Masa Yanai's family grew up in Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, where his father was a small businessman who owned a small store specializing in men's clothing, mainly custom-made suits for banks and securities firms, and later a store specializing in casual wear. As a young man, Yanai was idle and didn't bother to look for a job after graduating from college, but then, at his father's insistence, he forced his way into a job as a clerk at Japan's famous department store brand, Christie's, where he sold knives, chopping boards, draining woks, and other sundries. Apparently, these things could not hold his heart, and due to the lack of motivation to work, he quit his job the following year. But without a job, he had to follow his family's lead, and in 1972, at the age of 25, Yanai Masayoshi went back to his hometown to get married and take over the family business. The moment he received the company seal from his father, he knew there was no turning back, so he was determined to do everything he could to make the company work.
The entrepreneurial story of Japanese people like Masayoshi Yanai is very interesting. It's not the same as the American dream of "I'm going to change the world with technology", or the first generation of entrepreneurs in China who started with nothing but their own hands, but they have a very strong family history. They all have a very strong color of family business.
Taking over the men's apparel store from his father, Yanai realized that there were many problems in the workflow of the store from purchasing to selling, and the whole store was inefficient. A typical problem is that the capital turnover is too slow, the purchase of high-grade suits, to the suit store to sell, a long time to sell a piece, because the suit is not compared to casual wear, people are to buy a set of wear for many years. Therefore, the store's capital turnover is too slow, which leads to, although the suit price is very high, it looks like a lot of gross profit, but in fact, not very profitable, and press too much money, only two or three times a year turnover.
As mentioned earlier, Yanai Masayoshi's family also runs a casual clothing store at the same time, and he often goes over to look at the store's casual clothing sales. Yanai Masayoshi felt that the sale of casual clothing is more promising, because first, casual clothing does not need to measure the size of the customer, are standardized sizes, unlike making a suit so much effort, spend so much energy time; second, the suit can only be sold to the mature and stable men, especially dry financial, and casual clothing customers do not have the age limit, and there is no gender limitations, it is very popular, so you can go to the volume, can be sold all year round! A lot. This capital utilization efficiency is very high, you can constantly turnover, sell a batch of goods and into a batch of goods, even if the gross profit of each batch of goods is very low, as long as the number of times a year turnover is frequent, the profit is very considerable.
So, Liu Jing Zheng vaguely feel the development potential of the casual wear market, decided to reform, the main focus should be on the revitalization of casual wear stores, rather than engage in what the suit store, do not let this half-dead state continue. So, he told the store's six clerks how to do is correct. Originally thought he was so discerning, see the problem so sharp, others must be a call, I did not expect the ensuing situation out of his expectations, six shopkeepers resigned five, after all the work only Yanai Masayoshi and the rest of this one to do together.
In this way, Yanai Masayoshi began to feel the sale of casual wear, climbing, opening different types of stores, planted a lot of headaches. We'll skip that part. But don't think that this period of time is very short, this trial and error for more than ten years. Later on, Yanai Masayoshi, who has had many setbacks, gradually came up with the idea of opening a large casual clothing store.
Why this idea?
Because Yanai Masayoshi once visited the University Life Association in the United States, where students need to live in a variety of items, and easy to get, there is no need for a clerk to receive, completely self-service form. The store also does not want to sell things out of the commercial flavor, the layout of the store is completely designed from the customer's standpoint, students enter the store like a bookstore or record store, very casual, have a preferred buy, do not have a preferred out of the shopping circle. This is today's large-scale self-service supermarket. Yanai is thinking, to sell casual wear according to the model of the self-service supermarket, it must be able to sell out, so he once again embarked on the road of experimentation.
In 1984, Yanai was in Hiroshima, Japan, rented an apartment building on two floors, more than three hundred square feet, opened the Uniqlo One store, the store's clothes set for 1,000 yen and 1,900 yen for two kinds of clothing; clothing style is mostly some simple basic, very good with clothes, there is no kind of particularly exaggerated, particularly avant-garde clothes. At the same time, the store does not have the kind of sales staff to follow you step by step, to introduce you to try to sell you certain products, completely self-help, you choose, try out and go to the front desk to pay for it, and then finished, do not need to have a clerk to bother you.
Affordable clothes, simple styles, and self-service are basically the standard of service at Uniqlo today. In the 80's, these moves were a killer. On the first day of the first store, there was a long line as soon as the doors opened at 6 a.m. Later, the store became more and more crowded, and Masayoshi Yanai had to limit the number of people entering the store, and this almost frenzied state of affairs lasted for several days.
This was the beginning of the current "Uniqlo" business.
The most important feature of Uniqlo, compared to traditional service retailers, is that the store is an "environment where customers are free to choose. To achieve this, not only let the salesman away from the customer on the line, there are many other supporting, such as store decoration style will also affect the sales effect, Yanai Masayoshi stipulated:
First, the main aisle in the Uniqlo store must be straight and spacious, which is different from those narrow aisles, walking inconvenience brand stores;
Second, the store's ceiling as far as possible, not ceiling, exposed concrete frame does not matter, it is not necessary to reveal the concrete frame, but also to the store. It doesn't matter if the concrete frame is exposed, it is to make the ceiling look high and more spacious;
Third, the clerk must keep the store spotless environment, no matter what time of the day, the goods look stacked neatly, and to do in time for replenishment;
Fourth, the clerk can't pester the customer, but when the customer has a consulting or needing help, he or she must give the most enthusiastic service; the clerk usually has to wear a scarf.
These measures made Uniqlo sell exceptionally well. The next year, Uniqlo store number two opened. Store number two was different from store number one in that it was opened in the suburbs, but it was also very successful. Why was it successful to open a large casual clothing retail store in the suburbs? Masayoshi Yanai had the following three thoughts:
First, at a time when Japan was beginning to see a boom in the purchase of private cars, distance was no longer a problem, and suburban stores were presented with a very good opportunity for growth. Young people in their 20s and 30s were excited to drive far and wide on their days off, bringing friends or family to the store to buy casual clothes.
Secondly, basic clothes that can be worn in daily life are more popular than fashionable clothes. Especially their target market is no age difference, no gender difference, adapt to any age and any status of the crowd, very popular with them.
Thirdly, compared to branded specialty stores in busy commercial street buildings, suburban-type clothing stores tend to be more attractive to those who have a clear shopping purpose, and the purchase rate is very high.
In this way, Yanai Masayoshi found a direction for Uniqlo's continued expansion, and Uniqlo entered a phase of continued expansion. We'll talk more about the back story in the next installment ......