UNIQLO has become the most popular brand for online orders abroad
Some foreign brands that have left the Russian Federation continue to increase sales here at the expense of online orders. And according to the results of the first quarter of 2025, the Japanese brand of Uniqlo entered the TOP-5 of the most popular brands in the cross-border trade segment, overtaking Zara and Nike in terms of sales in the Russian Federation.
At the disposal of Kommersant were the data of the order of goods from abroad by CDEK.SHOPPING, according to which, following the results of the first quarter of 2025, the Japanese Uniqlo entered the TOP-5 of the most popular brands among Russian consumers for online buying abroad. This list also includes Apple, Zara, New Balance and Nike. At the same time, in the segment of clothing and accessories, Uniqlo has become a leader over the past two years with a share of 12%, overtaking Zara (8%) and Nike (5%).
After the start of the military conflict of the Russian Federation and Ukraine in March 2022, Uniqlo announced the suspension of the work of all 50 stores in Russia. At the beginning of 2023 there were about 30 of them, but they were temporarily closed. Having received more than 10 billion rubles. losses for 2022, the network began to turn off business in Russia (see “Kommersant” dated May 5, 2023). At the same time, in 2023, the net profit of the Russian unit Uniqlo – Unique Rus LLC – amounted to 2.3 billion rubles, and revenue – 1.9 billion rubles, follows from the data of the SPARK. According to the results of 2024, a company that no longer has revenue received a net loss of 413 million rubles.
In mid -2023, part of the UNIQLO sites was occupied by Trade Management, which controls the Lady & Gentleman City clothing network, and opened stores under the new brand. His logo and collections partly resembled Uniqlo. In February 2025, Vedomosti reported that Trade Management closed 8 of 15 Just Clothes stores. At the same time, brand products are sold online. For example, in Ozon, as Kommersant told, according to the results of the first quarter of 2025, this brand, along with two other Russian brands-SELA, KARI, as well as with the Belarusian Mark Formelle, entered the top 5 in Internet orders within the country.
However, UNIQLO also retains a sufficient number of loyal Russian buyers. Fashion Consulting Group CEO Anna Lebzak-Klamance notes that UNIQLO has a number of its own advanced scientific developments in textile products. For example, HeatTech technology allows you to cope with sharp temperature changes. The company also has technologies to reduce the cost and add natural cotton and wool fibers to the products without raising retail prices, Ms. Lebsak-Klamans notes.
A recent brief warming of political relations between the Russian Federation and the USA gave hope to Russian consumers to return a number of brands that have previously left Russia, including Uniqlo, Swedish H&M and Spanish Inditex (Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and others). This was also facilitated by the statement of the Union of shopping centers, who turned to foreign retailers who left the Russian Federation after February 2022, with a proposal to return if Western sanctions were lifted.
In the case of UNIQLO, it will be very difficult to do. In May 2025, the head of the Business Russia public organization, Alexei Repik, said that the founder of the brand of Tadashi Yanai, who was in the epicenter of serious criticism of the Japanese right, demanding from the businessman to abandon returning to the Russian market, made a promise not to do this.
