We've seen it with American companies looking to expand overseas. Open a website to gain some understanding of a market before rapidly rolling out stores. The situation, of course, may also work in reverse as may be the case with the Japanese retailer Uniqlo, which according to an Advertising Age report, is looking for "partners" to help it build and launch an e-commerce site, a "digital flagship," in the U.S. by October.
The company's overall goals include achieving sales of $20 billion by 2020 with 20 percent of that being conducted online. The company is also looking to open at least 200 stores in the U.S. by that time.
Currently, Uniqlo has opened two new flagship stores in New York over the past year but has no e-commerce presence. It does operate shopping sites in other countries including its native Japan and the U.K.
Uniqlo company spokesperson Mary Lawton downplayed the Ad Age report.
"We continue to explore the possibility of launching e-commerce. However, at this time, we are a long way away from confirming when specifically this will happen in the U.S.," said Ms. Lawton in a statement. "As we have said in the past, when we launch e-commerce in the U.S. we want to be sure it will benefit our customers, and currently we do not have a plan that meets that expectation."