Walmart Embraces Amazon MCF: A New Era of Cross-Platform Fulfillment for eCommerce
Walmart Embraces Amazon MCF: A New Era of Cross-Platform Fulfillment for eCommerce
As we have just witnessed back to school season which had a tremendous amount of impact in terms of Online sales. Awaits the biggest Rakuten holiday shopping season of the year.
The festive season is right around the corner and knocking the doors of online retailers with a lot of opportunities. This season is considered as the biggest holiday season in terms of eCommerce sales and revenues. Connect with merchants on a global level.
Let’s have a look at the most emerging marketplace of the US, and what is so special about Rakuten Holiday Season.
Some insights into the Rakuten marketplace
Rakuten Inc. is a Japanese eCommerce and internet company which was founded in 1997 by Hiroshi Mikitani. It is based in Tokyo, Japan. Rakuten is the largest eCommerce platform in Japan and one of the largest eCommerce platforms in terms of sales.
Later Rakuten emerges as an e-commerce marketplace in the US, based in San Mateo, California. Previously known as Buy.com, it was founded by Scott Blum. In 2010, it was purchased by Rakuten and rebranded as Rakuten.com. Now it has emerged as Rakuten Global Market. It was on January 10, 2013, that Rakuten announced the official rebranding of Buy.com to Rakuten.com. It has also launched e-commerce sites in Germany, Brazil, France, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, Austria, Russia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Rakuten Global Market Review
Rakuten announced the purchase of San Francisco based online rebate site ebates.com for $1 billion in cash in the year 2014. Since then Rakuten is serving retailers to sell exceptionally well in the U.S and Japan.
[Source: www.webretailer.com]
The above picture aptly depicts the number of Rakuten members, unique buyers, and Rakuten global market which tells that Rakuten has helped many retailers to grow their business by increasing visibility of their products. With 105.9 million members & 15.6 million buyers, Rakuten can be a great start to most of the sellers not only in the U.S. but worldwide as well. Having mentioned all the important aspects, let me simply tell you why Rakuten can be the best choice for the U.S. sellers.
These Rakuten Global Market review helps you decide whether it’s worth selling on Rakuten or not.
One statistical example will be best, to begin with.
[Source: www.earlymoves.com]
The above picture on Rakuten Global Market review clearly depicts that Rakuten has earned quite a name in the U.S. It is a leading Japanese marketplace which is the best choice for the U.S. sellers.
Rakuten Holiday Season Sales Statistics:
Rakuten is currently an emerging marketplace in the US. It came with a big name and reputation as a Rakuten Global Market. People know it as one of the biggest marketplace in Japan, but how well did Rakuten managed to follow up on its previous statistics? Let’s have a look at the Rakuten holiday season sales statistics:
Green Monday and Free Shipping Day Sales statistics
- On free shipping day, Revenues and transactions through mobile increased by 52% and 42% respectively.
- YOY in the first half of December, the mobile revenue increased by 67% and mobile purchased had a hike of 59%. The AOV (Average Order Value) also increased up by 5%.
- On Green Monday mobile sales had a significant hike. On Dec 18, Revenues go up by 51% and mobiles transaction goes up by 44%.
- Consumers are spending more time on advertiser sites in 2017, with the number of pages viewed per site visit up 14 percent in the period of December 1-15, 2017
- The peak revenue time for free shipping day was at around 9 AM and for green Monday revenue peaked at 11 AM.
Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday Sales Statistics
- The Combined revenue growth across Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday was 23% YOY.
- Online revenue and purchases on Thanksgiving Day grew 28 percent and 35 percent YOY respectively.
- Online revenue on Black Friday and Cyber Monday grew 21 percent and AOV (Average Order Value) grew 24 percent, though purchases were down three percent, consumers usually save their spendings for bigger ticket items for Black Friday,
- Consumers are more and more comfortable shopping on mobile devices, with smartphone shopping up over the course of the full Thanksgiving Week, Sunday to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Mobile revenue grew by 43 percent, purchases by 34 percent, and AOV by seven percent.
What Rakuten Brings this holiday Season for sellers?
Considering the previous factors and statistics on the Rakuten Holiday season and Rakuten Global Market. If you own an eCommerce store It should already have given you a certain kind of excitement after seeing this kind of numbers behind a festive season.
“Holiday shopping behavior is evolving year after year, and we continue to experience outstanding growth as consumers open their wallets in response to retailer strategies during the peak holiday shopping days,” said Rakuten Marketing CEO
What to expect before the start of the biggest festive season:
As we have witnessed the amount of hike that the eCommerce market is getting YOY in terms of Sales, Traffic, Revenue and No. of active users. It could be expected that the upcoming year is going to be bigger than the last. Following factors could be considered in upcoming festive season:
Hike up in sales and Traffic:
Due to the enormous eagerness of the buyers during this festive season, be prepared as more number of people will be heading your way this Rakuten holiday season. Marketing and promotions strategies will be playing a huge role during this period.
Opportunity to gain new customers:
Gaining new customers is all that an eCommerce store holder is after all the time. This holiday season is a great opportunity for sellers to gain permanent and loyal customers. Provide promotions and discount that attracts customers to visit your store again.
Make the most out of Black Friday and Cyber Monday:
These two days are the biggest days in terms of online shopping and revenue. Every year sales in Black Friday and Cyber Monday days break all the previous records. So considering the prominence of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, set up your store so that you will be able to make the most out of the Holiday season.
Clearing up old Stock:
the holiday season is a great time to clear up your old stock. Some unsold stuff can be sold through promotions and discounts.
Features of Rakuten / Is it worth selling on Rakuten?
1) Greater-Scope for growth:
As of September 2017, Rakuten has nearly 100 million members in over 29 countries. Therefore, it has a greater scope for U.S. sellers to generate more leads and close them into happy customers.
In a survey, it was found that about 38 % of sellers plan to expand beyond eBay & Amazon and about 35.8% of them plan to sell on Rakuten that makes it worth selling on Rakuten.
2) Affordable prerequisites:
If a seller is based out of the U.S., he just needs to have the following:
- Hold U.S. bank and credit card accounts.
- Mandatory customer service email address answerable during U.S. business hours.
- a U.S. customer service phone number (optional).
- Fast enough shipping time period for U.S. customers.
3) Quick support & Help services:
With over 15,000 employees from 70 countries, they made it possible to worth selling on Rakuten that helps you with any and every query of yours with instant revert backs. This helps you to have an uninterrupted selling process. Thus, Rakuten can be the best choice for U.S. sellers.
4) Greater M-Commerce Sales:
As m-commerce is on the boom, Rakuten has shown credible growth & seems to make a mark in e-commerce with an increasing number of mobile sales as shown in the graph below:
[Source:www.marketplacepulse.com]
5) Fair parameters to decide product visibility chance for sellers:
- Rakuten decides the placing of products in its search results on the basis of:
- Optimized Product Title & Product Description.
- Cost of the product
- Previous response on the product
- Shipping charges
- Processing days (minimum & maximum)
- Refund & return policy.
Thus, the criteria to decide the product visibility are so much fair that despite the competition, every seller stands an equal chance to fetch customers.
6) A room for recognition:
Rakuten has introduced Rakuten Marketing, which includes affiliate, display, search, etc. So, a seller can take aid of these services and market their online products to attain higher product visibility.
Also, Rakuten is a great promoter of multi-channel marketing. Therefore, it encourages people to sell their online store products on its platform.
- Rakuten marketplace seller account
- One of the following barcodes- UPC, EAN, JAN, ISBN>
- A brand name (you can use your name as well)
7) Reasonable Taxation:
Rakuten, with its minimal taxation and selling fees, ensure that:
- Sellers do not feel a burden paying the fees.
- The fees are modifiable according to the profit earned by sellers.
thus, sellers can feel comfortable while selling on Rakuten it can be the best choice for the U.S. sellers.
8) Enhanced Customer Loyalty & Trust:
Rakuten ensures that one has interaction with its buyers through reviews, ratings, etc that helps the seller decide whether it is worth selling on Rakuten.
It also inhibits malpractices such as false display of shipping and return policies by verifying the product configurations from other marketplaces you sell on.
Ensures a fair share of recognition to the seller by allowing sellers to display close up images of their logo, brand image, etc.
With a valid & recognizable listing barcode (UPC, EAN, etc), one can have a hold on customers and build trust. Still wondering whether to sell on Rakuten U.S.A or not? Let the Rakuten U.S.A review section (by consumers) of the blog help you:
How we can help U.S. sellers to sell on Rakuten?
Having realized the potential of Rakuten as a leading marketplace, we have worked in the direction to come up with a solution which has the following features-
1) Product upload and Update:
Seamlessly upload your products through CSV on Rakuten Marketplace and carry out changes in the product listing, description, etc.
2) Manage Orders:
As soon as you receive orders on the Rakuten marketplace, the order is synced with the app. Furthermore, the orders synced, are created on the Shopify store so that you can easily manage your orders by confirming it on your Shopify store.
3) Custom Pricing:
The Rakuten Shopify integration app makes the task of setting the price for your products flexible. You can set the desired prices and adjust them from time to time according to the ongoing scenario.
4) Get Rakuten Feeds:
Get regular notifications from your Marketplace (Rakuten) about the status of your products. This helps you to keep track of successful orders, failed orders, etc.
5) Maintain Threshold Inventory:
You can set a minimum value for your products so that you get updated as soon as your products are on the verge of going out of stock. This will help you manage your inventory on the Shopify store.
6) Auto cancel Orders:
The app helps you to cancel your orders automatically as soon as your product has gone out of stock so that you do not a warning of “late delivery” for any of your orders. Our app with the above features is the Rakuten Marketplace Integration app, which currently is in the beta phase of testing as we believe in collaborative growth. Click to explore the app and sell like never before! If you already sell on any online store, one question that must be popping up in your head is-
How can I integrate my store with the Rakuten Marketplace?
To sync your online store inventory, product details, etc. with the Marketplace, simply:
1) Avail Rakuten marketplace seller account.
2) Employ flexible Integration tool to connect online store (Shopify) to Rakuten.
Conclusion:
The U.S. sellers who aspire to sell better can explore and sell on Rakuten credited to its minimal fees, greater product visibility, and increasing members as well as buyers. Also, with Rakuten Global Express, you can make the shipping process much easier. With the proper marketing strategy, sellers can make a fair amount of profit with Rakuten Marketplace. A prosperous future awaits you!
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