Two Japanese companies, Rakuten and Uniqlo, have confirmed plans
to further grow their businesses in Europe.
Online shopping mall Rakuten, which
acquired Buy.com in May, is breaking into Europe through the
€200 million (£167 million, $248 million) acquisition
of France’s PriceMinister website. PriceMinister, an online
marketplace where users can buy and sell books, music, apparel,
and electricals, is the most-visited ecommerce site in France
accessed by more than 11 million users a month. Outside of
France, PriceMinister also has a presence in the UK and Spain. In
Japan, Rakuten has approximately 64 million registered members
and generated sales of $3.2 billion (£2.16 billion) in
2009.
Another Japanese brand, apparel retailer Uniqlo, is expanding its
foothold in Europe by bolstering its web presence. Currently the
UK Uniqlo website offers just a selection of the range, but the
company plans to sell its entire collection online as well as
some online exclusives. In a statement, Uniqlo’s UK chief
executive Simon Coble said he aims for the “Uniqlo
ecommerce operation to be the most profitable store by the end of
2010”. To this end, Uniqlo is recruiting staff for its
ecommerce team. And whilst the business is also opening retail
outlets in France and Russia, its ecommerce business will
continue to be handled in the UK with a view for it to be the
“platform for future European ecommerce
expansion”.
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