Uniqlo is making IRL services a core part of its marketing playbook as it grows US presence
Welcome to Modern Retail’s Marketing Week, coinciding with the Modern Retail Marketing Summit in New Orleans. In daily features, we’ll be breaking down influential brands’ 2025 marketing playbooks. Plus, follow along for stories on leading brands’ marketing strategies and valuable takeaways from Summit discussions.
Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo is known for its durable, affordable basics: everything from white T-shirts to grey zip-up jackets to blue jeans. But the company is also marketing its other offerings beyond apparel as it looks to grow its market share in North America.
For instance, this month, Uniqlo is partnering with New York City moving company Piece of Cake and the circularity platform Supercircle on an initiative called “UNTrash It.” People who are moving can request four bags to fill with clothing they do not want to take to their new homes. Uniqlo then sorts, upcycles, donates and recycles the items. Uniqlo also opened its first North American coffee shop in March, adding to its lineup of cafés in Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines. And, it operates eight U.S. bookstores in partnership with Kinokuniya USA across seven markets, including Seattle and Dallas.
At first glance, these offerings may seem like they have little in common with Uniqlo’s core apparel business. But the retailer hopes that by telling consumers about everything it has to offer besides apparel, it can foster a broader loyalty for the brand and keep people coming back to its stores. Uniqlo is trying to raise awareness of all of the services it offers through a mixture of organic social posts on apps like Instagram and TikTok, in-store events like patchwork and embroidery workshops, partnerships with influencers, and “how-to” guides on its website and YouTube channel. Cross-company collaborations — like Uniqlo’s recent initiative with Piece of Cake and Supercircle — are helping the brand reach new audiences, too.
These efforts also come at a critical moment for Uniqlo. Boosting its profile in North America is a top priority for the retailer, as it aims to triple its stores in the region by 2027, CEO Daisuke Tsukagoshi told Bloomberg in 2023.
“We found that a lot of people didn’t necessarily know everything about Uniqlo,” Nicolas Cessot, head of marketing for Uniqlo North America, told Modern Retail. “We’re trying to continue to evolve how people are engaging with our brand. Rather than just clothing, we’re trying to provide full, holistic services. … We utilize our platform to not only share information from our end, but to truly show how the community is engaging with our brand.”
Uniqlo International, a division of Fast Retailing, reported a 13.7% jump in year-over-year revenue for its first fiscal quarter of 2025. Uniqlo operates thousands of stores in more than 20 countries.
As Uniqlo expands in the U.S., it wants consumers to know they can come to the brand for things other than new clothes. For instance, people can stop by a Uniqlo to drop off used clothing, which the brand will then donate to refugee camps and disaster relief programs or convert into new products or insulation. (Uniqlo says that it has collected a lifetime 65.94 million pieces of Uniqlo clothing from customers and “given them a second life.”) Customers can also get their clothing repaired in select stores via Re.Uniqlo Studio. Finally, people can come to Uniqlo to buy a latte, flip through a magazine, embroider and dye items, and design their own accessories.
Uniqlo launched online shopping in the U.S. in 2012, but it hopes these in-person services will endear more Americans to the brand at a time in which it’s opening more stores in the country. “We truly think that by investing in the community first, we will see people come to our stores and truly enjoy our brand more and more,” Cessot said. He also told Glossy that when customers spend more time in the store, “they tend to engage more with the products.” “It’s not just about the coffee; it’s about creating an environment where customers are more likely to make additional purchases,” Cessot explained.
While Uniqlo charges for some of its services (like coffee or embroidery), other ones (like workshops and “UNTrash It”) are free. Either way, there’s a form of payoff for brands who hold experiences and events, Charlie Wade, global chief client officer at marketing agency VML, told Modern Retail. “It enhances your brand in [customers’] minds, and it enhances their sense of loyalty,” Wade explained. “What all marketers need to do is reconsider the value of in-real-life experiences across the sales funnel,” he went on.
Ultimately, by highlighting all of these initiatives, Uniqlo can “introduce the brand in a different way,” Cessot said. “Our ethos is about the Japanese values of simplicity, quality and longevity,” he added. “The ultimate goal is to make people’s lives easier through clothing and through services.”