Uniqlo Japan monthly sales dip on mild weather and fewer collabs

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 2, 2022

Fast Retailing’s Uniqlo chain in Japan has ended a long run of strong same-store and total sales rises with its comparable November sales coming in 3.8% lower than a year ago.

Total sales also fell for once, although they only edged down by 0.8%. Customer numbers and average purchases per customer were below the average for the financial year so far.

And the explanation? Once again, the weather was to blame. The company said that same-store sales declined year on year in November “due to sluggish demand for cold-weather clothing during what proved to be a consistently warm month”.

Uniqlo is extremely vulnerable to the ‘wrong’ kind of weather at any given time, whether that’s chilly or wet spring and summer seasons or not-quite-cold-enough autumn and winter periods.

But given the fact that the company has been diving deeply into collaborations in recent years, the lack of these last month was also an issue. The retailer said that “the absence of similar collaborative products to last year's +J Collection and other joint items” was another reason for the weaker sales.