Fast fashion brands have suffered a blow due to the epidemic. Previously, Inditex Group closed its inactive stores due to poor performance. Uniqlo, however, announced price cuts across its entire line of products in Japan during its performance recovery period.
1 Uniqlo Japan cuts prices across the board?
On March 4, Fast Retailing Group announced that starting from March 12, all products of Japan’s Uniqlo will be sold at pre-tax prices. The new selling price is about 30% higher than before. 9% discount. Caijing.com Life asked Uniqlo store employees accordingly, and the other party said they were not aware of the price reduction by Uniqlo Japan. It was also added that currently only the products for the 3.8 Women’s Day event have price adjustments, and other products are at normal prices. At the same time, Uniqlo China officials also publicly stated that there are no plans to reduce prices in regions other than Japan. As of Thursday’s close, Fast Retailing Group’s share price fell 5.45% to 99,200 yen.
Unlike the price cuts and fire sales when many fast fashion brands sadly exited the market, Uniqlo has maintained a strong growth momentum since August last year. According to Fast Retailing Group’s first quarter fiscal year 2021 (within the three months ended November 30, 2020) financial report, Uniqlo’s sales in Japan, which accounted for nearly half of the group’s total revenue, increased by 8.9% to 253.8 billion yen. Its revenue in January and February this year also increased by 1.8% and 1.3% respectively due to strong sales of home products and spring coats. In addition, the company’s recent financial report shows that performance in mainland China is on an upward trend. According to Caijing.com Life, the number of Uniqlo stores in China reached 767 at the end of August last year, and it plans to expand 100 stores in the Chinese market.
Uniqlo, nicknamed the “coders’ favorite”, is famous for its commuting models that are highly adaptable to the public, but it also frequently relies on cooperation with leading designers in the fashion industry. , adding artistic tone to the brand. For example, since 2016, Uniqlo and Hermès have launched a joint U series. Because of its “low-key fashion”, it has become one of the brand’s most popular series.
But the +J series that Uniqlo collaborated with Jil Sander is not so lucky. Recently, criticism about its cheap materials has spread on social platforms. Caijing.com Life found netizens complaining on the Hupu forum, “There is a design idea for the shirt, but the fabric is too cheap. Although it is thin, it has no drape.”, “The coat looks fine hanging, but I can’t tell what’s wrong with it. , in short, it doesn’t have the crisp feeling that a coat should have.” Caijing.com Life learned from the washable label of the +J series that the materials used in the +J series are generally polyester fiber and cotton, which is not much different from Uniqlo’s daily series. But the price is indeed 2-3 times higher.
However, some netizens said not to have too high demands on the +J series. After all, Jil Sander’s own brand suits are generally priced at 10,000-20,000 yuan, but after co-branding with Uniqlo, the price is only One-tenth the price of the original brand.
Considering that there have been complaints in the industry about the clothing samples and actual products taken by ZARA’s top photography team, which are “not accurate”. How to reduce the contrast between “buyer show” and “seller show” may be an urgent task for fast fashion brands to solve.
2 Will Uniqlo China also cut prices?
We have seen Uniqlo’s current adjustments in the entire market. In fact, as a Chinese, what we are most concerned about must be what the price of Uniqlo in China is, and whether it will be Like Japan, there will be a massive price drop in China.
First of all, for a multinational enterprise, its core pricing strategy is the price discrimination strategy. What is the price discrimination strategy? In economics, there are three levels of price discrimination. The simplest What is more important is to set prices based on different people’s opinions and the characteristics of different consumers. Of course, this pricing method is actually not appropriate. After all, as a chain sales company, such pricing will lead to a serious price system. Chaos is not conducive to business management, but generally the pricing model adopted by companies is regional differential pricing. Different prices are used for different countries to reflect their own profits. Therefore, under such circumstances, price adjustments in Japan have a negative impact on China. At least it is not necessarily completely consistent, so for Uniqlo, whether it wants to reduce prices in China, at least it does not have to completely follow Japan.
Secondly, let’s look at Uniqlo. Uniqlo itself is actually a highly competitive company in the market. Originally, Uniqlo’s boss Manager Yanai Tadashi has always believed that UNIQLO’s strategy does not adopt Japan’s more old-fashioned lifelong employment system, but adopts a strong law of the jungle market competition method. Therefore, under this market competition logic, UNIQLO in Japan Price reduction is not necessarily the case in China. After all, Uniqlo, a Chinese company, also has to consider competing with the Japanese market. Within the same system, the leaders of Uniqlo in mainland China also have to consider how to make more profits, so Following the price reduction at this time is not necessarily a better choice. </p
