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And now for the main event…

During the past decade, Uniqlo has become the fashion person’s de facto basics brand of choice for ostensibly obvious reasons. Not only has the company hired and partnered with some of the world’s top designers (Christophe Lemaire, Jonathan Anderson, and most recently Clare Waight Keller), but the wares are actually good. The fabrics are always nice, the technical gear works, and billionaire founder Tadashi Yanai has seemingly succeeded in his goal of creating a modern version of the Gap. Unlike other disposable fast fashion competitors, Uniqlo built its business around perfecting timeless basics (the Japanese way) rather than chasing seasonal trends. Now, the company is planning to further penetrate the U.S., expanding to 200 total North American stores and tripling their footprint by 2027. And yet despite this ambition, the company’s neglect of their digital storefront has long been a source of frustration in the U.S. Customers complain that they can’t find the products, that it’s hard to differentiate between different lines (like Waight Keller’s Uniqlo C or Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran’s Uniqlo U), and even that some sought-after collections have been buried on the site. And then there are the confusing interfaces, navigational flaws, and counterintuitive design preferences, all of which lead to abandoned purchases and unnecessary friction.

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Of course, customers can (and often do) complain about anything involved in the retail experience, but most of the industry analysts I follow agree that this is an unacceptable pain point for a company with more than $20 billion in annual revenue. After all, Uniqlo has only 74 stores in North America—most would-be shoppers are wholly reliant on the company’s website. Ironically, the Japanese quality that has made the brand’s merchandise so appealing in the U.S. may have inadvertently created a cultural barrier online. One former Google UX consultant who worked with the brand told me that the U.S. team is limited by the site infrastructure they’ve inherited from management in Japan, and that they have limited control and flexibility in terms of site architecture and design. While American shoppers loathe densely packed information and floating elements, Japanese customers prefer to shop this way online. I’m told that despite their recommendations, the U.S. digital team is consistently hitting roadblocks with Japan-based technical teams that prioritize global consistency over regional needs. (Notably, Amazon has more than two dozen different regional sites.) The result is a digital experience that works against American online shopping preferences for discoverability, quick cart building, and a seamless “guest” checkout that doesn’t require an email sign-in.

Uniqlo’s product potential in the U.S. is clear: North American shoppers have already shown a desire for the retailer’s basics at sharp price points. And fashion insiders like Becky Malinsky and Nikki Ogunnaike, for example, regularly highlight Uniqlo’s standout items. But it shouldn’t be easier to buy Uniqlo products through an influencer’s affiliate link than Uniqlo’s own homepage. If there’s a silver lining here, though, it’s the untapped upside available by simply fixing the site. Other missed opportunities abound. Uniqlo consistently sells out their Heattech line and affordable puffers long before winter even sets in—Google Trends data lists these as the second-most-searched Uniqlo products in the U.S.—and yet the Uniqlo website doesn’t offer any restock information or notification system. Similarly, while collabs drive significant interest, with “Uniqlo JW Anderson” as the top trending search term, actually finding these gems requires determination (at least outside of the brick-and-mortar stores). The absence of any kind of “complete the look” recommendation engine, which can increase basket size, means Uniqlo is leaving money on the table. What baffles me the most is how easily Uniqlo’s digital issues could be fixed. I’ve spent a lot of time working in site merchandising, and I was surprised when an inside source shared that Uniqlo did not rely on A/B testing, a standard practice in e-commerce. Most retail sites run weekly tests of messaging and design. Even a 1 percent improvement would translate to a sizable revenue increase. They could make great strides with other simple improvements, too, like the aforementioned discovery tools, removing floating navigation buttons, and prioritizing in-stock items. While competitors constantly refine their digital experiences, Uniqlo’s U.S. site remains largely unchanged.

Despite those challenges, Uniqlo’s brick-and-mortar expansion is promising. In 2023, Uniqlo North America C.E.O. Daisuke Tsukagoshi explained how physical stores are central to Uniqlo’s strategy because they allow consumers to really engage with the product. And the North American market is still significantly underdeveloped relative to Japan. When Uniqlo finally modernizes online shopping to match their products, I think they’ll capture the American consumer they’ve been chasing all along.

Isabel Marant is really doing it. As I wrote previously, interest in the very Parisian label has continued to steadily climb in the past year with Gen Zers and Alphas, as her branded sweatshirts and hats become “It” items. Now, Marant is dressing generational talents like Olivia Rodrigo, who wore a custom sequin bodysuit created by the designer on her Guts tour in Brazil. [Instagram] Lauren will have more on this later in the week, but Le Monde did a nice job outlining some of the increased tension between LVMH, the Arnault family, and Donald Trump as April 2—the tariffs-travaganza that the administration is calling “Liberation Day”—approaches. [Le Monde] It’s no secret that La Samaritaine, the Right Bank department store that LVMH spent something like 15 years refurbishing, has struggled to find an audience since its reopening in 2021. Now, as Lauren and others previously reported, the group has separated it from DFS (its duty-free shops division, which it’s trying to sell) and put it under the same leadership as its world-renowned Left Bank department store, Le Bon Marché. [Fashion Network] Serbian designer Roksanda Ilinčić, who shows at London Fashion Week, is often underrated in the grand scheme of fashion. Her collaboration with & Other Stories, which hits stores in May, will give high street shoppers a taste of her monochromatic, voluminous approach to dressing. [Instagram] Spanx founder Sara Blakely is having trouble trademarking “Sneex,” the name for her stiletto sneakers. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected her application, they say, because the name is too close to another brand called Sneak that mostly sells energy drinks, but also some merch. [Retail Dive]

Until tomorrow, Lauren P.S.: We are using affiliate links because we are a business. We may make a couple bucks off them.

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