Opening a Store on Yahoo!, Rakuten, and AmazonJP

When opening an online store on one of many e-commerce sites, you might consider opening one on “Yahoo”, “Rakuten”, or “Amazon” since these are the top three e-commerce sites in Japan.

The most important thing to consider is which of these sites your target audience is buying or will your products from. For example, if your target audience is over 35 years old, then Rakuten Ichiba might be the recommended site. On the other hand, if you want to keep opening fees low, then Yahoo Shopping is a good choice.

Each of these e-commerce sites has its advantages and disadvantages. Before thinking about opening your online shop on multiple sites, let’s learn about which of these sites will help you come to success.
Sales Comparison
 

Yahoo! Shopping

Rakuten

Amazon

Sales

(distribution amount)

890.1 billion * 1

3,900 billion * 2

3,423.8 billion yen

2019 (estimate)

Number of store openings

872,289

As of the end of March 2019

51,815

As of October 1, 2020

178,000

As of June 2015

Number of items to be exhibited

280 million

as of December 2017

270 million

as of October 1, 2020

Over 400 million * 3

Membership

23.4 million

Yahoo! Premium

as of June 2020

115.9 million * 4

5 to 8.5 million

Prime member

as of January 2020

* 1 Yahoo! Shopping, LOHACO, Charm Co., Ltd., PayPay Mall, ZOZO Co., Ltd. << * Excluding ZOZOTOWN head office >> FY2019
* 2 Accommodation distribution such as travel, golf distribution by GORA, business, Rakuten 2019
* 3 including values ​​for Direct, Rakuten Delivery, Rakuma, Coupon, etc.
Japanese small and medium-sized sellers selling on Amazon.co.jp Aggregation period: June 1, 2019, to May 31, 2020
* 4 The number of members who have logged in at least once after registering as a member in September 2020. Excluding withdrawals

Opening Fees & Commissions Comparison

Initial cost

free

Monthly system usage fee

free

Sales royalties

free

Store point funding

1% to 15% (1% is required)

Campaign funding burden

1.5% is required

Affiliate Partner Reward Resources

1% to 50% (1% is required)

Affiliate fee

30% of Affiliate Partner Reward Resources

Deposit cycle fee

Free (occurs by selecting at least twice a month)

Payment service individual fee

Due to various payment service fees

Settlement service basic fee

free

Reference site: Fees / Costs (Yahoo Shopping)

Yahoo’s opening fees and commissions are the lowest fees opening compared to the others. For one, opening a store is free and commissions are charged for each contact at 3.5%. In addition, the following settlement fees will be charged:

Payment Method

Commission

Credit card payment

3.24% of the payment amount (tax exempt)

YJ Card Co., Ltd. issued card (* 1) is 3.0% of the payment amount

Mobile payment

(carrier payment)

4.48% of the payment amount (excluding tax)

Mobile Suica payment)

3.6% of the payment amount (excluding tax)

Convenience store settlement

150 yen / case-300 yen / case (excluding tax)

Bank transfer payment (pay-easy)

150 yen / case (excluding tax)

PayPay balance payment

3.0% of the payment amount (excluding tax)

Reference site: Payment service (Yahoo Shopping)

For example, if you’re using credit cards, it costs 3.24% per contract. With the original cost being 3.5%, this makes the total to be 6.74%. Compared to in-house e-commerce sites, the fee is higher, but it is by far the lowest among significant e-commerce malls.

 

Go for it! Plan

standard plan

Mega shop plan

 

Recommended for people like this

 

Little experience in running an online shop

Target monthly sales of

1.4 million yen or more

 

Requires a large number of products and image quantity

Monthly store opening fee

(excluding tax)

19,500 yen / month

Annual lump sum payment

50,000 yen / month

Two installments every six months

100,000 yen / month

Two installments every six months

System

usage fee

(excluding tax)

3.5-7.0% of monthly sales

2.0-4.5 % of monthly sales

2.0-4.5 % of monthly sales

 

Number of products that can be registered

5,000 products

20,000 products

Unlimited

* 1

Image Capacity

Up to 500MB

Up to 5GB

Unlimited

* 1

* 1 Mega shop plan “Number of products that can be registered” and “Image capacity” are unlimited, but the initial values ​​are 50,000 products and 5GB, respectively.

If you wish to change the upper limit, please apply for an increase in the number of products and capacity each time.

Reference: Store opening plan and cost (Rakuten Ichiba)

The initial cost of opening a store on Rakuten Ichiba is 60,000 yen. They offer three different plans depending on what you are looking for. The cheapest is their “Ganbare! Plan” which is 19,500 yen per month. The commission fee varies depending on the plan, but it can cost between 13% to 15% including the point source and store opening cost.

Item

Large Exhibition

Small-Lot Exhibition

Monthly registration fee

4,900 yen / month

free

Basic contract fee

free

100 yen/time

Sales commission

8% to 15%

8% to 15%

Reference: Price plan (Amazon)

There are two ways to open a store on Amazon:  “Large listing” and “Small listing.” So, if you can sell more than 50 items per month, the large-lot listing will be less expensive. The sales commission varies depending on the item’s category, but generally, it’s about 15%.

Ease of Opening Comparison

To open an online store on one of these e-commerce sites, you need to pass a screening. So let’s see how easy it is to prepare:

 

Yahoo! Shopping

Rakuten

Amazon

Store Opening Examination

Usually

Strict

Easy

Number of Templates

One type unified

Complete transition from January 2021

More than 4,000 types of image material templates

none

Original Customization

Yahoo triple

Rakuten Gold

Product Introduction Content

campaign comparison

Sales on e-commerce sites will increase during the campaign or sale periods.

For example, Yahoo Shopping has a “5th Day Campaign” which will be held on the 5th, 15th, and 25th of every month, and the “Doublet Day Coupon” will be held on the 11th and 22nd of every month

Rakuten Ichiba has “5 and 0 Day” on the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, and 30th of each month, “Rakuten Wonderful Day” on the 1st of each month, and “Patronage Appreciation Day” on the 18th of each month.

Amazon holds a Prime Sale about three days each month.

In addition to these sale periods, each site has its big sale campaign several times a eat such as Yahoo! Shopping’s “Super PayPay Festival, “Rakuten Ichiba’s “Rakuten Super Sale,” and Amazon’s “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday.

In each campaign, the business is the point source. As a result, Yahoo has a burden rate of 2.5% to 14% (optional), and Rakuten has a burden rate of 1% to 14% (optional). The advantage to this is the ability to attract customers and increase the purchase rate.

Sites with a high point ratio can increase their exposure as e-commerce operators focus on appealing to customers. Also, users will be motivated to buy because they can receive points, which will boost the purchase rate.

Advantages and Disadvantages
Summary

In this article, we discussed which is the best EC mall to open a store: Yahoo, Rakuten, or Amazon.

The appeal of e-commerce sites is their ability to attract customers because of their high name recognition. If you are selling any product at a reasonable price, then focusing on sales promotion on any of these sites will increase your sales. The shortcut to success is choosing an e-commerce site that is preferred by the target users you are aiming for.

Still, there aren’t many businesses that can survive on e-commerce sites for many years. Many businesses struggle with price competition with competitors and fixed/variable costs for commissions and sales promotion which can result from them withdrawing from this market. So once your e-commerce site is set up and has loyal customers, you might want to think about a move to your site with name recognition.