Shopwatch: Uniqlo, London
- Published: 17 November 2007 10:47
- Author: Stephen Spear
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- Last Updated: 12 February 2008 10:48
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Japanese casualwear chain Uniqlo hopes its new Oxford Street flagship store will boost the brand and double UK sales.
Last week, Japanese casualwear retailer Uniqlo opened two stores totalling 42,000sq ft on London's Oxford Street. According to Tadashi Yanai, chairman and chief executive of parent company Fast Retailing, the stores will double Uniqlo's UK sales and boost brand awareness.
Drapers visited the larger of the two – the three-floor 25,000sq ft store at 311, a prime London location in the footfall-packed throng between Bond Street and Oxford Circus tube stations. It is described by chief operations officer Simon Coble as the "second global flagship after last year's New York launch".
He added: "It's an essential site because we have needed somewhere that would showcase the brand. That is what has been lacking in the UK, until now."
Big and ambitious, the new store is still recognisably Uniqlo. The retailer's signature red punctuates the steel, wood and white box format, with the new Japanese and English logos appearing side-by-side on the fascia. Perspex tubes extend from the ground floor to the first floor ceiling, with rotating mannequins at each level and a bank of screens looping in-house graphics. Overall though, this store is less about high retail drama and more a blend of easy foot-flow and rigorous smartness.
This is a utility-driven shopfit, executed with precision, and a huge volume of product is squeezed neatly into a balanced mix of hanging rails and folded piles – most notably the huge wealth of bright cashmere.
"Uniqlo is a blank canvas," says Coble. "The clothes are simple and that's why we have so many styled mannequins to inspire customers." Visual merchandising co-ordinator Louise King adds: "The visual standards from Japan are really high; it's all very neat and the training is rigorous so shopfloor staff know to keep the store looking slick."
New product includes more underwear and even a lingerie section. To the right and rear of the ground floor are walls of canisters, filled with rolled up T-shirts, each one created in collaboration with an artist or designer. Here are Gareth Pugh, Kim Jones and Cassette Playa designs going for £13 each. More London influences are seen beyond the cash tills where a whitewashed brick wall is adorned with images of celebs from Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespie to model Georgia Jagger. "We picked people that represent London in a cool way," says Coble.
In all, this is certainly the sort of statement that the company should have made when it hit the UK back in 2001. It swelled quickly to a 21-store portfolio before contracting sharply again.
Before last week it had just nine UK shops, all in the south-east. Stung but unabashed, Uniqlo has caught its breath and looks primed to expand again. The UK operation is currently running at a loss thanks to the cost of store openings, but these flagships are all about reigniting demand. Coble claims: "We want people to feel they want a Uniqlo in their town" – surely a precursor to more openings.
Uniqlo, 311 Oxford Street, London
