Uniqlo Is On A Par With ZARA, H&M And GAP In Bankruptcy Of Banny Road And Giordano

In China, the performance of Japanese brands in recent years can be described as exhausted.

However, there are some exceptions, including Uniqlo. It entered China in 2002 Clothing brand , was once hit by leisure brands such as Banny Road and Giordano.

But now, it has become the fourth largest clothing brand in the world and the largest in Asia, comparable to ZARA, H&M, and GAP. However, Bennilou and Giordano are in the tide of closing their stores.

　　 [Japan's richest man selling clothes]

Clothing is one of the oldest industries in the world, and also one of the industries that produce the richest people.

Amancio Ortega, a Spaniard, became the richest man in the world by virtue of the ZARA brand; Steven Persson, a Swede, became the richest man in Sweden by H&M.

In recent years, the richest man in Japan has been two people in turn, one is Sun Zhengyi, the founder of Softbank Group, and the other is clothing giant and Uniqlo founder Yanai Zheng.

In 2009, when the 60 year old Yanai became the richest man in Japan for the first time, many people were surprised, not only because of his wealth of 6.1 billion dollars, but also because he was a clothes seller.

The most surprising thing is that this big man who has created a miracle in the clothing industry was an absolutely "decadent" young man who believed in non work more than 30 years ago in his college years. At that time, Liujing was wandering in cinemas and video game halls, thinking all day about "how to live without working", and regarded it as the most ideal state of life. Even the anti Japan US security agreement movement that arose on Japanese campuses at that time failed to infect him. Instead, he used this time to travel around the world. From the United States to Europe, from India to the Arabian Peninsula... After wandering around, Liujing found that most people in the world, regardless of nationality and race, are busy making a living every day. Finally, I draw a conclusion: it seems that I should also work. After graduating from Waseda University, Liu Jingzheng did not find a suitable job because he neglected his studies. Finally, forced to make a living, I had to go to my father's small clothing store to help. But he didn't like this job, so when he took over in 1972, he complained to his father that he was not suitable for retail! And he soon proved it with his actions. In his hands, this small clothing store with only six employees lost five people within six months. When there was only one person left and the business was difficult to sustain, Liu Jing, who once hated his work, began to turn around. More than a decade later, in 1984, Uniqlo's first store was born in Hiroshima. Taking this as a starting point, Uniqlo began to grow in a fission way. By 2017, the number of global stores had reached more than 2000, with an annual turnover of 1.86 trillion yen.

In the history of Japanese business, there has been a lack of world-class clothing empire, and Uniqlo is an exception. This homegrown brand has increased more than 200 times against the trend in the past 30 years since the Japanese economy lost, when people significantly reduced their clothing spending, and a large number of shopping malls and clothing stores declined or even closed down! Especially in recent years, when fast fashion brands such as ZARA and H&M encountered growth bottlenecks and had to close their stores frequently, Uniqlo has been "expanding", not only expanding its stores offline, but also winning the sales champion of the Double 11 in consecutive years online. What makes once "decadent" Yanai create a miracle?

　　 [Reduce SKU and make basic models]

With goals, we can focus on doing things. To do things well, we also need focus. Different from fast fashion brands such as ZARA and H&M, Uniqlo focuses on basic models and wins by popular products. The global sales volume of HEATTECH series alone has exceeded 1 billion, and it is known as the best clothing selling enterprise in Asia. What is the basic model? It is a versatile style that everyone can wear, such as T-shirt, jeans, underwear and shirt. Liu Jing has long observed that in the daily operation of clothing stores, basic models usually account for 30% of the total sales, and most consumers will mix and match the popular models and basic models in each season. Although popular models are eye-catching, they are mostly short-lived, while basic models are not only in great demand, but also often sold. In business, we should focus on the essence. In the eyes of Mr. Yanai, the essence is that the strongest products will drive everything. Uniqlo's strongest product is undoubtedly the basic model.

It is this different understanding of nature that makes Uniqlo different from ZARA, H&M genes. ZARA, H&M pay attention to the fashion and popular elements on the T platform, and move to Retail stores . Because it is impossible to predict the sales volume, this kind of copy is based on more money and less quantity. Uniqlo, on the other hand, pays more attention to the scientific and technological innovation of single products. It has the sales guarantee of basic products. It doesn't need to worry about too many styles and how much inventory should be kept, as long as it focuses on the perfection of single products.

In Yanai's view, clothes are parts of clothing, and how to combine them is the freedom of consumers. Uniqlo's task is to produce versatile parts. Whether you are Korean or European or American, Lolita or Bohemia, you can't do without me. For this reason, Uniqlo has significantly reduced SKU (the smallest available unit of inventory) and explored standardized categories as much as possible. As a result, Uniqlo's SKU is much lower than that of other enterprises.

From the perspective of style, UNIQLO only launches 1000 clothes every year, which is only 1/10 of ZARA and H&M, while the highest SKU of Vancl with UNIQLO as the learning benchmark is 90000.

With fewer SKUs, Uniqlo can meet all demands with only 70 factories. Compared with other clothing giants' suppliers with 1000 factories, Uniqlo has low inventory pressure and fewer opportunities to make mistakes.

　　 [Compete with technology to improve product quality]

Although the basic model is good, compared with the fashionable model, it is easy to collide with the clothes, and it is difficult to wear well, giving people a low-end feeling.

In this regard, Uniqlo's approach is to use technology to make affordable goods feel like luxury goods. Low price represents low quality and low style, which is almost an iron rule in the clothing industry and many other industries. Uniqlo in the early days was poorly managed because of this iron rule, but Yanai is finally subverting it. In order to improve the product quality, Uniqlo has made deep exploration in the limited basic models, and constantly made deep exploration in the details of color, fabric, process, etc., which not only ensures the sales volume of each single product, but also builds an insurmountable moat.

In terms of color and style, Uniqlo designs multiple colors and styles for each SKU, covering men, women, old and young.

The fabric is the most thoughtful and talked about by Uniqlo. Take the best-selling HEATTECH series with 1 billion pieces as an example, its biggest selling point is moisture removal and warmth preservation.

As early as 2003, Uniqlo cooperated with Japanese textile giant Toray to develop this high-tech microfiber, which is thinner, drier and more comfortable than ordinary fabrics, aiming at the biggest pain point of winter clothing: warmth preservation.

Since then, Uniqlo has continued to carry out micro innovation on this kind of fabric, which has added antibacterial, anti-static and other functions, and finally created a super popular product worldwide. Polar fleece is another big idea of Uniqlo. It was born 20 years ago and sold well in autumn and winter of 1998 in Japan because of its warmth, comfort and easy cleaning. Now it has become a widely used fabric. In addition to fabrics, Uniqlo is also known for its high standards of craftsmanship in the industry. In the clothing industry, the average defective rate is 2-3%, while Uniqlo requires factories to reduce the defective rate to 0.3%, even 0.5 mm thread ends are considered defective. Uniqlo redefined the value of clothes by introducing fabric technology, advanced technology, etc. into its products, so that consumers can have a better dressing experience and wear the halo of a technology company.

　　 [Nine mistakes lead to nine experiences]

Running an enterprise is a near death thing. In the growth history of Uniqlo, it has experienced numerous dangerous situations and suffered many losses, but each time Yanai is very calm, "the key is to try, it doesn't matter if you are wrong, nine times wrong, nine times experience."

　　 [Stable growth is a disease]

Liujing is a stubborn person. When he was young, he had a nickname "Mountain and River". Because others said "Mountain", he would say "Water". It seems that if he does not "disobey" others, he will not show his own existence. Once the stubborn person changes, it will be thorough, and ten bulls will not be pulled back. When he took over his father's business in 1972, there were two completely different Masaaru Yanai. Previously, Liu Jing was "decadent" and had no ambition; After that, Liu Jing was like a professional maniac. His father's business honed and changed him. At the time when he just took over, because of poor management, Liujing was waking up from the nightmare of the company's bankruptcy every day.

But suffering is the best incentive for stubborn people.

Interestingly, in 1987, when he was confused about the future of Uniqlo, Yanai visited Li Zhiying, the founder of Giordano, in Hong Kong to seek cooperation. Although rejected by the other party, he learned Fast The concept of Retailing. The trip to Hong Kong gave Liu Jing confidence, "I have no reason not to do well what Li Zhiying, who is ugly, can do."

More than 30 years later, when Uniqlo opened all the way to market the world, Giordano fell into a trend of closing stores. In 2017, the revenue was only 4.38 billion yuan, less than 1/20 of Uniqlo. (Author: Wang Haikun)