{"id":72,"date":"2015-11-26T19:11:13","date_gmt":"2015-11-27T00:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/uniqlo-what-makes-low-cost-high-quality-casual-wears\/"},"modified":"2015-11-28T17:11:03","modified_gmt":"2015-11-28T22:11:03","slug":"uniqlo-whats-behind-the-low-cost-high-quality-casual-wears","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/uniqlo-whats-behind-the-low-cost-high-quality-casual-wears\/","title":{"rendered":"UNIQLO: What\u2019s behind the low-cost high-quality casual wears?"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNIQLO<\/strong><\/p>\n

UNIQLO, headquartered in Japan, operates 1,639 casual wear stores in 16 countries, including China, US, and UK. The Japan-based company has grown rapidly in global, creating JPY 1.7 trillion (\u00bb USD 13.8 bil) of annual revenue and JPY 110 bil (\u00bb USD 905 mil) of annual net income as of August 2015. One of the keys to this success is from its excellence of business model.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nBusiness and Operating Models\"image_uniqlobusiness_01\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

UNIQLO\u2019s business is low cost, highquality SPA (Specialty store retailer
\nof Private label Apparel) model, operating all clothes making process from planning, production, distribution and retail sales.<\/p>\n

Like other SPAs, UNIQLO produces low-price daily use wears for it
\ns customers. However, the unique point of UNIQLO is its high quality and innovative products with good customer service. I have used UNIQLO wears for about 15 years. Some shirts and inner wears I bought 10 years ago are still working. HEATTECH<\/a>, the technology for innerwear which moisture-wicking fabric retains heat, keeps people warm in a rigorous winter. AIRism<\/a>, the technology of quick-dry and light as air for inner wear, keeps customers living in humid area comfortable. I always comfortable to buy products by sales staffs\u2019 kindly and polite service.<\/p>\n

These unique business strengths, low-cost, high-quality and innovative products with good service, are based on its operation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: Fast Retailing CO, LTD. company website<\/p>\n

Procurement of Materials<\/strong><\/p>\n

UNIQLO procures its fablic from its material manufactures partners. UNIQLO can secure stable, high-quality materials at low cost by ordering large volume. In addition, UNIQLO continuously seeks the highest-quality and lowest-cost material in global and realizes it by directly negotiating with manufactures.<\/p>\n

Building strategic partnership with Japanese high-quality and innovative manufactures supports UNIQLO\u2019 uniqueness. For example, with Toray, Japanese innovative synthetic fiber manufacture, UNIQLO developed HEATTECH. UNIQLO procures specific spinning and dying denims from Kaihara corporation, Japanese denim fabric manufacture.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Outsourcing Production<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unlike other SPAs such as ZARA, UNIQLO outsources its production to partner factories in emerging countries for its low-cost production. UNIQLO doesn\u2019t own factories and holds flexibility to change production partners because the best production location has changed as times goes. Currently, UNIQLO has relationships with factories in China, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia and Turkey.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Quality Control<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since UNIQLO outsources its production to partner factories, quality control is not easy and a critical factor. However, UNIQLO has overcome this problem by its unique \u201cTakumi\u201d system. In Japan, there are many skilled artisans, called Takumi who has great skills to create high-quality products. In order to keep high quality products, UNIQLO builds a Takumi team, consisting 400 textile skilled artisans and sends them to its partner factories all over the world. Moreover, production managers visit factories once a week to resolve quality problems.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Customer service <\/strong><\/p>\n

UNIQLO also focus on its customer service at retail stores. It emphasized Japanese style dedicated service, achieving same level of service as exclusive department stores. In the US UNIQLO stores, newly hired employees are sent to stores in Japan for six months and learns UNIQLO\u2019s core values and service style, politeness and efficiency. Moreover, in 2014, UNIQLO created a position of customer satisfaction (CS) store manager who is responsible for maintaining service quality standards at the stores in assigned areas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Feedback system<\/strong><\/p>\n

Facing to customers, sales staffs at retail stores and operators at customer centers are important channel to receive customer feedbacks. Latest sales trends and customer feedbacks, such as quality concerns, are immediately delivered to production departments, and then discussed among cross-functions among R&D, procurement, production, marketing, etc.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Increasing a pace of opening new stores in the US, UNIQLO\u2019s customer awareness is also rapidly raising. Based on its strengths of operation, UNIQLO could be famous casual wear brands like GAP and Zara in the near future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNIQLO is a global casual wear SPA. 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