Uniqlo to ramp up click & collect to boost e-sales, will roll out semi-bespoke

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 26, 2018

Uniqlo wants to boost its web sales and it plans to use its physical stores to achieve its goal, Chairman and CEO Tadashi Yanai said in an interview this week.

The retailer currently sources 9% of its sales online but wants to more than double this to 20% within the next two years, Yanai told Nikkei. "We are renewing our online shopping sites, their systems and distribution around the world," he said.

The company will also speed up its store openings outside of Japan with a focus on Asia as its seeks to gain an advantage over pureplay online rivals such as Amazon and Japan’s fashion-focused Zozotown.

Uniqlo currently sees annual online sales of ¥140 billion ($1.28 billion), which lags that of major rivals such as Inditex’s Zara, where online sales are more than 2.5 times those of Uniqlo.

Yanai also said international sales at Uniqlo will help drive overall turnover at parent company Fast Retailing past the ¥2 trillion mark for the first time in the year to August, with the company now operating almost 2,000 stores but in only 19 countries/regions. It will open 20 stores in Europe, 40 in Southeast Asia and 100 across Greater China in the short term.

Other plans to spur growth include rolling out its semi-bespoke offer (where “sales are brisk”) to markets outside of Japan. The service sees customers giving their measurements in-store or online for shirts and suits that are then made to fit the specific shopper.