E-Commerce Plan: Organisation and Environmental Analysis of UNIQLO

This report presents an e-commerce plan for UNIQLO, a global Japanese fast-fashion retailer. It begins with an introduction to environmental analysis and its importance for organizations, followed by a brief overview of UNIQLO's history and current market position. The main body of the report includes an organizational and environmental analysis, focusing on a SWOT framework to identify the brand's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Key strengths include its affordable casual wear and consistent branding, while weaknesses involve supply chain issues. Opportunities lie in expanding into new market segments, and threats include competition from established brands. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of market analysis for expansion and growth, highlighting UNIQLO's potential for continued success. References are included using the Harvard referencing method.

E-Commerce Plan
Organisation and
environmental analysis
for UNIQLO
1

2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5
3

INTRODUCTION
An environmental analysis is an important aspect for an organisation as it provides a view
of potential opportunities and threats that exist outside the organisation (Zhao, Huang and Pan,
2019). The primary purpose of this analysis is to hep the organisation in developing a plan by
keeping the people who make decisions in the organisation. Uniqlo is a Japanese retailer that
offers products in causal and designer wear that was founded in 1949 and now is a global
recognition. The report analyses the current position of the brand and its external competitors.
MAIN BODY
Uniqlo is a Japanese clothing brand that was founded by Tadashi Yanai in the year 1949
which has now become successful and is recognised by people all over the world. The company
has managed to grow rapidly and become another contender in the retail market globally despite
facing fierce competition from brands like Zara, Gap, H&M and Forever 21 (Uniqlo: The
Strategy Behind The Global Japanese Fast Fashion Retail Brand, 2020). Some of the majors
factors behind the company's success are its commitment towards constantly innovating its
products and its culture. The company today has an efficient system of supply chain and a
systematic approach to developing its products. One of the company's signature innovations is a
fabric that can turn moisture into heat and has pockets to retain the same, known as HeatTech.
Organisational and environmental analysis
SWOT analysis can be defined as a strategic tool that can be used by both organisations
as well as individuals in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses and address
opportunities and threats that come associated with them. The analysis for Uniqlo is described
below -
 Strengths – The organisation has positioned itself as a brand that sells casual wear
clothes at pocket friendly and affordable rates worldwide (Chae and Ko, 2016). The
designs and style of branding has remained same which has added to its value
proposition.
 Weaknesses – Although the company aspires to become a global player in the retail
market, it still lags behind due to issues in its overall supply chain to reach out to various
markets globally.
4

 Opportunities – Fashion is an industry that keeps on evolving regularly which makes it
an opportunity for Uniqlo to make an entry into the kids segment as it as of now offers
clothes for men and women only (Charan, 2017).
 Threats – The company has been facing tough competition from brands like Gap, Zara,
United Colors of Benetton (Kotabe and Helsen, 2020). Also, the customers can switch
between brands anytime if they feel the products are no longer innovative and unique.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that in order to expand itself in the market, an
organisation should study the market carefully and then tap the areas it thinks will prove to be
beneficial for it. The company has been able to create a name for itself in a less duration of time
and should constantly seek new ways to grow.
5

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Chae, H. and Ko, E., 2016. Customer social participation in the social networking services and
its impact upon the customer equity of global fashion brands. Journal of Business
Research. 69(9). pp.3804-3812.
Charan, R., 2017. What the CEO Wants You to Know, Expanded and Updated: How Your
Company Really Works. Currency.
Kotabe, M. and Helsen, K., 2020. Global marketing management. Wiley.
Zhao, X., Huang, C. and Pan, H., 2019. Online comments of multi-category commodities based
on emotional tendency analysis. Cluster Computing. 22(3). pp.6345-6357.
Online
Uniqlo: The Strategy Behind The Global Japanese Fast Fashion Retail Brand. 2020. available
through: <https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/strategy/uniqlo-the-strategy-behind-
the-global-japanese-fast-fashion-retail-brand/>.
6