JapanConsuming

strong>Focus: Retail Results FY2009 The complete picture: dynamic retailers to the fore The latest financial results for FY2009 are now out. It was not a good year for many given the economic problems and consumers who are still unwilling to spend, but even so, a good number of retailers produced very solid gains, both in terms [...]

Retail pioneers: selling food online Selling food online remains a business still in its infancy in Japan despite Seiyu opening the first online supermarket way back in 2000. Small though it may be, most of the leading food retailers now have some form of sales channel through the internet, and there are a few other notable [...]

Rakuten announced this week that it has agreed to buy French online retailer PriceMinister for €200 million. PriceMinister had sales of €39.9 million last year and is the biggest online retailer in France by visitor numbers, with additional operations in the UK and Spain. The deal will help Rakuten ramp up its European operations rapidly. [...]

A small, independent farm in Hokkaido has launched a new yoghurt product selling for ¥5,000 (US$53) for a tiny 200g bottle. North Plain Farm is producing just 10 bottles of its Crema D’Or yoghurts a day. It claims demand already outstrips this small supply through its online store – which may well be true because at [...]

Fast Retailing saw like for like sales down by another 12.4% in April (Fast Retailing Monthly Sales), the second month in a row that same store sales have dropped significantly. The figure for March was over 16.4%, the biggest decline since 2003. Customer numbers also declined 7.8% in April compared to 2009 on a same [...]

Focus: Sports: a bright light in the fashion industry “A cloudless blue sky, snowy peaks of Fujisan in the background, and a shimmering patch of green perfection ahead as his ball drops within a metre of the flag. Other than the appreciative murmurings of equally privileged colleagues enjoying a day away from the pressures of office [...]

Baroque Japan, operator of a number of the more cutting edge women’s fashion brands with and a popular tenant in Shibuya 109, will begin opening directly run stores in China from this year. The first stores will open in Hangzhou and Nanjing where it has run experimental outlets since 2008 according to Nikkei. The stores [...]

strong>Focus: Japan only big enough for 80 department stores J-Front’s chairman recently suggested a department store needs a catchment of a minimum of 1 million people to work. On a pro rata basis, this suggests 130 department stores could survive well enough, fewer than half the current total. However, add in population spread and transport issues, [...]

Yamada Denki is the third largest retailer in Japan, and the second most profitable. One of the few retailers that has taken marketing seriously over a long period, it now leads a sector that is increasingly saturated at home. Yamada continues to draw in customers and, in addition to forecasting great results for last year, [...]

2009 12-month results: couldn’t have been worse The calendar year results for 2009 are unusually important. In addition to providing a hint at how financial performances may turn out with the end of year results to be announced in February and March, the numbers this year show a clear picture of how different formats are coping [...]

Itochu has announced it will boost its stake in Izumiya, the medium sized GMS chain based in Kansai, to 5.3%. Izumiya has a business tie-up with Uny, another major chain that Itochu recently invested in. In both cases, expansion in the Chinese market is said to be a key motivation for Itochu’s interest, although possible [...]

Fast Retailing continues its search for major acquisitions — all part of the goal that Tadashi Yanai, the company’s president and majority shareholder, has to be not only the largest apparel retailer in Japan, but equally the largest in the world. This kind of ambition is exactly what the Japanese press like to report on, [...]

Used goods retailing now for everyone Japanese may be famous for buying luxury brands, but nowadays not everyone is looking to get the latest product brand new. There is a growing and increasingly professional market in second hand goods, and second hand apparel and branded items are a key part of it. Several chains have created [...]

Focus: Japan warms to online shopping There is a warm glow of satisfaction and even excitement in one area of consumer distribution: online shopping. Almost all the leading online shopping malls, web stores and mobile shops are enjoying strong growth as consumers shift their spending online. Wider selections, keen prices and the comfort of shopping from [...]

Bonuses slump, gift giving declines, department stores wail Department stores are in dire straights. This is hardly news after 20 months of ongoing decline and forecasts of the lowest annual sales total since 1985. Department store obituaries have been written numerous times already, not least in JC, but the death of their role in the key [...]

Burberry Group has announced its license with Mitsui, which includes Sanyo Shokai as the main apparel licensee, will now end in 2015, five years ahead of the end of the original license contract in 2020. Burberry first signed a master license with Mitsui in 1970. After renegotiation, the remaining five years of the contract [...]

FOCUS: Shopping centres: more space, lower sales, lower rent While FY2007 was a good year for shopping centres (SCs), FY2008 was very challenging and presaged what has become an even tougher 2009. While sales fell for many, the rate of development has also declined after years of exuberant growth. The majority of SCs continued to work [...]

For the second year in succession, Aeon has announced it will make a significant first half loss. The six months to 31 August saw the largest retail group make a group net loss of ¥14.6 billion. The main reason, again, was the ongoing slump in sales at the core GMS chain, with more and more [...]

Italian designer brand Versace has announced it will pull out of Japan by the end of the year. Gianni Versace Japan had imported and sold the brand here directly, but the Italian parent will now liquidate the company entirely. The last three stores closed in July. The brand will now look to re-start wholesale operations, leaving [...]

Focus: Apparel: a testing year reveals the winners Following last month’s focus on apparel distribution overall, this month we take a closer look at the most dominant apparel retail format: specialty chains. A much more mixed set of results for FY2008 reflects the difficult second half of the year facing every retailer selling apparel. Many more [...]