Although Uniqlo has been committed to global business expansion, about 90% of its group's sales are still in the Japanese market. However, in recent years, with the increase in the number of overseas market directly-operated stores, the sales ratio has started to change. By the end of August 2009, there were 750 directly-operated stores and 20 franchised stores in Japan, with a total sales revenue within Japan of 538.2 billion yen; there were 92 directly-operated stores overseas, among which the number of stores in Asia doubled, reaching 76, thus increasing the proportion of overall operating revenue from the overseas market to 28.8% of total revenue, amounting to 37.7 billion yen. At this stage, Uniqlo's overseas markets include mainland China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, South Korea, Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Among these, China has 33 directly-operated stores, ranking first in Uniqlo's overseas markets, followed closely by South Korea with 30 directly-operated stores. Although most of Fast Retailing's sales performance still comes from Japan, from the perspective of market sales growth in recent years, the overseas market is significantly higher than that of Japan, showing great potential for development.
Development History in China: Since setting up production management offices in Shanghai and Shenzhen in 1999, the quantity of clothing produced by Uniqlo in China has increased year by year. Currently, Fast Retailing has 70 factories producing clothing for Uniqlo, all located in Asian countries. Among these, products produced by Chinese factories account for 80% of the total.
Since the official entry of Uniqlo brand directly-operated stores into the Chinese market in 2002, it has experienced rapid development. In 2006, Fast Retailing began setting up production management offices in Vietnam and Bangladesh, marking the transformation of the Chinese market from a manufacturing base to a core sales market. Accompanying this shift in business strategy, Fast Retailing (China) Trading Co., Ltd. was established at the end of 2006 in Shanghai, mainly responsible for the sales and related work of Uniqlo brand clothing in China. By August 2009, the number of directly-operated stores of Uniqlo in China reached 33, along with an online flagship store.
Relevant thematic articles:
http://hi.baidu.com/wgyvus4w/blog/item/403e271c23606cce63d98669.html
http://blog.cnfol.com/wgyvus6m/article/57568584.html
http://www.diglog.com/story/technology_web2_685932.html