Despite worries in many parts of the retail sector, convenience stores still expect a strong year. All of the top three chains will expand store numbers at home and improve attractiveness through better ranges and marketing initiatives. They will open a record 4,800 stores this year alone. Leaders in the retail industry have been setting […]
In 2012 department store same store sales rose for the first time in 16 years, but this was partly because of a rebound from the impact of the 2011 earthquake. The uptick in overall sales this year, however, shows both the strength of premium markets at the moment, as well as a decline in store […]
Non-store retailing continues to grow faster than any other channel, with major retailers now developing serious online alternatives to their physical stores. Men are still the primary buyers online, and more women still prefer catalogues, but shopping by mobile or tablet is the fastest growing browsing method. Meanwhile there have been improvements in online store […]
Daiei is now part of Aeon Group, and while Aeon decides what to do with its latest acquisition, the opportunity to leverage the Big A discount chain in Tokyo is an obvious first step and one that couldn’t be timed better. If all goes according to plan, store numbers will be doubled over the next […]
Partnerships between JR operators and department stores have been successful for the most part, notably Takashimaya Nagoya, Daimaru Sapporo, and most recently Hankyu Hakata. In Osaka, JR West has been cursing its deal with Isetan-Mitsukoshi since well before the opening of their joint store at Osaka station in 2011. JR West will now take control […]
H2O Retailing will acquire Izumiya in June, creating a new, top 10 retail group. An increasing spate of mergers between leading chains has been on the cards for sometime, and this is the biggest regional merger so far. As with mergers led by Arcs in Tohoku two years ago, other regional chains will rush to […]
E-commerce sales to hit ¥21 trillion in 2018 Nomura Research Institute has revised forecasts upwards for e-commerce sales, now suggesting a market of ¥20.8 trillion in 2018 for BtoC e-commerce. This is up from an estimated ¥11.5 billion in 2013, an annual average growth rate of 12.6%. Key growth categories will continue to be fashion, […]
Paypal and Square are gaining traction in the Japanese market, potentially disrupting the cozy world of credit card processing with its fat fees and oligopolistic practices – even though Square itself is backed by one of Japan’s biggest card processors. Already Square’s entry into the market has forced Paypal to lower its fees. Paypal is proving […]
Wholesalers are worried. Most already work on minuscule profit margins and they now face a new, powerful retail clientele more than capable of insisting that suppliers absorb part of the 3% consumption tax hike coming in April. The result is a rush to add scale, both in market share and logistics capability. Analysts expect a […]
Cookpad is a recipe website, but clever marketing has made it perhaps one of the world’s most successful. It was developed at just the right time and in the past few years the switch to smartphones and tablets has helped it advance even further. In December the company made a series of acquisitions and it […]
From the 1960s right up until 2007, METI conducted its Census of Commerce, regularly updating the world on the minutiae of the distribution sector – and making a case for protection of small, largely uncompetitive players who supported the ruling party. That motivation has now been largely overtaken by political reality and the Census has […]
Aeon heralds each of its new large malls as a new era of mould-breaking shopping, but often reveals something more prosaic. Makuhari Shintoshin may be the exception. While there is nothing startlingly original in the individual components, overall it is one of the more forward thinking SCs of recent years, offering a level of entertainment […]
IKEA has been operating in Japan since 2006, but went on a short hiatus, opening no new stores between 2008 and 2012. Following the opening in Fukuoka in 2012, it will now add a further four stores over the next two years – the same one or two stores a year pace that it sets […]
Seven & I Holdings has a problem. In FY2012, Seven Eleven still accounted for 81% of the group’s net profits. It’s not surprising then that the group’s chairman, Toshifumi Suzuki, is keen to find new alternatives. This is the main thrust to four separate acquisitions announced in December, with the long-term goal of creating the […]
