Rakuten moves into luxury marketRakuten is determined to become a leader in online fashion retailing, hoping some of the sector’s glamour will burnish its own brand name too. After relaunching its fashion store as Rakuten Fashion last year, it has now opened a new luxury section, including brands from LVMH, reflecting how online malls are […]
Style Factory: following Workman’s success into homewareCainz, the sector-leading home centre chain owned by Beisia Group, opened two new stores for its Style Factory concept over the summer, both around Tokyo. The new interiors and homeware stores look ideal for rapid rollout in SCs given the current surge in demand for home merchandise and will […]
Workman thrives in crisisIt hasn’t been easy selling clothing in the last six months or even in the months before, unless, that is, you are Workman. The workwear to sports retailer delivered six straight months of sales growth peaking at 44% year-on-year thanks to its low price cost performance and relentless expansion of its private […]
Essentials strong in May but in June discretionary bounces back Retail sales slumped again in May, but only because people are not buying clothes, visiting department stores and shopping centres, or buying their lunches at convenience stores. Although this led to another major drop in total sales, several sectors did very well and in June […]
Key stories in this month’s issue of JapanConsuming, the essential monthly analysis and data update on Japan’s retail & consumer markets: The zombie era ends: Renown finally goes underJapan’s major apparel firms are in trouble as Onward’s decision to slash 50% of its stores and Sanyo Shokai’s fight with activist shareholders both demonstrate. For nearly 30 years, Renown […]
KEY STORIES IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE Department Stores: sector with most to lose is hit hardest Some department stores have improved in the past 20 years and, in the past five, the big players have poured investment into more modernisation. This has brought some success to the top firms, especially from wealthy consumers, but no […]
Covid-19: FMCG gain amid nationwide painJapan is suffering as much as anywhere from the current coronavirus crisis. At least until March, the biggest issue was the country’s huge reliance on China as a supply base for everything from car parts to baby supplies, but as the government gave up hopes of running Abe’s Olympics in […]
PPI: a ¥3 trillion discount empirePPI, the owner of Don Quijote, likes 10-year plans, not surprisingly given it beat the targets in its last one by two years and by 65%. The discount and variety store retailer has now announced a new plan, called Passion 2030, which calls for a doubling of sales and a […]
Key stories in this month’s issue of JapanConsuming, the essential monthly analysis and data update on Japan’s retail & consumer markets: Merchants battle with Rakuten over new termsRakuten has been working hard to catch up with Amazon on customer service but, to do so, it has had to impose new disciplines and costs on its merchants, including free […]
KEY STORIES IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE Lawson and KDDI join forces in cashless payments war With a series of mergers over the past three months alone, the big three mobile providers, along with Rakuten and Amazon, are drawing up battle-lines for competition in e-commerce, mobile payments and loyalty schemes. Softbank/Z’s acquisition of Zozo and LINE […]
Aeon ties with UK’s Ocado in push for online food leadershipAeon has become the Japanese partner to Ocado, one of the best online supermarket and systems providers for food and FMCG retailing in the world. Ocado works with only one company per country, so Aeon has stolen a lead on its rivals by gaining access […]
Key stories in this month’s issue of JapanConsuming, the essential monthly analysis and data update on Japan’s retail & consumer markets:The Online Fashion Wars: Rakuten takes on Z&ZozoZ Holdings’ (Yahoo Japan) decision to accept Yusaku Maezawa’s proposal to buy his stake in Zozo has caused major ructions in the fashion industry and e-commerce. While Amazon continues to carve […]
Key stories in this month’s issue of JapanConsuming, the essential monthly analysis and data update on Japan’s retail & consumer markets:Yahoo and Zozo: creating a digital conglomerateThe takeover of Zozo by Yahoo could be a win/win for both firms. Some worry about Zozo brand dilution but the potential benefits outweigh the negatives. Softbank and Yahoo’s databases should help […]
FOCUS: Department Stores 2018-19: taking risks to become original is an opportunity for overseas brandsThe department store sector witnessed a small drop in sales last year but, considering the large number of closures and conversions, this was a solid result and reflective of the ongoing support for the format from wealthy Japanese and inbound tourists. […]
FOCUS: The Complete Retail Review and Ranking 2018-19: profit growth slowing as marketing competition increasesLeading retailers grew sales and share last year and made more money too. Although savings rates rose to their highest level ever in 2018, this also meant that a lot of households had money stored up, providing better retailers and brands […]
FOCUS: Retailing 2030: The Big DisruptionRetailing in Japan is about to enter a period of unprecedented change – the biggest disruption in its history. The causes are threefold: population contraction, the labour shortage and e-commerce. Most advanced markets face one or, at most, two of these pressures but Japan faces all three at the same […]
FOCUS:Consumption Trends Review: higher wages good for value retail, luxury and, hopefully, the futureWages and salaries finally began to rise in 2017, and consumption expenditure picked up in 2018 but, at the same time, consumer confidence began to dip as households became increasingly wary about the appearance of long threatened price inflation. When prices did […]
FOCUS: Fashion e-commerce: two-tiersystem of malls and direct closing in on department storesFashion is already the largest single category online, but it also a sector that is developing rapidly. While the bulk of sales come from the leading malls, Amazon, Rakuten, Yahoo and Zozo, as well as a growing number of smaller malls, fashion retailers are […]
FOCUS THIS MONTH:E-commerce: digital to influence 45% of all retail sales by 2025E-commerce is set to account for 15% of retail sales in 2025, double the size of any other channel, and become the biggest channel for physical merchandise by 2023. However, recent research, which considers online sales in a store context, suggests that already […]
Japan going cashless in 2019, but households still keep a lot of Yen under the futon cashHeavily supported by the government, Japanese retailers are embarking on a shift to cashless payments and the number of different mobile payment services is growing rapidly. The speed of change is such that it is impossible to give more […]
