Uniqlo sales fall in June but underlying picture is strong

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 4, 2022

Fast Retailing’s Uniqlo sales in its domestic Japanese market went into reverse again during June. The reversal came after two good months in which the company had managed strong sales performances following a series of disappointing monthly reports stretching back to last year.

This time, the company said that “same-store sales declined sharply year on year in June as our decision to bring the start of the Uniqlo anniversary sale forward from June to May reduced the length of the anniversary sale period in June by eight days compared to the previous year”.

And the underlying performance isn't necessarily as bad as it looks on the surface. When the effect of the anniversary sale is stripped out, “same-store sales were also strong in June”.

The retailer also said that “if we look at a combined sales total for May and June, same-store sales rose year on year and trended favourably”.

At least that underlying performance demonstrates that the company's products are still in demand post-pandemic, despite the many challenges shoppers are facing at present.

And there was some other encouraging news in that while customer numbers were lower than those across the year as a whole, the average purchase per customer was higher during June.