(Yicai Global) March 12 -- Uniqlo, a Japanese clothing brand with more stores in China than in its home country, is pushing ahead with plans to open as many as 100 stores a year particularly in the country’s third- and fourth-tier cities, The Paper reported yesterday, citing a company executive.

“We are still planning to open at least 80 to 100 stores per year in China at a very steady clip,” said Wu Pinhui, chief marketing officer for Uniqlo in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

There are now over 800 Uniqlo stores in the country, parent firm Fast Retailing Group said, more than in Japan. Last year it opened 66 new venues amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Uniqlo logged a better-than-expected recovery in China from May last year, with sales exceeding that of the year before. The good results helped Yamaguchi-based Fast Retailing end the year without falling into deficit.

Still, the temporary closure of stores around the world due to the pandemic and the drop in footfall as people stayed home, led to a significant decline in profit and revenue, Fast Retailing said. Profit for the fiscal year 2020 was down 44.4 percent from 2019 to JPY90.4 billion (USD828 million). Revenue dropped 12.3 percent to JPY2.01 trillion (USD18.5 billion).

As a result, the brand has sought to drum up online sales. It has introduced a StyleHint digital service on its app and a WeChat mini app called Pocket Uniquo. Yesterday it held a ‘Live Life Show’ for the first time on its WeChat mini-app and its livestreaming studio on Alibaba Group Holding’s e-commerce platform Tmall where fashions were displayed in every day scenes.

Unlike traditional livestreamed events which use an internet celebrity to flog goods, many of which are later returned, the life show demonstrates the different uses and characteristics of the various outfits and explains the brand concept, Wu said. In this way, we hope more consumers will come to better understand Uniqlo’s unique philosophy.

Editor: Kim Taylor