Cooler weather helps Uniqlo Japan sales in October

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 4, 2020

Japan’s Fast Retailing said on Wednesday that sales in its domestic market at its largest business, Uniqlo, grew as much as 16.5% year on year in October.

This impressive result included online sales and on a like-for-like basis, online and offline sales were up as much as 16.2%.

Once again, the retailer had the weather to thank with the considerable sales rise in October being due to “buoyant” demand for its autumn/winter ranges during the month’s “consistently cool weather”. But sales were also boosted by a “successful e-commerce advertising campaign”.

That said, customer numbers were slightly down compared to the year-to-date, although the average purchase per customer was higher during October.

The October sales figures follow good results in August and September as well. August was boosted by a heat wave in Japan and the warm weather continued into September, which helped sales of the particular product mix that was in-store at the time.

The company’s Japanese store estate is now almost back to normal operation after Covid-linked shutdowns, although at the end of October, four shops remained temporarily closed and 87 were operating shorter working hours due to the pandemic.