The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry conducted an EC market research report called “International Economic Research Project for Building an Integrated Domestic and Foreign Economic Growth Strategy in the Fiscal Year 2022 (Market Research on Electronic Commerce)”. According to this report, the EC market size in Japan for goods sales to individual consumers exceeded 10 trillion yen as of 2019. This represents a growth of approximately 1.5 times over the past five years.
Taking a look at the EC rate in Japan’s consumer market, it has continued to grow by around 0.5% every year for the past 10 years, reaching 6.76% by 2019. The EC conversion rate in the personal consumption sector exceeded 10% in the U.S. and 35% in China. While in Japan, there is still a lot of room for their e-commerce to grow.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused a relative decline in sales at physical stores which has increased the importance of e-commerce sites.
Even in the consumer electronics industry, the impact of the widespread use of e-commerce and the coronavirus pandemic has been very significant.
First, there has been an increase in consumption due to the pandemic, which has been a tailwind for the home electronics market as a whole. Yamada Denki, the largest home electronics retailer, reported a 75.2% increase in recurring profit in its interim results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. This applies to most other major consumer electronics retailers who also posted large increases in profits.
However, there were some major consumer electronics retailers where the coronavirus created a struggle. For example, many of the consumer electronics retailers in urban areas struggled since the people avoid going out to do their shopping as well as an increase in working from home that reduced stopping to shop on the way home from work. Some urban electronics retailers, such as Yamada Denki in Shinjuku and Bic Camera in Ikebukuro, began to close their doors.
As a result, the ratio of suburban stores and e-commerce sites has increased in the sales of home appliance mass retailers. The main target of suburban stores are families who come to shop by car from home.
Since family units can avoid other people and crowded public transportation, shopping at suburban stores has not decreased.
In addition to this, since consumer electronics have a high EC conversion rate, it is expected that EC in the home appliances field will become more widespread due to changes in demand and purchasing behavior caused by the coronavirus.
table of content
Market Size and Market trends of Consumer Electronics EC Sites
- Overall Market for the Consumer Electronics Industry
- About the EC market in the Consumer Electronics Industry
Sales Ranking of Consumer Electronics E-Commerce Sites
- 1) Yodobashi Camera
- 2) Bic Camera
- 3) Japanet Takata
- 4) Joshin Electric
- 5) Yamada Denki
Features for Consumer Electronics EC Sites
- Usability (UX)
- Page Display Speed
- Points / Coupons
- Setting Shipping Charges and Limiting Simultaneous Purchase
Differentiation Points to be Tackled on Consumer Electronics EC Sites
- Enhanced Post-Purchase Support System
- Branding
- Product Recommendations Tailored to Buyer Needs
Summary Consumer Electronics EC Sites
Market Size and Market trends of Consumer Electronics EC sites
From Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry “International Economic Research Project (Market Research on Electronic Commerce) Report on the Construction of Economic Growth Strategy for Internal and External Economy in the First Year of the Ordinance” p.52
According to marketing research company GfK, the market size of the home appliance retail industry in Japan is about 7.8 trillion yen. Among them, the EC conversion rate as of 2019 is 32.75%, which is nearly five times the average 6.67% of consumer EC conversion rate. Home appliances are a product that goes well with EC sites.
Home appliances are often nominated and purchased by their model number or product name. It is also an easy genre to search for when looking for appliances with the same functions by comparing specifications in the catalogs. And since they are mass-produced products, the quality does not change no matter where you buy them.
In addition to this, there is no difference in the time it takes for a product to reach you whether you buy it at a physical store or an EC site since large items must be delivered even if you see and purchase the product at a physical store. These are the main reason why home appliances are increasingly being purchased on EC sites, and the EC conversion rate is increasing.
So, let’s take a look at the market trends focused on EC from the overall market of the home appliance industry.
Overall Market for the Consumer Electronics Industry
Currently, the domestic market size of the consumer electronics retail industry in Japan is about 7 to 8 trillion yen. While this is a large market, it is smaller than the food market of nearly 80 trillion yen and the apparel market of fewer than 10 trillion yen. It is also more susceptible to recession than daily necessities such as food and clothing.
The projections of the domestic consumer electronics market future are not necessarily bright. For the medium to long term, there is a shrinking market size due to the decline in Japan’s population. So, it is expected there will be an increase in single-person households, which will result in the downsizing of necessary home appliances and lower unit prices.
The fact that necessary home appliances are widespread to some extent also creates the expectation that the market will not grow significantly. Furthermore, the unit price of home appliances that have become commoditized, such as TVs and PCs, will decline.
Some home appliances have lost demand due to the spread of smartphones, so some offer a variety of functions in a single device. Such video and audio equipment has been replaced by smartphones, and demand is shrinking.
However, there is a replacement demand for home appliances at the end of their useful life. As well as an increase in dual-income households that increased the popularity of household appliances that encourage shorter work hours. Automatic cookers, robot vacuum cleaners, and dishwashers are gaining in popularity. The rapid decline in market size will not occur as replacement demand supports the market size and new demand is created in place of obsolete genres.
For several years, companies developed their consumer electronics mass retailers to increase their presence in suburban areas. One reason for this is the demand for consumer electronics products among urban workers. They are the main target of urban stores, but this has slowed down and sales have stagnated. In particular, demand for information appliances such as PCs is said to have declined. Another factor is a purchasing behavior known as “showrooming” where customers can look at products at physical stores while returning from work or going out and then place orders on the EC site after returning home. In contrast, the main target of suburban stores is the family unit suburban stores have tended to increase in number to attract families who come to shop with their families on weekends.
This trend has increased since the pandemic. More and more people avoid going shopping in urban areas or have been working remotely, and so urban stores have seen even fewer customers. The lack of any foreign visitors has also been a driving factor.
Compared to urban areas, the number of visitors to suburban stores, where you can go shopping from your home by private car, is still small. More time spent at home has stimulated so-called nesting consumption, which has also helped the consumer electronics industry.
Along with the shift of the trend of actual stores from urban areas to suburbs, the utilization of EC sites is also a concern of the home appliance industry. This is because home appliances that are compatible with e-commerce are very important channels for showrooming and shopping only with e-commerce.
About the EC market in the Consumer Electronics Industry
As of 2019, the consumer electronics industry’s EC market size was approximately 1.8 trillion yen. The EC conversion rate was 32.75%, which is very high compared to the EC conversion rate of 6.76% for the overall consumer market. Of the major industrial fields, only two have a higher EC rate than home appliances.
Office supplies and stationery (41.75%) and books, video, and music software (34.18%). Similar to consumer electronics, these are also fields that are highly compatible with EC. However, in terms of market size, office supplies and stationery (approximately 220 billion yen) and books, video, and music software (approximately 1.3 trillion yen) are not as large as the consumer electronics industry.
There are three areas where the market size is as large as that of the consumer electronics industry: apparel (1.9 trillion yen), food (1.8 trillion yen), and furniture and interior (1.7 trillion yen). The EC conversion rates for these industries are relatively high for furniture/interiors (23.32%) and apparel (13.87%), but not as high as in the consumer electronics industry. Food, at 2.89%, has a lower than average EC conversion rate. It can be said that the consumer electronics industry is an advanced field in the use of EC.
This trend is even more advanced in the coronavirus. The reason for this is that people refrained from going out and spent more time at home, which encouraged consumers to make home time more comfortable.
Demand has increased not only for general household appliances but for cooking appliances as well. People have shifted to eat out less, as well as increase the use of audio-visual appliances and more usage doing remote work via laptops or PCs.
It is expected that many of the special benefits provided by the government were also used for home appliances, as a large sum of 100,000 yen per person was provided, which led to an increase in the purchase of relatively expensive home appliances.
As a result of these factors, consumer electronics retailers have generally performed well in the pandemic.
Sales Ranking of Consumer Electronics E-Commerce Sites
According to the “Internet Sales White Paper,” a study by Monthly Internet Sales, the ranking of sales in the consumer electronics industry by mail order in 2020 is as follows.
- No. 1: Yodobashi Camera (~138 billion yen)
- No. 2: Bic Camera (~108 billion yen)
- No. 3: Japanet Takata (~58 billion yen)
- No. 4: Joshin Electric (~57 billion yen)
- No. 5: Yamada Denki (~45 billion yen)
Although the ranking of sales is limited to e-commerce sites and mail-order sales, companies that have many actual electronics retail stores and companies that have developed composite businesses, such as TV shopping, are also included in the ranking.
Yodobashi Camera ranks first in the consumer electronics industry in terms of sales in the area of EC, but fifth in the industry in terms of overall sales including stores. It has less than half the sales of Yamada Denki, the No. 1 company in the industry. Nevertheless, Yodobashi Camera has succeeded in developing a distinctive e-commerce site and has become No. 1 in the mail-order field.
The most distinctive feature of Yodobashi Camera’s EC site is the convenience of specializing in the WEB. It’s easy to search for products, the purchase procedure is easy, the delivery is free, and it arrives faster than the competitor’s EC site. It is a strategy that attracts people who are accustomed to shopping on the Internet and EC sites.
Yodobashi Camera overcame the weaknesses of e-commerce sites and incorporated consumer behavior called showrooming.
The weak points of e-commerce sites are shipping costs and the number of days it takes to receive the product. Yodobashi Camera has strengthened these weaknesses. It has made delivery free of charge and expanded its next-day delivery service to all areas of the country.
In addition, Yodobashi Camera took advantage of a consumer behavior called “showrooming,” in which consumers do not purchase products after viewing them in a physical store, but purchase them on an e-commerce site afterward. Showrooming was thought to be eliminated as much as possible since it does not generate sales as much as serving customers in the actual stores. However, Yodobashi Camera encouraged showrooming by introducing the URL of its EC site in its stores, thereby directing customers in physical stores to the EC site.
Moreover, since ordering was easy and delivery was fast, the company succeeded in attracting users who had showroomed at competitors’ stores. When comparing multiple EC sites, many people chose Yodobashi Camera.
It can be said that this strategy was taken because of Yodobashi Camera. Since the number of actual stores is inferior to that of Yamada Denki and Bic Camera, they were able to actively gain market share in the mail-order field by rearranging the entire business including actual stores centered on the EC site.
Like Yodobashi Camera, it will be useful for companies that are not leaders in the industry to operate EC sites or to aim to build a business centered on EC sites from the beginning.
https://www.biccamera.com/bc/main/
Due to the influence of the coronavirus, Bic Camera had some difficulties, such as closing some of the stores in Ikebukuro. However, the EC site has grown significantly. The number of registered members of the EC site in April 2020 has tripled from the previous year. Many people refrained from going to actual stores and shopping due to the coronavirus, but the EC site compensated for that.
One of the success factors is the sharing of points between physical stores and EC sites. Many industries have heard that the points you have accumulated will expire without being able to go shopping or traveling due to the coronavirus However, BicCamera was able to guide people to online shopping because the points accumulated by those who used the physical store can be used on the EC site.
At the same time, the EC site is easy to use even for beginners. To enclose people who used to use physical stores, it is necessary to design them so that even people who are not accustomed to shopping on EC sites can use them smoothly.
A product search window at the top of the top page is a standard feature of consumer electronics e-commerce sites, but Bic Camera’s e-commerce site also displays a large category display. By clicking on the genre of the home appliance you want, you can reach the product page even if you do not know the model number or product name, or even if you cannot search well.
While category pages may seem obtrusive to those accustomed to shopping on e-commerce sites, they are designed to be easy to use for beginners.
When adding an EC site to an existing channel, if the physical store and the EC site are created as separate departments, the effects may cancel each other out. It needs to be built in a mutually positive way.
The development of the BicCamera e-commerce site will be helpful for many existing customers and companies with membership registration when building an e-commerce site as a new channel.
https://www.japanet.co.jp/shopping/
Japanet Takata is a well-known TV shopping company, generating mail-order sales not only through its e-commerce site, but also through a wide range of TV, catalogs, and inserts. In 2020, when the coronavirus had a particularly large impact, the company enjoyed a 15% increase in sales over the previous year, a record high, thanks to the growth in demand for home appliances due to nest egg consumption and the growth in mail-order sales due to voluntary restraint from going out.
What makes Japanet Takata’s e-commerce site unique is the number of products it offers. It is not that there are many products, but that there are few. In the past, like other electronics retailers’ e-commerce sites, it had a large selection of products. However, in 2016, the company made a major change in direction, narrowing the number of products from about 8,500 to about 600; as of April 2021, the number has exceeded 700, but it is still very small compared to other e-commerce sites in the consumer electronics industry.
Japanet Takata’s e-commerce site was successful with this change of direction.
By narrowing down the product lineup, the company was able to explain each product in more detail and to do so in a more detailed manner using video. The site is now deeply integrated with TV and flyers, and both the call center and e-commerce site can respond seamlessly to inquiries.
The company has always excelled at introducing and explaining products carefully on TV shopping and other media to get people to want them. This is a form of applying that Japanet-Takata style to e-commerce sites as well.
Japanet Takata can be used as a reference when operating the many channels a company has under the same policy. A select store that sells only carefully selected products will often not be cost-effective even if it continues to increase the number of products on its EC site by taking advantage of the long tail. Instead, the EC site should also be designed to take advantage of its strengths.
In addition, the know-how of video creation accumulated through TV shopping is also utilized. It is a structure that conveys the appeal of the product by mass-producing it in a unified format such as the pattern of the product description, time, shooting method, etc. Regardless of the management policy of the EC site, it will also be helpful if you want to use the video for product explanation.
The company also makes use of its expertise in video creation accumulated through TV shopping. Regardless of the management policy of an e-commerce site, it is also helpful to use videos for product descriptions.
Joshin Denki operates home electronics mass retailers mainly in the Kansai region. In terms of overall sales, including physical stores, it ranks 7th in the consumer electronics industry, about 1/4 of Yamada Denki. However, in the EC mail order division, sales exceeded that of Yamada Denki. In other words, the ratio of Joshin Denki’s total sales via EC sites is high.
The trend also strengthened during the pandemic, where sales at physical stores were almost flat in 2020, but sales via e-commerce sites increased by more than 20% year on year.
A distinctive feature of Joshin Denki’s e-commerce site development is its active use of e-commerce shopping malls such as Rakuten Ichiba and Yahoo Shopping. On Rakuten, the “Joshin web CD/DVD store” won the genre award in the “Rakuten Shop of the Year 2019” and was ranked second overall in the “Yahoo! Best Store Awards 2019 Best Store of the Year”. And in 2020, the actual store also started to cooperate with Rakuten Points.
Well-known companies that can attract customers on their own are often reluctant to utilize shopping malls. This is because they cannot freely design and structure their product pages, they have to pay a commission based on sales, which reduces their profit margin, and they do not disclose information about customers who have made purchases.
However, the ability of shopping malls to attract customers is great. Especially for companies that are not well known outside the area where they are doing business, it is a stepping stone for quick development. It can be said that Joshin Denki expanded sales by making good use of Rakuten Ichiba and yahoo shopping.
The company’s approach is particularly useful for companies dealing with products such as home electronics, for which many people search by product name or model number. The ability to approach members held by shopping malls is attractive. In addition, since the product pages of shopping malls often appear higher in Internet searches than those of their e-commerce sites, they can compete even if their name recognition as a company is inferior to that of their competitors.
https://www.yamada-denkiweb.com/
Yamada Denki is the industry leader in overall sales, including physical stores, and boasts nearly double the sales of second-place Bic Camera. Yamada Denki has the largest number of physical stores in Japan, with 678 stores as of 2020. Bic Camera has 44 stores, which shows the difference in scale.
However, Yamada Denki’s sales in the e-commerce field are only 5th in the industry. This is thought to be because Yamada Denki positions the function of its EC site as a supplement to its physical stores.
The company offers services that coordinate online and offline operations, such as the ability to receive products ordered on the e-commerce site at the physical stores, and the simultaneous development of sales content on the e-commerce site that appears in flyers at the brick-and-mortar stores.
The design of the e-commerce site also replicates that of the actual store. There are dedicated pages for sale sections, and related products are introduced by keywords such as “new life” and “telework. In addition to searching for and purchasing the products you are looking for, you can shop on the e-commerce site as if you were looking at the products displayed in a physical store.
It can be said that this method of creating an EC site focuses the target of the EC site on the traditional Yamada Denki customers. They build a business centered on physical stores and set up an EC site as an aid to provide additional convenience to customers who are using physical stores.
Conversely, the e-commerce site is not aggressive enough to develop new customers on its own. This may be the reason why Yamada Denki ranks only 5th in terms of sales in the e-commerce sector.
Yamada Denki’s EC site operation will be a reference for companies that have physical stores as their main channels. You can increase customer convenience and generate additional sales without significantly changing existing businesses that are doing well, such as product sales, restaurants, catalog mail orders, and door-to-door sales.
Although EC may become the axis of your business in the future, it is risky to rebuild your entire business at once at the stage of opening an EC site. First of all, this is a form that can be used as a reference when launching an EC division without damaging the business that has been built up over time.
Features for Consumer Electronics EC Sites
Home appliances are called model number products. These are so-called mass-produced products that have a JAN code, product number, or other code set by the manufacturer that indicates the product. In many cases, the product name is well known and can be found without a doubt by searching by the model number.
For this reason, it can be said that these products are a good match for e-commerce sites. However, this is a field where competition is also likely to increase.
The same product is sold on many e-commerce sites by many companies. In most cases, users look at multiple e-commerce sites for the same product, compare them in terms of cost, delivery time, etc, and then make a purchase.
Since users browse many e-commerce sites, if the site’s structure or operability is difficult to understand, or if the page display speed is slow, the user may leave the site. It is also necessary to enhance the extra features that push people to make a purchase decision.
Let’s take a look at the features of consumer electronics e-commerce sites.
Usability refers to the ease of use of the entire EC site. If users feel they do not know how to operate an e-commerce site, they will leave it quickly.
Since consumer electronics e-commerce sites tend to have many products and product genres, the purposes of people accessing e-commerce sites vary. Some want to search for products and obtain information, some want to check discounts and promotions, and some want to quickly complete the purchase process because they already know what they want to buy. Usability must be improved for each of these user behaviors.
According to a survey by the Tribeca Brand Strategy Institute, which conducts research on digital media and the usability ranking of e-commerce sites with consumer electronics is as follows:
- 1st Bic Camera
- 2nd Rakuten Market
- 3rd Amazon
- 4th Yamada Denki
- 5th Rakuten Seiyu Net Super
Since this is an e-commerce site with a large number of products, a site with a clear top page structure that guides users correctly is evaluated.
Does it convey timely information such as discounts and campaigns in an easy-to-understand manner? Does it draw user interest with rankings and recommendations? Are products organized in a way that makes them easy to search? These are important for the top page.
Ideally, an e-commerce site should be designed and improved for usability so that users can smoothly fulfill their objectives without thinking about how to operate the site.
Page display speed is the speed from accessing a page on an EC site to displaying that page. We have all experienced the stress of clicking on a search result and not being able to open the page. So, we all can understand the stress of this.
SEO is also evaluated by Google. E-commerce sites with slow page display speeds tend to have lower search rankings than e-commerce sites that handle the same products.
The speed at which the page is displayed on the EC site is important. When building an EC site, people tend to be conscious of page design, images, product information, button layout, etc., and display speed is often neglected. However, slow page display speeds can result in various losses.
When viewing product information or comparing multiple products, if the user has to wait for each item, they will not be able to wait and might leave the site. Furthermore, even if they are interested in purchasing a product, they may lose their resolve while waiting.
When an e-commerce site has a high number of visitors but a very low purchase rate, improvements to the purchase method and input forms are quickly initiated, but in fact, the biggest obstacle is often the page display speed.
According to a survey by the NetShop Managers Forum, the top ranking for display speed among the top 200 e-commerce sites in terms of sales is as follows.
- No. 1 Seven Star Trading
- No. 2 Home Appliance SAKURA
- No. 3 Akihabara Outlet Plaza
- No. 4 PC Akindo, a super cheap home appliance sales company
- No. 5 GIGA
You may not be familiar with these EC sites. The feature is that they are all e-commerce sites dealing with PCs and home appliances. Users in the consumer electronics field are often accustomed to dealing with the Internet, and this may be the result of improved display speed to meet their senses and needs.
Also in this ranking is Bic Camera in 6th place and Yodobashi Camera in 7th place. It should be difficult to improve the speed of an e-commerce site because of the sheer number of products, but they are doing well.
Improving page display speed is not easy. In addition to enhancing the performance of the server, it requires unique know-how such as reducing the data capacity of each element of the page and rearranging the display order.
Most users who purchase consumer electronics compare multiple e-commerce sites before deciding which e-commerce site to purchase. Therefore, they consider not only the price of the appliance, but also factors such as points and coupons.
In addition, points and coupons are effective not only to keep up with competing e-commerce sites but also as a way to push the back of users who are still wondering about purchasing.
The point is a function that returns XX% of the product price as points. Customers feel that if they buy it and get 10% points, they can buy it at a discount of one. Also, points can be used at the next purchase, so it will lead to repeats.
Most e-commerce sites have this feature, so unless you can significantly reduce the price of a product, it is a must-have feature.
Coupons are essentially additional discounts that customers can receive. It can be in the form of XX% off or XX yen off. The advantage of coupons is that they can be used for a limited number of products and occasions.
When a new customer purchases for the first time, the number of withdrawals increases because of some requirements such as membership registration. To prevent this, discount coupons are often issued for first-time shoppers. In other cases, coupons are issued for products that have become overstocked and are to be sold at a discount for a limited time, so that they can be used only for those products. This allows for flexibility.
When buying consumer electronics on e-commerce sites, the price of the product is important to the user, but the shipping cost is also a concern. Since many home appliances are large items, they compare and consider the total cost, which includes the shipping costs.
Therefore, setting the shipping fee as low as possible is an effective way to increase the purchase rate of people who visit the EC site. Yodobashi Camera is a successful example of a company that has made many of its shipping fees free, which has led to an increase in the number of users who find it more economical than its competitors.
Nevertheless, the burden of shipping fees is not light for e-commerce site operators. It is necessary to have the ability to keep shipping fees low for products and regions where they can be lowered, and to set them separately for products and regions where they must be high. By setting shipping fees in detail according to the actual situation, it will be easier to predict and secure profits.
In addition, as the number of products on an e-commerce site increases, there might be multiple warehouses for storage and shipping. In such cases, attention should also be paid to the setting of shipping fees.
Many EC sites have settings such as free shipping for purchases of XX yen or more. However, if you purchase items from different warehouses at the same time, they will be shipped separately. Free shipping on that order may reduce your profits or, in the worst case, be in the red.
To prevent this, there is a function to limit simultaneous purchases. By setting products that cannot be purchased at the same time, the above-mentioned confusion in shipping charge calculation is prevented.
Differentiation Points to be Tackled on Consumer Electronics EC Sites
The consumer electronics industry has the advantage of compatibility because products are easy to buy on e-commerce sites, but it also has the disadvantage of price competition because products are the same no matter which e-commerce site you buy them from.
Users tend to compare multiple EC sites for each purchase of consumer electronics products, and then purchase at the EC site that best suits the price and circumstances at the time. Therefore, even if a customer purchases a product once on your e-commerce site, it does not necessarily mean that he or she will purchase it again the next time.
As long as the same product is sold, it is necessary to have an element that allows you to select your own EC site even for parts other than the product and to devise for that.
When purchasing home appliances, customers are not only concerned with the low price but also the support after purchase. Especially for large household appliances where delivery and installation, the long-term use of these appliances, and warranty details are important items when making comparisons Here you can differentiate yourself from other e-commerce sites.
For delivery and installation, the cost and the number of days to arrive are important. What is the total price including shipping, and when will it arrive at home and be used? If these factors do not meet your wishes, even if the product price is low, it will be shaken off at the time of comparison.
Yodobashi Camera has created its strengths by making shipping charges free and expanding the area for next-day delivery. Many people first think of Yodobashi Camera’s e-commerce site when they want to purchase home appliances, preferably immediately This gives them an advantage over the competition.
Home appliances are not consumable goods, and are purchased with the expectation that they will be used for at least several years. Therefore, it is not simply a matter of the price, but also the support system after the purchase.
Yamada Denki offers the same warranty on its e-commerce site as it does in its actual stores. Most home electronics have a one-year manufacturer’s warranty from the time of purchase, but Yamada Denki allows customers to extend the warranty up to five years. During that time, repairs and replacements are free of charge, which we feel adds value to the price.
Branding has the power to remind users that “○○ is ○○”, and get them to skip the comparison phase and immediately enter the purchase phase. Customers also know that when purchasing home appliances, the same product is sold on multiple EC sites. However, it is also troublesome to look around and compare multiple EC sites one by one. At that time, if you know the EC site that suits your needs, you will buy more there.
However, it is tedious to visit multiple e-commerce sites to compare products. At that time, if they know which e-commerce site best suits their needs, they are more likely to purchase there. If they prefer an e-commerce site that delivers tomorrow, they will check Amazon or Yodobashi Camera. If they have a lot of points from an e-commerce site with a well-known points policy, such as Rakuten or Bic Camera, then they will check those e-commerce sites first.
No one e-commerce site is best for all users; however, it can be the best e-commerce site for users with a specific purpose. Consider what your e-commerce site’s strengths are and what features it can offer. You should strive to promote and brand those features so that your customers will recognize you.
Tailored product recommendations are important for both inviting new customers and encouraging repeat purchases.
Huge online shopping sites such as Amazon and Rakuten Ichiba use data on the number of products and customer behavior to provide product recommendations. A typical example is a display that says, “People who bought this product are also interested in this product. This means that product recommendations are made based on the user’s purchasing history and based on the user’s needs.
However, a small e-commerce site may not have such customer behavior data, and the number of products to be introduced may be limited. However, there are ways to do this as well.
First, some contents convey the image of how the products are used in daily life.
Many home appliance EC sites create pages for a specific situation, such as “new home life appliances,” and introduce multiple products at the same time. Some distinctive e-commerce sites, such as Scandinavian Living Tool Store and MUJI, have pages that introduce products based on images such as “relaxing in your room.
The next recommendation is to inform customers when it is time to replace consumable parts in home appliances, additional parts, and so on. Customers who have purchased an air purifier will be notified when it is time to replace the filter and will be encouraged to make additional purchases. For customers who have purchased a smart speaker, they can have home appliances that can be controlled via the speaker. These types of recommendations are possible even if you only know the product that was purchased.
If sites blindly continue to introduce products, they can become noisy and counterproductive. So anticipate your customers’ needs and tailor your product recommendations accordingly.
Summary Consumer Electronics EC Sites
We have looked at EC in the consumer electronics industry. This industry has been progressing relatively quickly. With a large market, consumers are accustomed to purchasing home appliances through e-commerce sites. With the additional life change with the coronavirus, the consumer electronics EC market is expected to expand further.
Most of the top-ranked home appliance e-commerce websites are well-known companies that also have a wide range of physical stores. However, the order is not proportional to the total sales of the company including actual stores. In other words, even if there are only a few physical stores, there are several companies that are adapting to the EC field and increasing sales.
Each of these successful e-commerce sites has its characteristics and strengths. To increase sales in consumer electronics e-commerce, it is necessary to brand the e-commerce site based on its unique strengths. Yodobashi Camera has increased its sales by targeting people who are used to shopping at e-commerce sites in general. Bic Camera has attracted beginners by making their site easy to search for products, even with their large selection of products. Japanet Takata, on the other hand, has succeeded by narrowing down the number of products and increasing the information on each of them.
Although consumer electronics is a product category that is well suited to e-commerce, it is also a field where competition is fierce because it is a mass-produced product. Without the above characteristics, the industry is prone to simple price competition. It is necessary to position your EC site, set policies, and operate strategically.
