TOKYO—Retailers in Japan saw mixed sales in January, as a weak yen helped attract customers from overseas but Uniqlo struggled against a high comparative base.
Fast Retailing said Thursday that same-store sales at its Uniqlo stores in Japan declined by 2.5 percent compared with the same month last year. Customer numbers were down by 5.4 percent, but the average purchase per customer grew 3 percent.
“Overall, sales in January were respectable with the buoyant start from New Year sales continuing through mid month,” Fast Retailing said. “However, same-store sales declined marginally year on year due when compared to the especially large improvement in sales in the previous year.”
Related Articles
After closing eight stores in January and not opening any others, Fast Retailing currently counts 792 Uniqlo doors in Japan.
You May Also Like
Isetan Mitsukoshi, Japan’s largest department store operator, said that January sales among its nine stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area slipped by just 0.2 percent on the year. Only two individual stores saw their sales increase, with the Mitsukoshi Ginza store posting 4.2 percent sales growth and the Mitsukoshi store in Chiba, a city to the east of Tokyo, seeing its sales jump 54.6 percent.
Takashimaya said that sales at its 17 department department stores across the country were up by 0.3 percent year-on-year last month.
“Despite having one fewer Saturday than the same month a year ago, the effects of a weak yen and high stock prices, as well as favorable tax-free sales and sales of big-ticket items, led to the third consecutive month of year-on-year sales increases,” Takashimaya said.
H2O Retailing, which operates the Hankyu and Hanshin chains of department stores, said sales among those stores in Japan grew 1.6 percent on the year in January. The Hankyu flagship store in Osaka’s Umeda district fared particularly well, with sales increasing by 4.1 percent. However, sales at the Hanshin store in the same area were down by 4.6 percent.
J. Front Retailing said that sales at its 18 Daimaru and Matsuzakaya department stores in Japan increased by 0.7 percent last month. The Daimaru store in Osaka’s Shinsaibashi neighborhood, which has been under renovation work since Jan. 2016, posted the largest sales growth. Construction has reduced the store’s sales area by about 40 percent, but last month sales were up 11.8 percent compared with the same month a year earlier.