Uniqlo's January sales rise in Japan due to cold weather

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 2, 2021

Fast Retailing announced another same-store sales increase for its Japanese Uniqlo operation on Tuesday with comparable sales (including online) rising 2% year-on-year. Meanwhile, total sales rose 1.8%.

As often happens at this time of year, the company was helped by “consistently cold weather throughout the month”. But this time it was also boosted by “strong sales of products that satisfied the continued strong demand for stay-at-home clothing and other items”.

It's a good result coming after a succession of months in which its same-store sales have risen and also given that at the end of January, four of its Japanese shops remained temporarily closed and as many as 159 of them were working to shorter hours due to the pandemic.

The company is always hugely dependent on weather conditions, and that’s still true even in the unusual circumstances the world finds itself in at present. Cool weather during the summer and warm spells during the winter can seriously undermine its sales in any given month. But fortunately, for most of the pandemic period, the weather has played ball in the Japanese market.

That said, during January, customer numbers and average purchases per customer were a little lower than they have been for the year to date.