Wouldn’t it be exciting just to hear the word “apparel outlet”?
“A place where you can buy things that are usually too expensive to buy at a reasonable price”
I think that’s the real thrill of outlets.
Outdated models, damaged items, unpopular and unsold items … products sent to outlets for a variety of reasons.
When the sales location change, the customer base and needs also change, so new purchasing opportunities will come.
One of the charms of outlet stores is that you can meet some fateful gems.
This time, I would like to talk about “apparel outlets in Japan”.
What is apparel outlets?
Outlet means “emission” and “floodgates” in English, and is a new distribution form that was born at the United States in 1980.
Many outlets were born in Japan in the 90’s, and they are still popular today.
Outlets sell two types of products.
They sell products that cannot be sold at stores for some reasons, such as unsold products at the “Retail Outlet” brand, damaged products, imperfect products and sample products at low prices.
It refers to selling surplus inventories of “factory outlet” makers at retail stores at low prices.
Outlets have such two types.
Merits and Demerits of Apparel Outlets
Merits
For customers : they can buy branded products that they wouldn’t normally be able to get, and they can also find rare products that aren’t sold at stores right now.
It feels like they’re looking for treasure.
For brands : they can reduce surplus inventories, optimize inventory turnover, and reduce inventory of samples and damaged items that come out when making clothes.
Demerits
For customers : in the case of retail outlets, there are many times when they don’t have the sizes or colors you want, and it may be difficult to get trendy items.
For brands : if the price of a product at stores is significantly reduced at outlets, it may lose the trust of customers, the regular price may not be passed, and it may be difficult to sell items.
In factory outlets, they can get trendy things cheaply, but I think the quality is often commensurate with the price because products are made at low prices.
Apparel outlets are necessary ?
In the apparel industry, there are always imperfect products such as surplus inventories and sample products.
For that, I think that an outlet would be a necessary place to sell such products.
It is a place where outlets can recreate the opportunities for customers to purchase products that would otherwise be discarded.
From a sustainable point of view, I think outlets play a very important role.
The locations of such outlets are in the suburbs, and there are many large facilities.
Rent and utility expenses are required for the large area, and the budgets will be high.
In order to achieve the budget, it is necessary to have a large number of product numbers and to arrive high freshness products because only many products at retail outlets are low in freshness, and if they sell only sale items, they may end up in the red.
For this reason, retail outlets are not enough, and many factory outlets are lined up at stores.
Originally, outlets mean “emissions” and “floodgates”, and I want them to be a place to sell damaged products and exhaust surplus inventories, but the current situations of creating new products and surplus inventories are away from the essence of outlets, I feel.
Retail outlets have merits for both customers and brands.
Good quality products and branded products that people cannot usually buy even if you want them are sold at reasonable prices, so customers can get what they want and the brands can also consume the stocks. The cycle is complete, isn’t it?
Regarding factory outlets, I think it is important to carefully consider the balance between supply and demand.
In order to raise in sales at outlet stores, I feel that creating new products and increasing surplus inventories will move away from the essence of outlet stores.
Outlets are places which can reduce the amount of clothes people waste and can expect more sustainable activities in the future.
In order to reduce the amount of “clothes discarded”, which is a major issue for the apparel industry in the future, it would be good if we could establish such a sales style that “shopping at apparel outlets = sustainable behavior”, I think