Japan’s Fast Retailing Group, the parent company of UNIQLO, recently announced that the price of its entire line of UNIQLO products will be reduced by about 9% in Japan starting from the 12th of this month. However, this price reduction does not involve all overseas markets, including China.
This is a large Uniqlo store in Ikebukuro, one of Tokyo’s main business districts, although Tokyo is still in a state of emergency for epidemic prevention Under, but the number of customers coming in and out of the store this weekend was impressive. In response to Uniqlo’s price reduction, many consumers think it is good news. Uniqlo’s regular customer base even said that the 9% price reduction is very attractive and may increase their purchases in the future.
This price reduction should be said to have increased Uniqlo’s favorability among Japanese consumers, but outside the Japanese market, the situation may be different. Since this price reduction does not include all overseas markets including China, some skeptical voices believe that Uniqlo’s move is unfair to overseas markets.
The Chinese market is the overseas market that contributes the most to Uniqlo’s performance. It is expected that the sales in the Chinese market in fiscal year 2021 will be It accounts for about half of Uniqlo’s overall overseas market. As of the end of February this year, 900 of Uniqlo’s nearly 1,500 overseas stores were located in the Chinese market. This number has exceeded the total number of 807 stores in Japan. As for whether the pricing strategy in overseas markets will change in the future, the reporter tried to contact Japan’s Uniqlo yesterday, but has not yet received a reply from the other party.
According to the information released on its official website, the reason for the price reduction given by Uniqlo is that Japanese law stipulates that from April this year Initially, the price listed on the product must be a tax-inclusive price that includes consumption tax. Uniqlo plans to directly change the current tax-exclusive price to a tax-included price, which means that for products also marked as 1,000 yen, the actual payment amount of consumers will change from 1,100 yen to 1,000 yen, resulting in 9 % price reduction. However, some Japanese media interpreted that Uniqlo did not choose to change the number of the marked price, but directly reduced the price in disguise, with the purpose of increasing the purchasing desire of Japanese consumers.
With the protracted epidemic, working from home has become more popular, and UNIQLO products with comfortable wearing as a selling point are popular in Japan and China Sales in the market have been particularly strong. As of February this year, sales at Uniqlo’s Japanese stores have maintained growth for nine consecutive months. Financial report expectations also show that UNIQLO’s sales in the Chinese market are expected to continue to grow significantly this year. Thanks to its hot sales in domestic and foreign markets, UNIQLO’s parent company, Fast Retailing Group, became the world’s largest clothing group by market value at the beginning of this year. While gaining huge benefits from overseas markets, Uniqlo should obviously also think about how to balance the pricing ideas of the Japanese domestic market and overseas markets. </p
