Retail Notes

Italy's Institute of Foreign Trade (ICE) puts out an excellent monthly newsletter with the latest trends in Japanese fashion retail. It has unrivalled coverage of new store openings in the sector, especially by international brands. They also have brief but concise introductions to some of the major domestic players such as Aoyama Shoji, Shimamura, Fast Retailing (Uniqlo), and Beams.
Here is an excerpt from their November edition on the first Banana Republic stores to be opened in Japan. (Translations and links are mine)

In September, Gap opened the first Banana Republic stores in Japan. The four stores are located in Ginza, Roppongi Hills, Nihonbashi and Yokohama. The Ginza outlet is situated in the Printemps Ginza department store and occupies approximately 650 sqm on the street and basement levels, bringing to mind the inauguration in 1994 of the first Gap store on the ground and basement levels of the nearby Sukiyabashi Hankyu. The new store's prices are considerably more expensive than in the United States: approximately 62,000 yen for a dress, more than 30,000 yen for a ladies' jacket and 30,000 yen for a cashmere sweater.

I wonder how successful they will be when a lot of Japanese go to Hawaii to pick up Bana-Ripa clothes at US prices? Of course, the quality and size selection is better in their Japan stores, and they do get points for not going head-to-head with Zara - which in my opinion is a much stronger retailer.
In the September edition the newsletter had a feature on the newest Barneys New York store in Ginza:

Since Barneys New York, affiliated with Isetan, launched a new store last October in Ginza, it has been a runaway success. According to industry sources, it rang up 2.8 billion yen in sales from its 2.900 sqm space in its first five months of operation, 23% more than forecasts. Isetan had counted on a turnover of 5 billion yen for the first year but it has since raised the target to 6 billion.

That's almost 200,000 yen per sqm per month in sales, folks! You can probably infer from that how much rent these high-end stores can pay in Ginza. The article goes on to say, however, that the other two Barneys in Shinjuku and Yokohama recorded year-on-year sales declines of 10.5% and 3.8% respectively.

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