The latest entrant to the vending machine market predicts that customers might be willing to go beyond candy or entertainment products and pick up a new jacket from a machine. In an effort to broaden its accessibility in the United States, without investing in expensive, fixed storefronts, the Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo is adding vending machines to heavily trafficked sites, such as airports and malls. Travelers already are familiar with vending machines that provide them with earbuds or travel pillows in the airport. Now a customer flying off to a cold climate who has forgotten to pack sufficient outerwear can grab a down jacket, delivered in a canister from the vending machine on the way to the gate. In addition to vending machines, Uniqlo is experimenting more with pop-up sites and temporary stores; what it is not doing is adding many more conventional storefronts. A few years ago, it planned to increase its approximately 1,700 stores in Asia by expanding into the United States, but the first wave of entry did not achieve the sales or revenue levels that the company had anticipated. Therefore, it is using the vending machines as a sort of “learning lab,” hoping to gain insights into what U.S. consumers prefer without spending millions on permanent locations. Already it has learned that even though Texas has no dedicated Uniqlo store, it is one of the brand’s top U.S. markets, suggesting that consumers are getting the gear somewhere. Uniqlo just has to figure out where, then pop a vending machine into the neighborhood to make that access even easier.

Source: Khadeeja Safdar, The Wall Street Journal, August 2, 2017