JapanConsuming

Click here to Subscribe Now Focus: From virtual customers to real and back again: O2O marketing takes off Now that e-commerce is the fastest growing channel by far, high street retailers need to work harder than ever to pull in customers. Until recently pure e-commerce businesses had an advantage over physical stores in exploiting online [...]

Click here to Subscribe Now Focus: Aeon’s acquisition of Daiei set to change food distribution for good Aeon has launched a tender offer for Daiei shares and will also acquire Marubeni’s stake with the aim to turn Daiei into a full subsidiary by July. Aeon has wanted to buy Daiei for many years so the [...]

Focus: Department stores have a storming 2012 It is a very long time since department stores have been the leading retail sector, but in 2012 they did lead – at least in terms of growth among mixed merchandise retailers. The initial figures from the Japan Department Store Association showed a tiny 0.3% rise in same [...]

Consumers – what they want and how they buy it Japanese worry about the future of the economy and the negative effect on incomes but they feel better off than a decade ago according to the latest surveys. Not only that but, rather than putting lower prices first, they are making more decisions based on [...]

FOCUS: Non-store retailing set to become largest channel of all Japanese consumers love to shop, and the growing sophistication of the many non-store purchasing options is adding a whole new dimension. Non-store retailing in its broadest sense is any channel that reaches the final consumer without going through a physical store. It covers paper catalogues [...]

Focus: Turning crisis into opportunity: Japan’s post earthquake consumer markets The Japan of today is quite different from the Japan prior to March 2011. The Tohoku earthquake disaster and subsequent debacle over nuclear reactors is the biggest crisis in modern history – and equally important it happened within easy distance of Tokyo where close to [...]

Focus: Sales at leading shopping centre jump 4.6% in 2011 2011 was a strong year for the largest shopping centres in Japan. The top 100 enjoyed buoyant trading up 4.6% thanks to rising spending on fashions, food and lifestyle goods – despite the drop of 15% in sales at Narita as visitors stayed away from [...]

Specialty Fashion 2011: a strong push from the middle The results for specialty apparel retailing in FY2011 were the best for more than five years, reflecting higher spending on premium fashions as well as a general uplift in consumer demand. The top 60 specialty apparel retailers outperformed other retailers, averaging 5% growth and now account [...]

Focus: Apparel Retailing FY2011: growth from better value Apparel sales rose 2.3% in FY2011 while the top 100 chains grew around 5%. It was a solid year all round, and the higher growth for the top 100 gave them more than 50% of apparel market share for the first time ever. While specialty chains continued [...]

Focus: Retail Results 2011: a second year of profit growth 2011 was yet another great year for Japanese retailers. Despite earthquakes, shorter store opening hours, consumer reluctance to spend and reduced power supplies, most retailers managed to make money – some of them a lot of it. The only sub-sector to finish with poorer results [...]