Having a legal entity in Japan is no longer required to sell!
* You can open a direct shop with your entity from overseas.
You can open a shop on Rakuten Ichiba as a seller from overseas.
By default our consultations are provided in English, we can also accomodate Korean, Chinese, and Japanese.
The amount of cross-border sales from sellers in US and Europe has been doubling since 2019.
‘Since creating the covered grill in 1952, Weber has continued to help people worldwide discover what’s possible with a Weber grill.
Rakuten is a comprehensive internet service company that operates the largest e-commerce marketplace in Japan. The B2C e-commerce market in Japan is very mature, and as of 2021 ranks as the fourth largest e-commerce market in the world. Rakuten Ichiba maintains a 28.9% market share within the Japanese e-commerce market. Not only can we help you apply for a shop, but we provide the support and know-how in order to achieve your goals.
* Source: Ministry of Finance Japan "2023Trade Statistics of Japan"
Domestic E-Commerce GMS
Number of Membership ID
Average Daily GMS
Number of Shops
Share of Overall Japanese E-commerse Market
Rakuten 28.9 %
Rakuten 38.3 %
Rakuten 40.8 %
One of the biggest challenges of entering the Japanese market is the "language barrier". Communication is the key to the winning market entry to Japan. We provide support throughout the stages of onboarding, so that you can feel at ease and stay on track for opening a shop.
* Both the shop operations and customer service must be provided by the seller, a high proficiency in Japanese is required.
Our team of onboarding consultants, who are specialists in cross-border business will answer your questions about the contract and application.
In order to open your shop, there are Your Shop Open Advisor will guide you through the necessary procedures to open your shop.
For future questions on sales and operations, regarding your shop, a dedicated E-Commerce Consultant (ECC) will be assigned to support you. They will work alongside you to solve problems and assist in the planning for sales promotions.
You can analyze various data such as the number of traffic or conversion rate. This data will be useful when you plan for promotions. You can also utilize data on customer attributes or bestselling items in order to create a customized sales approach.
On Rakuten Ichiba, we provide various sales opportunities using different types of marketing services. You will be able to gain new users by utilizing those services and participating in events such as "Rakuten Super Sale". By implementing these promotions, it will enable you to create a larger shop awareness on the marketplace.
A fundamental of increasing sales is to increase your "fans" (repeat customers). On Rakuten Ichiba, you can communicate with our users by sending EDM and utilize SNS and blogs. As a result, you can increase your fans significantly.
For most products, except well-known or common items, it is necessary to utilize the product page in order to communicate its strong points. Product pages play a role by introducing new users to your products, as if they were a virtual sales representative.
There is more flexibility to create your shop page!
You can communicate the quality of your products!
*1 The vertical or "long page" that are common on Rakuten Ichiba are a strategy to communicate a product's quality to customers and improve the purchase rate.
There are restrictions in creating your shop page.
It is difficult to communicate the quality of your products
ECC
No personal consultant available
An E-Commerce Consultant (ECC) at Rakuten will work alongside you in order to grow your sales. They will advise on your shop operation, propose plans, and give you one-to-one consultations.
It takes about one and a half months from submitting your application to opening of your shop on Rakuten Ichiba.
Please contact your assigned consultant for more details.
Screening 2 to 3 weeks
An Onboarding Consultant will support you to prepare for screening. Once you pass all stages of screening, you will be issued an account, and then can start creating your our shop.
* A valid D-U-N-S® Number is required.
Shop Open Preparation / Screening for Shop Opening 2 weeks to 1 month
You can design your shop's top page and register the product listings on RMS (Rakuten Merchant Server). During this process, a Shop Open Advisor will be assigned to your shop and will support you.
Start selling!
In order to achieve your target sales volume, an assigned ECC will advise on ways to increase the traffic and CVR, as well as recommend sales strategies.
You can open a shop on Rakuten directly from the following countries, pending capabilities in Japanese.
If necessary, you may outsource the required shop setup and management in Japanese to a service partner.
For countires not listed, please contact us for more information.
* Additional conditions may apply depending on your country of origin. Please contact us for more information.
This plan is only available for overseas entities (corporations) which can operate in Japanese. If this a concern for you, we can introduce a recommended service partner for support. Please contact us for more information.
| Ichiba Basic Shop Open Plan | |
|---|---|
| Registration Fee | ¥60,000 |
| Monthly Fixed Fee | ¥65,000 Monthly Fee: 2 Installments (6 months each) |
| Contract Period | 1 Year |
| Listing Capacity | Unlimited |
| System Fee | PC: 2.0%-4.0% (Mobile: 2.5% - 4.5% ) |
| Rakuten Super Points Fee | 1.0% |
| System Enhancement Fee for Improving Safety and Usability on the marketplace. | 0.1% |
| R-Pay (Payment Processing Fee) | 2.5% - 3.5% |
* Affiliate Fee: Avg. 0.59%
* Effective June 1st, 2024, there will be changes to the monthly store fees. The updated fees are available on this page. Please refer here for background, specifics of the fee revision, and information on the previous fees.(English Reference)
In general, Personal Import is regarded as "a direct purchase of foreign goods from overseas mail order companies, retailers, manufacturers, and others by an individual for the purpose of personal use".
Since there are prohibited or restricted articles that can't be imported/exported to Japan by way of Personal Import, please be sure to check for yourself and adhere to these guidelines.
International deliveries sometimes take longer compared to domestic deliveries in Japan. It is required to add the shipping information on your shop's Top Page and Product Pages, as well as inform customers when they contact your shop.
Also, on your Top Page please notify your customers that the customs clearance may take more time than usual, creating shipping delays.
All products purchased through Rakuten Ichiba will be delivered to the customers as "Personal Import".
All products imported as "Personal Import" are subject to the customer's own "individual use/consumption".
Although ordered products may be gifted to a third party free of cost, any resale of those products are prohibited by Japanese law.
If the net taxable amount is 10,000 yen or less, the tax will be exempt and Customs Duty and Consumption Tax will not be levied.
In the case of Personal Import, there is a special tax of 60% of the product price, so the product price up to 16,666 yen will be tax-exempt.
*However, some products are not tax-exempt (footwear, knitted goods, leather goods, etc.)
Therefore, if the total price of the products before using points and coupons is 16,666 yen or more (excluding shipping cost), Customs Duty, Consumption Tax, and Customs Charges will be charged to customers when they receive their products.
You can avoid customer issues by clearly stating this on your Top Page, however please be sure to understand the rules for yourself as well.
![社会的責任[CSR]](https://r.r10s.jp/com/img/logo/rakuten_csr_116x20.gif){kind=logo}
