Mild January dents sales of thermal clothing at Uniqlo

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 4, 2020

It was the same old story for Uniqlo, the largest chain operated by retail giant Fast Retailing, in January as the company said on Tuesday that its sales in Japan were dented by the wrong kind of weather during the month.

And the dent was quite large with overall same-store sales, including online sales, down by as much as 7.9% year-on-year. Meanwhile total sales fell an even bigger 8.1%.

So what was wrong with the weather this time round? The company said that its same-store sales fell in January "as warm weather throughout the month dampened sales of thermal clothing”.

Ads

The number of customers in its shops and visiting its webstore also dipped in January compared to the financial year as a whole, although it appears that those customers who did go into its shops or online spent a little more.

Despite Uniqlo’s popular collaborations, the retailer is best known as a seller of volume basics and everyday items, and because of this, it's heavily dependent on the right kind of weather throughout the year. If it wants to sell more thermal items and puffer jackets in the winter, it needs it to be cold, just as it needs warm weather to shift a larger number of T-shirts in the summer.

But its recent monthly sales reports have seen a succession of both ups and downs as the right weather in one month is followed by temperatures that are too hot or too cold in another.