The constant rise in the conversion of the operations of the world from working manually to handing operations through a digital medium has made the world more advanced and technologized.
The sudden growth in today’s working scenario has led to an increase in the economy all over the world. The goods are being traded among different countries globally through digital platforms.
E-commerce sites have now gained much recognition and are preferred all over the world to promote online trading.
In this article, we are going to discuss one such country Japan, which is not just tech-savvy but also famous for its production in high-quality technological products and its trading all over the world.
Japan is famous for its technological innovations and unique creativity in providing technological solutions.
In the present time, after China, United States and the United Kingdom, Japan is the 4th largest e-commerce market in the world well known for converting its local brands into international e-commerce brands, now selling across the world-wide.
The success story of Japan in becoming the 4th largest e-commerce market in the world is described in this article by listing the top ten leading e-commerce sites and their successful journey in becoming the top brands all over the world.
Top 10 Japanese E-Commerce Platforms
Amazon Japan
In 1994, Amazon was founded in the United States and not too long after it was set up in Japan and hence became a leader in the market. In a month, its estimated number of visitors is 597.18 million.
Amazon started as an online book store and gradually thus changes into one where you can buy anything clothes, books, food, video streaming and many other things. Amazon Japan has the status of being the 5th largest website in the country and not only this but also the 5th largest e-commerce site in the whole wide world.
Citizens of Japan use its website for seeking news from all over the world, media information and e-commerce shopping services that offer a wide variety of items on its site.. It consists of various products including toys, electronics, media, furniture, apparel and many more. It is considered the best online sales site. It has become the global leader of e-commerce.
Being the popular online e-commerce site, it focuses on cloud computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence and digital streaming. Electronic business platforms are operated by this site.
Rakuten
Founded in 1997 by a Japanese businessman, Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten is a famous Japanese e-commerce trading website that sells its products directly to the consumers.
This mega-brand deals in a variety of products including clothing & accessories, travel & vacations, health & beauty, electronics & office, shoes & handbags, home auto and pets, baby, kids & toys, sports & outdoors, food & entertainment, books & media, gifts flowers & occasions, and many more. Its Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) e-commerce platform is the world’s largest site known for its sales and also the largest e-commerce site in its own country.
Famous for providing communication and customer care services as well as digital content, it operates in around 30 countries and regions and therefore in its own country it is often called “Amazon of Japan”. The total revenue earned is 1.1 lakh crores as per the data of 2018. The total estimated visitors of this site per month is around 532 million.
Yahoo! Auctions Japan
Yahoo! Auctions Japan has the status of being the largest online auction. It is also the largest flea market app in the country. In this app, people can find all the items which they could not find on the traditional Yahoo! Shopping sites. Its estimated number of visitors in a month is approximately 142 million. There is also a sale feature of this website that can be used by the sellers and help consumers to pick up their choice of products very quickly.
This Yahoo! Auctions Japan as the name suggests itself, is widely known for its auctions. This online site provides different categories to the people to buy that consists of many things including computers, music, books, beauty, fashion, video games, home and antique collection, home appliances and AV.
It is an integral part of Yahoo! Japan’s main portal so it has gained recognition and became famous worldwide.
Yahoo! Shopping Japan
Yahoo! Shopping Japan in another most successful trading e-commerce website of Japan. It holds the position of being the 34th largest website of e-commerce in Japan and 5th largest website of e-commerce in the world.
Similar to Rakuten, it also offers the wide range of products to its consumers dealing in the different categories of products that include accessories, appliances, items related to babies & kids, clothing, computer & technology products, electronics, a large variety of gift items, food essentials, health & beauty products, home & garden products, jewellery, office supplies, toys, and whatnot.
Yahoo! Shopping is owned by Alibaba which is a Chinese Brand and Soft Bank Group.
Talking about revenue earned by Yahoo! Shopping, it has earned the revenue of ¥ 292,423 million as per the data of 2010. The estimated number of total monthly visitors to this site is approximately 90 million.
Since, it is a part of the main portal Yahoo! Japan, it has gained much recognition and has become a leading online marketplace sector in the past few years.
Mercari
Mercari is a popular marketplace that helps in connecting people who are in need of a product to the people who want to sell their products as they are of no use to them. It’s estimated number of visitors in a month is 85.11 million.
The app mainly allows its customers to perform the function of purchase and sale for their own goods. It was launched in 2013. It also helps them to browse products from well-established brands. These items are divided into various categories that consist of many things including toys, fashion, sporting goods, electronics and many more.
It has been expanded to the United States in 2014 and the United Kingdom in 2016. The app consists of many different features that include Mercury Now service and live streaming function. This service enables the sellers to take payment immediately or at once.
DMM
DMM is a type of Private Kabushikigaisha online trading website.
Founded in 1999, DMM.com Ltd. is a famous Internet company and electronic commerce portal of Japan. It is a unique and different portal from the above-mentioned ones as it deals in online shopping and along with that video services that are rendered on demand of the consumer.
DMM is a platform that allows its users to purchase different goods and services manually as well as services through a digital medium like electronic books, games, 3D printing, DVD releases and many others.
This online platform has gained recognition due to its success in providing entertainment through online mode to its users.
DMM is founded by Keishi Kameyama, the chairman of the company and Takanori Katagiri, the CEO of the same.
The various services offered by DMM include online shopping, online English education service, news rental service, electronic books, video-on-demand service, online games, mobile telephony, 3D printing, robots, solar panel service and PC software.
Since, the time it has been introduced as an online electronic commerce platform, it has just lead the journey of success through its continuous expansion and growth.
Its success can be reflected from the total number of users visiting this website and at present, the total estimated number of visitors per month for this website is approximately 74 million.
Zozo Town
Zozo Town is a company based on e-commerce business. Internet shopping websites are operated by Zozo Town. It is mainly a portal for fashion and footwear. It was founded in 2004 from an existing mail-order brand popularly known as Star Today and for decades it has been in the Japanese market.
Zozo Town is very famous and the most popular fashion specific electronic commerce online site in the country. This offers the customers a variety of products from brands both international and local, niche and mainstream.
Zozo Town also consists of brands that are its own brands. These brands are available in seventy-two countries and territories.
Wowma
Wowma is another very famous online market place dealing in mobile phones. It is founded by KDDI and is considered as one of the largest mobile phone providers in Japan.
This site offers a variety of latest trendy products and ensures that its users get updated every time.
Wowma keeps its site updated every time so that no old information regarding any product is conveyed to the viewers and so by this it builds up the customer’s trust toward its website.
Wowma is famous for its collection of products as it offers around 20 million products on its website with all different, unique and latest features introduced in the market.
The wide range of products or items offered by this online trading platform includes clothing, furniture, electronics, restaurant bookings, decorations, cosmetics, personal care services and home equipment.
Being a part of KDDI, this portal is widely promoted in Japan as the estimated number of total monthly visitors to this website are approximately 28 million.
Rakuma
Rakuma earlier known as Fril was established in 2012 and it the market place owned by Rakuten. Rakuten bought Fril and mingled with the flea market app, Rakuma. It offers an easy sale of goods. People can easily buy the goods they need and sell the products that are of no use to them. It has become a top destination for this sale. This is accessed through a mobile application. It has jumped over 10 million downloads on the mobile. It is vying for the crown of the biggest name in the smartphone market place world.
Its estimated number of visitors in a month is approximately 17 million. This is accessible on both mobile and desktop. It has become the notable flea marketplace in the country.
Qoo 10 Japan
Last but not the least, Qoo 10 which was earlier known as the G market, is a Singaporean business based on electronic commerce business and thus is a platform that is servicing the Southeast Asian regions. In many of the countries, it is operated as a localized online marketplace.
Several countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Hong Kong are the one the main international online marketplace where Qoo 10 deals.
Similar to some of the above-mentioned online platforms, this online website also deals in a large collection of a wide variety of products that are operated by a joint venture with eBay.
These include the categories like men & sports, women’s fashion, beauty & diet, home & living, food & baby, deal & entertain and many others.
Through its global fashion and trend policies it has expanded a lot in the past few years. This platform makes sure that its users remain updated will all the latest technologies or products introduced.
This significant growth of this portal due to its policy of providing all the latest information related to its products has attracted users the most and has expanded the reach of this portal to many other Asian countries.
Future Of eCommerce in Japan
Indeed, the future of eCommerce in Japan seems to be very bright – there are consumers to buy the commodities the market has to supply, the people are financially capable to afford them as the living standards are quite high, the entire country is connected through one mode of transport or the another – granted, Japan is a place of broken islands yet it has an impressive railway and seaway system, hence delivery of goods to the customer is hardly an issue. Hence, there certainly is space and scope for the growth of eCommerce platforms in the country.
Conclusion
The trading of goods online has now become a trend. The advancements in technology have promoted the purchases and sales of goods & services through online digitized platforms.
This constant increase in dealing with products online has given rise to a lot of online portals. The companies nowadays, prefer to deal online rather than doing any work manually. The same goes for the users or consumers who like to have the advantage of living in a modernized and technologized world where they can operate from home through online medium.
Japan is the most famous country for its technology, has created the top-rated electronic commerce portals that have made it easy for both the companies as well as users to trade digitally through online medium.
The above-mentioned top ten e-commerce sites of Japan have led their journey to success through constant growth and expansion because of their day by day increasing demand not only among its country but also all over the world.