Why Uniqlo is Japan’s number one clothes retailer?

Uniqlo (or ユニクロ in Japanese) is number one clothes retailer in Japan with ambitions to become number one in the world.

Why this ambitions are completely justified? The answer is simple – because they have world greatest discount policy!

Don’t believe me? OK lets have a look at this skirt bought recently from a Uniqlo shop nearby:

In the upper right corner you can see the price tag (surrounded by green line). Here is a zoomed version of it:

Yes – that’s right. These are 190 yen or around 2$ or 1,7 euro (actually less then 2 years ago this was just slightly above 1 euro and around 1,5$). Anyway let’s see what is hidden below the 190 yen price sticker:

Now we have the solid 390 yen price sticker or almost 4$  (in some countries you can buy a sandwich for this money or a coffee). Let’s remove and this one and see what is hidden below:

Now we reached the staggering 500 yen or just above 5 dollars. Things start to get serious but we keep removing price stickers:

990 yen (or 11.5 dollars) – an important psychological barrier is reached but not yet breached – the four digits numbers. We also can clearly see the “Made in China” below the price. Finally let’s hold breath and see the original price:

Yes – 1990 yen (or around 23$).

Not bad – almost 10 fold discount (from 1990 we reached 190 yen). So to sum it up to be a leading clothes retailer nowadays you must do two things:

First – offer good quality products (yes, Uniqlo clothes are good quality independently of the price tag)  and second offer them at any price which will sell them (doesn’t matter if this price will be close or even below the one in China – the important thing is that the product must be sold).

I am not an economist but I can foresee a bright future for Uniqlo both in Japan and in the world.