Guochao Fast Fashion Brands Should Find A Gap From Uniqlo

The public impression of Uniqlo is that it is cost-effective, basic and error free.

In the list of Tmall's Double 11 over the years, Uniqlo has been able to play in almost all directions: men's and women's clothing have popular products such as fleece and flannel, thermal underwear is the top selling brand, and children's clothing is often the top selling brand.

Interestingly, Uniqlo did not perform well in the pre-sale stage. According to Yibang's data, from October 20, 2021 to October 31, 2021, Uniqlo ranked only the third in the men's category and the eighth in the women's category. In the pre-sale of Tmall's "Double 11" in 2020, Uniqlo ranked eighth and fourth on the list of women's and men's clothing.

Even looking at the double 11 pre-sale list, people will feel that Uniqlo is going to fall off the altar, but in the payment process of the final payment of double 11, Uniqlo still tops the list.

On November 1, 2021, when the first batch of final payment starts to be settled on the Double 11, Uniqlo's sales in women's clothing category will exceed 200 million yuan, ranking second only to the fashion brand collection store ITIB. It ranked first on the men's clothing list, with sales of more than 200 million yuan, 60 million yuan higher than the second place Taipingbird men's clothing.

Uniqlo took the first place in the top brand list of Double 11.

On November 11, 2020, the official flagship store of Uniqlo Tmall will be the first in the category of men's wear, women's wear and accessories, and the second in the category of children's wear. At the same time, it won the championship of women's wear brand list and men's wear brand list.

Uniqlo still has a good chance to win the clothing crown in 2022

What is related to the list is that in the past three years of repeated outbreaks, Uniqlo has also handed over its report card to achieve new successes.

In fiscal year 2022, Uniqlo's overall sales increased by nearly 9% year-on-year to JPY1.93 trillion. Among them, the sales of Uniqlo in Japan fell by 3.8% to 810.2 billion yen, while the sales of Uniqlo overseas increased by 20.3% to 1.11 trillion yen.

Although global inflation has led to a sharp increase in transportation and operating costs, Uniqlo overseas has not been greatly affected, and its operating profit in the 2022 fiscal year increased by 42.4% to 158.3 billion yen.

In Uniqlo, we can see the growth process of a world-class brand, as well as the growth miracle of "anti economic cycle". More importantly, Liujing's understanding of clothing, enterprises and business reveals many anti common sense. If a super brand is a mirror, then people in the business world can see their weaknesses from it.

During the Double 11, Ebon specially planned a series of studies on "Super Product Insight", and selected high-quality consumer brands in many categories of tracks around the world. These brands, as active flag bearers, show a sense of category smell, user empathy, product belief, brand and digital understanding in business practices, which have significant benchmarking significance regardless of praise or criticism, and are of great reference value to China's current and future consumer industries and enterprises.

　　1、 Anti cyclical products Instead, it becomes the largest common divisor of user demand

"The performance has reached a new high." Uniqlo seems to be familiar with this description.

During the three years of repeated outbreaks, many consumers chose to tighten their wallets. Uniqlo's new product launch, overwhelming publicity and evaluation of major bloggers seem unaffected.

Whether it is a basic model for any age, or the fleece and HEATTECH series, which are the main technology fabrics, they seem to have the property of "anti economic cycle".

Every enterprise born in the economic downturn has its own way to survive the winter. For Uniqlo, this life-saving skill is a basic high-quality product.

Uniqlo was born in 1984, catching up with the tail of Japan's economic growth, and then head-on hit the 20 years after Japan's property bubble burst.

At that time, Japanese society experienced a century of great changes in consumption from scratch, from less to more, and from more to less. According to the description of the Fourth Consumption Age by Japanese writer Miura Zhan, it can be divided into four stages:

The first consumption era (1912-1944): the embryonic form of westernized commercial society;

The second consumption era (1945-1973): mass consumption based on families;

The third consumption era (1974-1995): individual consumption;

The fourth consumption era (after 1996): the simplicity of "returning to the original" is rising.

In the 1980s, when Uniqlo was born, Japan's economy was undergoing a shift in growth from the "golden age" of high-speed growth to the stage of low-speed development.

In 1970, Japan's GDP surpassed that of West Germany and ranked third, second only to the United States and the Soviet Union. Its economy was in line with the average annual growth rate of 15.53% (1945-1973). When the oil crisis broke out in 1973, the overall growth rate of Japan's economy slowed down and became negative the next year. From 1974 to 1995, the compound annual growth rate of Japan's GDP was 6.59%.

In the 1990s, when Uniqlo really made great efforts to grow, Japan's real estate bubble burst in 1990, followed by the Asian financial storm in 1997. The economy fell into a long-term stagnation or even recession, and began to enter the "lost 20 years".

At this time, the consumption habits of Japanese society also changed from personalized consumption and conspicuous consumption to rational consumption.

Young people in the third consumption era, just after the last generation of families completed their migration from rural to urban areas, were mostly born in cities and grew up in the golden age of Japanese economy (Japan surpassed West Germany to become the third largest economy in the late 1960s, and the Soviet Union to become the second largest economy in the late 1980s).

They like personalized products and high-end brands - living in Japan, enjoying the material life of Western countries, having more expensive consumer goods than others, and enjoying the accompanying satisfaction - the Japanese luxury market reached 97.8 billion dollars in 1995, accounting for 68% of the global market share.

In the 1990s, the bubble burst, the income of Japanese residents grew to zero, the birth rate gradually declined, the aging was increasingly serious, the unemployment rate of young people rose, and the internal differentiation of the middle class was obvious. After experiencing the extreme prosperity of materials, consumers began to realize that it was worthless to compare, and instead pursued simplicity, simplicity, and quality. Consumption showed socialization, localization Simplification, rationalization, environmental protection and other trends.

Uniqlo, which downplays the brand and emphasizes high cost performance ratio, is born at the right time.

In Yanai's understanding, Uniqlo is adapting to a strong social change. Consumers' clothing focuses on comfort, quality and cost performance instead of being beautiful and emphasizing social status.

Uniqlo, which was born in the suburbs of a small city, deliberately does not target the age and gender of consumers in order to survive. With "Noage Unisex" as the goal, Uniqlo specializes in making basic models that have a wide audience and will not go out of style, and has a firm foothold in small business circles with advantageous low prices.

For example, a simple solid color short sleeved T-shirt, Uniqlo provides a crew neck, V-neck, men's, women's, children's and other sub products, and each style has a variety of colors. In addition to standard sizes, Uniqlo also provides 11 infant sizes, 7 special sizes, covering all body types. At the same time, cooperate with marketing, complete the image display of multiple product combinations by shooting different life scenes, and print the brand with a versatile label.

Uniqlo, which is cheap, versatile and free from thunder, has begun to rise in Japan.

Yanai believes that fashion trends will change over time, but as long as people continue to pay attention to the actual needs of daily life and provide functional products, Uniqlo can cope with fashion trends no matter how they change.

In the consumer survey and interview of Ebon Power, it was found that "not stepping on thunder" and "cheap price" repeatedly appeared in the narration of Uniqlo users. In their view, Uniqlo catered to the consumption habits of contemporary people very well. Ordinary people would not have a burden to buy, and the rich would not feel a drop in their clothing. "The functional design is very good, the appearance is simple, and the cost performance ratio is high. It is basically suitable for all ages and occupational groups."

The typical purchase decision of regular customers of Uniqlo in China is, "I bought hundreds of items, not only for myself, but also for my family and friends, and kept buying again." At the same time, visiting Uniqlo when I have something to do and nothing to do is also a pastime for such people, "Go shopping when you have a discount, after going to the shopping mall to have a meal, people with sports style, fashion brand style and OL style can go shopping at Uniqlo together."

It is said that in the investment banking circle, there are also a group of efficiency seeking consumers who buy a stack of Uniqlo bottoms and socks, enough to wear for half a year.

On the basis of being suitable for both young and old, Uniqlo continues to introduce men's and women's pieces. For example, Lemaire, the former creative director of Hermes, has created the autumn and winter 2022 U series, and various pieces have given different matching methods for men and women.

It can be seen that these clothes have the most intuitive characteristics: simple design that conforms to human body lines, comfortable fabrics and comfortable colors.

Uniqlo has taken a step further on the road of low price, quality and basic models from basic models that are not limited to age to fashionable flat replacement models that are gender neutral.

It is precisely because the products fit the greatest common divisor of demand that Uniqlo not only has a high ceiling, but also has the property of "anti economic cycle".

　　2 "We don't have a factory, but our will is clear To every link in the production process "

No matter where you are, the market of basic models with high performance price ratio has already taken on a new height - you can see from the wholesale market that the current situation of basic models is that the styles are highly similar, the prices are pressed again and again, and the SKUs are huge.

Based on basic models and cost performance, Uniqlo, which has become bigger and stronger, should be a competitor of Sijiqing in the suburban wholesale market, not a competitor of Zara and H&M.

Another killer of Uniqlo is to make the basic model into a classic model.

For this reason, as early as the 1990s, Liujing made two preparations on management mode and product research and development.

In 1998, Liujing was seeing the homogenization and low quality of basic models. Yanai is thinking that "if Uniqlo just happens to sell because it is cheap, then Uniqlo has no future." Therefore, Uniqlo began to change its fate against the weather.

At the beginning of the business, Uniqlo was still a dealer that rose through self-service shopping and low-cost goods. What Liujing wanted was for Uniqlo to have its own brand, design and production factory.

How to transform from a dealer to a brand?

Yanai's idea is: first, place orders for customized products to all manufacturers. That is, a piece of clothing, from style design to material selection, to production quantity, to price setting, is formulated by Uniqlo, so that the manufacturer can become a pure processing factory.

Second, it is transformed into the SPA (Special retailer of Private label Apparel) mode, that is, the operation mode of private brand professional retailers. This model was proposed by the American clothing enterprise GAP, and then applied and promoted by Uniqlo. It is a vertically integrated sales form integrating commodity planning, manufacturing and retail, strengthening the advantages of cost-effective products.

Third, ABC reform, that is, "All, Better, Change". Including: improving production concentration, reducing the original 140 factories to 40, and then increasing the production of each factory to improve product quality; Uniqlo is directly responsible for production, planning and sales; Reduce the variety of commodities in each season, reducing the original 400 varieties to less than 200; Timely feedback data, including sales data of stores and production data of factories.

The requirement of ABC reform is not technological innovation, but to keep improving and concentrate superior resources on superior products.

What are advantageous products? It's basic+high-tech.

Uniqlo has devoted great enthusiasm and persistence to commodity development, and one of its dependencies is Japan's high-level fiber technology.

For example, the "Next Generation Raw Material Development Project" of Uniqlo and Toray Group attaches great importance to the needs of daily life, and strives to develop "goods that should be available but not available", such as white impermeable fabrics and UV resistant fabrics. The project team will follow up 30~40 topics at the same time, and only 10% of them can achieve mass production.

The heat technology of HEATTECH warm underwear, the lightness and portability of Ultra Light Down down jacket, the quick drying and smooth fabric of AIRism underwear technology, the versatile KANDO PANTS pants, and the quick drying technology fabric of Dry EX are the most proud and high-tech series of Uniqlo, and also the main achievements of Uniqlo's 15 year cooperation with Toray.

Liu Jing said early that compared with those brands that are popular, Uniqlo is good at using innovative technology, combining design and quality, to make every garment durable and popular. He has declared more than once: "Uniqlo is not a clothing company, but a technology company. Our competitor is Apple, not GAP."

In production, Uniqlo adopts outsourcing, but has formulated strict production management regulations and insists on integrated production.

Koichi Koizumi, who was once the executive director of Fast Retailing and the head of the production department, said: "We don't have a factory, but our will can be clearly transmitted to every link in the manufacturing process.". The key is to let the other party (partner factory) understand our concept. Compared with European and American enterprises, we have more requirements, so our cooperation conditions are also very strict. Because of this, we must become the most favorable customer for each other. There are factories that only manufacture products for Uniqlo, but we will try our best to control the product share of Uniqlo below 50% of the total production of the factory.

In principle, Uniqlo does not terminate cooperation with partner factories, and the total number of factories has not increased or decreased, but about 20% will be updated every 5-10 years. When selecting a new factory, "the scale that can complete large orders" is naturally one of the necessary conditions, and the new factory must meet Uniqlo's commodity manufacturing standards before signing a contract with Uniqlo.

In other words, it is the strongest idea of Uniqlo in this industry to desperately develop and sell those carefully selected and refined products.

It is also because of the large population base of basic models and the quality * * * of technology addition that Uniqlo has "lost 20 years" in Japanese enterprises, achieving 160 times growth, 1500 times growth in operating profit, and becoming the first clothing chain in Japan.

　　3 500 SKUs, deep inventory It's extreme confidence in the product

On the premise that the basic money can keep its life, Uniqlo still needs to rely on the popular money to break through.

After the sense of technology, Uniqlo frequently cooperates with classic IP, fashion brand and luxury designers to launch co branded products. "Fashion" has become another key word of Uniqlo.

Uniqlo, which considers itself as a "technology company", has started to cooperate with Jil Sander, Takahashi Dun and other designers in its early years.

For example, UNIQLO U, which continues to be released this year, is known as an "upgraded basic model", and comes from Lemaire, the former creative director of Hermes.

Compared with Jil Sander's+J series, UNIQLO U is more popular, trying to eliminate the gap between high-end ready to wear and ordinary clothing.

UT series cooperates with Nintendo, Jump Weekly, CAPCOM, Blizzard, Disney and other companies' game and animation IP.

Street art is also considered by Uniqlo and is regarded as an opportunity to "convey cool to young people". Uniqlo x KAWS co branded limited t-shirts and tote bags once triggered a "fighting frenzy", and e-commerce websites sold out within three seconds of opening.

Here, we can see Uniqlo's product strategy. In short, it is surprising to be honest.

First of all, Uniqlo has a design concept that constantly blurs industry, age and even gender, which runs counter to the popular brand concept.

Speaking of marketing strategy, first of all, we should clarify our STP - segmentation, targeting and positioning. In the process of market segmentation, select the target market, and finally decide how to distinguish from competitors, thus establishing competitive advantage.

These strategies come from the intense market competition. However, in the mature Japanese market with excessive consumption, Uniqlo not only failed to lock in the market, target groups and positioning, but also seemed to negate "marketing for commodity differentiation".

Just as Blumio, a German Japanese rapper, sings in a single called UNIQLO: "My T-shirt is Prada, my shoes are Gucci, my coat is Givenchy, but 'bottoming' is always UNIQLO", which truly describes the attitude of many middle class and above towards UNIQLO.

Secondly, Uniqlo has implemented the business strategy of "less varieties, more inventory", and every kind of commodity is crucial.

The number of new products launched by Uniqlo in each quarter is less than 500, and compared with other private brand clothing enterprises (ZARA, H&M), the number of products launched by Uniqlo is less than one tenth of that of competitors.

Moreover, the R&D investment is large. "Our price is very affordable, but our process is very luxurious." Wu Pinhui, the CMO of Uniqlo Greater China, said that many of Uniqlo's products have evolved from the original products, and the production cycle is about 12 months, including market demand research, commodity planning, design to production. In a sense, Uniqlo is not cheap. The "Machine Washable Sweaters" sold in 2008 took two years from project establishment to completion.

Third, on the basis of integrity, Uniqlo has repeatedly won by surprise by co branding the UT series.

Young people who are addicted to the second dimension can do everything possible to get a Manway UT from Japanese agents, and girls who love fashion will rush to buy the fleece jacket of Lemaire, the former creative director of Hermes.

The "fashion" of the rich, such as Lemaire, Takashi Murakami and KAWS, is appearing in Uniqlo as a "luxury replacement" and "cheap and easy to use".

Uniqlo's low-key, high-tech and fashionable style makes it possible for Uniqlo to break through the circle - you can wear it for 5000 yuan a month, and you can wear it for 50000 yuan a month.

　　4 Will Uniqlo fall out of favor in China?

Although the financial report is gratifying, Uniqlo faces many impacts.

For example, on the Double 11 in 2021, although Uniqlo held the first place in the TOP brand list, it only held the first place in the sales list of all categories of Tmall clothing, and women's clothing was overtaken by ITIB and dropped to the second place; Underwear ranks third behind domestic emerging brands Ubras and Jiaonei.

Of course, Uniqlo faces more than these impacts.

The first is the rise of state-owned brands.

This year, the first wave of pre-sales on the Double 11. In the underwear/home clothes category, Jiaonei surpassed Ubras to top the list, and Uniqlo ranked third; In the two categories of women's wear and men's wear, Uniqlo overtook Bosden to take the first place in the two categories of men's wear and women's wear, but its sales declined compared with the same period last year.

In addition, these domestic brands have also started to attack offline. For example, at home and abroad, they have opened nearly 100 stores in 23 first tier and second tier provincial capitals nationwide; Ubras currently has about 10 stores; Jiaonei opened its first store in Shenzhen at the end of 2020, and the Shanghai store was officially opened on September 26, 2021.

"Cheap basic goods are the most indispensable type in the domestic supply chain environment," said some garment practitioners.

Second, the brand is aging and short of popular products.

Uniqlo was the first joint venture. Although these co branded products still take Uniqlo's style as the keynote, they let consumers touch the big brand design and taste the "taste" of luxury goods. It can be said that co branded clothing indirectly meets the young people's desire for luxury goods.

But at present, the once popular UT series seems to have no such big "movement" as before.

In co branding, the choice of IP is crucial. Different from the designer co branded clothes that have sold well before, the recently promoted co branded series of Uniqlo are mostly Manway, Cherry Ballet, Little Yellow Man, linefriends and other IPs. Although they are co branded, their routes are different.

A professional pointed out that "designer co branded products tend to be more customized and scarce, while cartoon, animation, film and television have a relatively poor sense of scarcity and limitation."

And the co branding method has also been learned by other garment enterprises.

Third, quietly increase prices.

When you go to the Uniqlo store, you can find clothes under 300 yuan everywhere in the store. Now, if you grab any one, the price is 599. A coat costs 699 yuan, which is really not in line with Uniqlo's public perception of "59 T-shirts, 99 shirts, 129 casual pants, 299 down jackets".

As early as 2020, the topic of # Uniqlo quietly increasing prices # has been on Weibo hot search.

In response, Uniqlo said, "The price of goods did not rise, but increased the proportion of high-end products."

In 2021, Uniqlo also experienced the differential treatment of price reduction in Japan and no price reduction overseas.

Fast Retailing Group explained that "due to the epidemic, many customers are experiencing unprecedented difficulties... Therefore, the company decided to continue to sell products at affordable prices".

　　5 "Godfather" plot: Only Yanai can define Uniqlo in different periods

Although the competition is intensifying, this does not prevent Yanai from becoming the richest man in Japan again.

In September 2022, Forbes Japan Rich List was released, and Yanai and his family topped the list of Japan's richest people with a wealth of US $23.6 billion. Behind this is the 2022 financial report of Xunsang Group. The data shows that its revenue and net profit have achieved a significant growth, with the net profit attributable to the parent company increasing by 61%, and its performance has hit a new high in recent years.

Returning to Uniqlo for development, Yanai is the unquestionable soul.

Since the establishment of Uniqlo, Liujing has transformed from the ancestral men's suit category to the leisure category. The logic of product development in the economic downturn is to do "necessities". Life necessities have the attribute of "anti economic cycle".

To compete in the extremely mature Japanese market, Yanai believes that consumers should be given a reason to be cheap, that is, to increase the reasons for buying products on the basis of being cheap.

Liujing doesn't think that the commodities themselves are very attractive. He thinks that the key to decide to buy is the image of the commodities or the value of various information. "Constantly sending information to the outside actively" is the key point of clothing retail enterprises in the future. So in Liujing's eyes, "clothing is information".

What are the reasons for buying clothes? Liujing Zheng believes that the information expressed through "clothing" is "sense of the times", "social needs", "lifestyle", "essential needs of life", "trend", "fashion", "wearing feeling", "collocation", "style", "design", "material", "function" and "comfort". In this way, we can find the reason why people need this product, that is, the discovery of new value of the product.

Once the thinking of "sending information" is added (instead of focusing only on fashion), Uniqlo has the possibility to reorganize the clothing enterprise and create a completely different classification from the past.

In the process of Uniqlo's development, Liujing is jumping out of the traditional framework of manufacturing, clothing and retail, and defining Uniqlo as a technology enterprise. Its competitors are technology companies such as Apple, rather than clothing companies such as GAP and Zara.

Yanai believes that Apple has not been constrained by the order of the music industry and mobile phone industry in the past. They have developed iPods and iPhones, and created a series of new markets and industries such as online music sales and smart phones. Uniqlo is also not restricted by the past clothing tradition, but has been creating new markets.

At the same time, Liujing believes that the physical retail industry will not die. He believes that even though e-commerce channels can enable brands to obtain more information about consumers, it is impossible to know the true reaction of consumers when they see products, which is very important for brand development.

After the outbreak of COVID-19, UNIQLO still insisted on opening three large new concept stores in Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan. Among them, the Yokohama store has an overall retail area of 4000 square meters, and the two new stores in Tokyo mainly focus on the omni channel concept of online and offline linkage, and have opened up exclusive retail space for the clothing and clothing APP StyleHint launched by Fast Retailing Group.

Through StyleHint APP, consumers can upload their favorite combinations and search for similar models in Uniqlo and GU brands. The new concept store will be further promoted in Japan in the future to awaken the younger generation's fresh feeling of Uniqlo.

In 2022, Uniqlo will open the first "compound tomorrow life hall" in Sanlitun, where there will be an "immersive science and technology art exhibition" featuring specially planned goods for Chinese consumers, Uniqlo's flagship black technology goods, and clothing design, the first vitality flower shop in mainland China, and the first UTme in Beijing! At the same time, UT World Cultural and Creative "Museum" landed in Beijing, and held the first exhibition of "endless" large-scale manual Miao embroidery stores with Tsinghua students.

"Although the epidemic seems to divide countries, I think we can communicate with each other through clothing." Yanai explained, "I hope you can understand that Uniqlo is such an enterprise, which is not only a pure technological innovation, because clothing is not only an industrial product, it is emotional, can show emotion and green environmental protection, can not rely on technology alone, it needs art and culture. Our 'Art&Science' and 'Made For All' ’It is a good dress with new value for everyone. This is our philosophy and goal, and we have been working in this direction. "