One of Japan's top clothing retailers is finding faster ways to get products into the hands of buyers.
Takeshi Okazaki, chief financial officer of Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo, revealed during a conference call that the company plans to build new types of distribution centers in China and America to realize next-day delivery and same-day delivery to consumers.
In April 2016, Fast Retailing launched this new type of distribution center named Ariake in Tokyo. At present, it mainly supplies products to physical stores; however, it will soon be used for online distribution to serve buyers during the autumn and winter peak times.
During the conference call, Okazaki said that the company will use the new distribution center to provide next-day delivery service for online purchased products. At the same time, they are considering providing same-day delivery services to customers in certain regions. In the end, this new warehousing distribution system will influence the daily work of physical store employees. However, in the short-term, they will focus on warehouse operation optimizations.
Okazaki also said that the company is trying to build such distribution centers in other regions of Japan and across the world. In regards to the overseas part of the plan, they will start from America and China.
According to Fast Retailing's latest quarterly financial report ended May 31, 2016, the Chinese mainland achieved good performance and both operating revenue and profit exceeded expectations. By the end of May 2016, Fast Retailing had 537 stores in mainland China.