changes

Japanese lifestyle brand Muji (Muji) opened on July 20, the largest retail store in the world. The store is not located in the first tier cities, but in Niigata Prefecture, outside the three metropolitan areas of Japan. The store is located on the second floor of Elmar, zhijiangjin shopping center, named "MUJI zhijiangjin" (hereinafter referred to as "zhijiangjin store").

In 4935 square meters of retail space, there are many refreshing innovations, which reveal the important strategic change of Muji.

Emphasis on localization

Behind the opening of the store in zhijiangjin is the tripartite cooperation between Shangyue City, the operator of the shopping center, Jingcheng automobile, and the liangpin project. It is intended to take Elmar as the center and carry out all-round regional innovation and transformation.

Focusing on the concept of "taking regional life as the center", the theme of this store is to convey the charm of Shangyue to the outside world. This is the third Muji store focusing on "local connection". The first two stores were "AON mall" in Osaka after its expansion in 2018, and "Muji Kyoto Shanke" opened in Kyoto in 2019.

In order to highlight the "localization" feature, the store has opened up a community space: open Muji, which is free of daily rest and self-study space, sometimes used for holding regional activities, such as cooking classrooms. The prices of the delicacies sold in zhijiangjin stores are also determined according to the opinions of local residents. Most of them are between 500 and 800 yen, and there is no food of more than 1000 yen.

The mermaid pattern painted on the wall of Starbucks coffee in the shop comes from the representative work "red candle and Mermaid" by Xiaochuan, a well-known local children's writer.

Mobile vending cart

In addition, Muji to go, the Muji to go service, the first mobile car sales service in Muji, has been launched in cooperation with local bus companies. The Muji to go service was put into trial operation in August this year. The vehicles used are small cars which are not rented out by Jingcheng automobile, and will shuttle back and forth in the local mountainous areas and remote areas. Although Muji official has not announced the specific sales of goods, but it is estimated that the main products will be daily necessities, vacuum packaged food and other necessities.

In fact, Muji used a light truck to provide mobile sales service in Jiutian City, Shanxing County in June this year, but this is the first time that the vehicle is used.

Massive books

The store has the world's first books & Caf è jointly built by Muji books and Starbucks coffee. The store's books & Caf è is also Muji's largest bookstore in the world, with 35000 books in total.

Massive choice of goods and services

As Muji stores with the largest retail area in the world, MUJI zhijiangjin has 7000 SKUs (almost all commodities). In addition to the conventional products of Muji brand, it also introduces outdoor brand goods, and specially develops Muji camp tools Space, from the perspective of Muji, shows the different ways of using these goods indoors and outdoors.

The store also has the first showroom in Japan: Muji infill + consulting service, and special sales personnel provide answers to relevant questions such as "storage", "interior matching", "space to meet the needs of life".

Strengthen "delicious food" and direct marketing in an all-round way

Niigata Prefecture is the agricultural food production area of Quzhi in Japan, and is the famous "Yueguang" brand rice production area.

MUJI zhijiangjin store pays special attention to the "food" section, such as the cooperative enterprise jiushifu store, the food space created by Kaldi coffee farm, and the food shop produced by local agricultural products and specialty retailer naoetsu liangpin market.

There are 160 seats in the "naoetsu gourmet dining hall", which provides curries, ramen, set meal, Italian ice cream and other salty dishes for young and old. Naoetsu fine products market is responsible for providing seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables. In addition, it also provides more than 100 kinds of rice, fermented food, processed food, wine and other commodities produced in Shangyue.

Kouchi Shinto, a community manager of MUJI zhijiangjin, points out that the reason why he cooperates with many food suppliers is that "even the loyal fans of Muji usually enter the store once every two weeks. It is hoped that through the introduction of specialized food shops, people will be stimulated to enter the stores more frequently. "

MUJI Kyoto Shanke store, except Curry Shop, is for rent. All food businesses of zhijiangjin store are directly operated. Of course, local food shops provide some menu development consulting services, and some local food suppliers, such as jingchengniu, provide food ingredients.

The move is also in line with the current strategy of the Ryoko project. Matsuzaki, President of the company, said in an interview with Japanese media that he hoped the food business could contribute 30% of the company's sales by 2030.

In 2018, "MUJI Aoen mall" opened, with a floor area of 4300 square meters, which is five times that of ordinary stores, and nearly half of the space is used to sell food. Matsuzaki revealed that the store's food business can contribute up to 20% of its monthly sales.