Is there a failure of examination to open a store on Rakuten Ichiba? Can Rakuten sell? How do open a store and what are the fees? We will thoroughly explain what you need to know if you are considering opening a store on Rakuten Ichiba.
If you are considering opening a store in Rakuten, please continue reading!
table of content
Cost of Opening a Store on Rakuten Ichiba
- Rakuten Offers Four Different Plans for Opening a Store
- Usage Fees in Addition to the Basic Store Opening Fee
How to Open a Store on Rakuten Ichiba?
- There are Four Steps to Open a Store on Rakuten Ichiba
- If Opening a Store is Difficult, You Can Use a Store Opening Agent
What are the Reasons for Failing the Screening Process to Open a Store on Rakuten Ichiba?
Flow of Operation Method of Rakuten Ichiba
- Analyze Using RMS
- Resolve Problems After Analysis
Is the Exit Rate High After Opening a Store on Rakuten Ichiba?
- Reasons for Going into the Red after Opening a New Store?
What Does it Take to be Successful in Rakuten Ichiba?
Cost of Opening a Store on Rakuten Ichiba
Since its full-scale launch in 1997, Rakuten Ichiba has been a leader in the Japanese e-commerce market. Shopping, Rakuten Ichiba is the top runner in the Japanese e-commerce mall market.
We have organized how much it costs to open a store on Rakuten Ichiba.
Rakuten Offers Four Different Plans for Opening a Store
When opening a store on Rakuten, you can choose from the following four plans.
This plan is recommended for beginners. The monthly store opening fee is 19,500 yen, which is the lowest price among the one-year contract plans. Up to 5,000 products can be registered, and the maximum image size is 500MB. The system usage fee is 3.5 to 7.0% of monthly sales.
This plan is recommended for shops aiming for monthly sales of 1.4 million yen or more. The monthly fee for opening a store is 50,000 yen, but the system usage fee is 2.0 to 4.5% of monthly sales, so running costs are reasonable. Up to 20,000 products can be registered, and images can be registered up to 5GB.
The Mega Shop Plan is the best option for those who want to register a large number of products and images. The monthly fee is 100,000 yen, the most expensive of the one-year plans, but the number of products and the image capacity is unlimited. The system usage fee is also at the same rate as the Standard Plan.
Rakuten provides a monthly cost simulator on its store opening guide page.
Using the simulator, we calculated the monthly running costs for an apparel store with a target monthly sales volume of 3 million yen and an estimated sales per customer of 10,000 yen.
- Monthly opening fee: 50,000 yen
- System usage fee: 119,000 yen
- PC:46,000 yen
- Mobile phone: 73,000 yen
- System service fee: 78,300 yen
- Rakuten’s original capital: 28,500 yen
- Safety and convenience improvement: 3,000 yen
- Affiliate usage fee: 46,800 yen
- Rakuten Pay usage fee: 102,000 yen
- Total 349,300 yen
Usage Fees in Addition to the Basic Store Opening Fee
When opening a store, usage fees such as various systems will be charged in addition to the monthly basic fee.
The ratio of fees to sales varies depending on the plan you choose and the sales fee. It is important to use the simulator to determine the plan that best suits your store.
This fee is charged for monthly sales. A separate fee is charged depending on whether sales are generated via PC or mobile.
When you open a store on Rakuten, you can also subscribe to the following three services, each of which has its own usage fee.
- Rakuten Points Points:
- Rakuten Points are points given to Rakuten members. The high redemption rate of these points is one reason why Rakuten has successfully retained its users.
- The store operator pays a fee of 1% of the point source.
- System Usage Fees for Improving Transaction Security and Convenience
- In mall-based EC, all system updates are performed by the mall operator. This means that store owners can continuously operate their stores in the most up-to-date and secure environment.
- Of course, there is a fee for this service. The price is 0.1% of the monthly sales.
- Rakuten Super Affiliate
- Rakuten Super Affiliates are managed by Rakuten, the company that runs Rakuten Ichiba. This service allows stores to attract customers while reducing personnel costs.
- Rakuten will pay affiliate partners on your behalf, and you will receive a commission for your efforts, plus a commission fee to Rakuten.
R-Messe (formerly R-Chat) is a communication tool provided by Rakuten Ichiba to customers and serves as an inquiry function.
The usage fee is a fixed monthly fee: 5,000 yen per month for the Standard and Mega plans, and 3,000 yen per month for the other plans.
Many users have reported improved purchase rates, including purchases based on communication with stores, because they can easily inquire about products they are interested in.
Cashless payment has quickly become popular among consumers due to the tax reform in October 2019 and the accompanying point reward campaign. Rakuten has also introduced its own service, which is this Rakuten Pay.
Rakuten Pay is not available for some store opening plans, but it offers advantages such as improved usability for customers and reduced workload for payment-related tasks.
The fee varies depending on the monthly settlement volume and average settlement unit price but ranges from 2.5% to 3.5%.
There are various other optional services that further improve the efficiency of store operations, such as R-SNS, R-Mail, and overseas sales services, each of which incurs its own usage fee.
*Each price is based on Rakuten Ichiba public information (as of January 2021)
*All fees are based on publicly available information from Rakuten Ichiba (as of January 2021).
Source: https://www.rakuten.co.jp/
How to Open a Store on Rakuten Ichiba?
Opening a store on Rakuten Ichiba, which offers a wide range of services, is a sales platform with many useful functions for companies and shops that are worried about their ability to attract customers on their own.
Below is a flow chart of how to open a store on Rakuten Ichiba.
There are Four Steps to Open a Store on Rakuten Ichiba
First, go to the Rakuten website and click on the “Apply to Open a Store” button to start the process. Enter your company information and the information of the person in charge of operations to open an RMS account.
Once your RMS account is opened, it will take 2-4 weeks to start using RMS.
RMS is an abbreviation for Rakuten Merchant Server, which is the store management system of Rakuten Ichiba. You can log in to the management screen with your RMS account.
Once you have entered the store management system, you will be able to create your store such as setting up payment and delivery systems, and preparing for store opening. Once you are ready, you will undergo a pre-opening review. It takes about two weeks to three months to prepare and undergo the pre-opening review.
The opening review is requested by Rakuten within RMS. There are some conditions to undergo the review.
- Take and pass the store rule certification test.
- Register an account to receive money from Rakuten.
- Registration of account for automatic transfer to Rakuten
- Shipping settings.
- Registering products
- Creation of category pages
- Creation of signage images
Once these conditions are met, you will be able to take the examination.
After passing the screening process, you can finally open your store. You can use Rakuten’s system and repeat trial and error to operate your store and increase sales.
If Opening a Store is Difficult, You Can Use a Store Opening Agent
Rakuten has a variety of support services such as consultants and advisors when opening a store.
If you still find it difficult to open a store, you may consider using a store-opening agency. Some companies will not only take care of opening a store, but will also take care of operations, advertising, marketing, and other tasks.
This is only possible if you have the financial resources to do so, but it is an option that you may consider.
What are the Reasons for Failing the Screening Process to Open a Store on Rakuten Ichiba?
Rakuten Ichiba offers multiple plans for opening a store and accepts stores of all sizes, but there are cases where a store may fail the pre-opening screening process.
If you are considering opening a store, be sure to know the screening criteria in advance so that you can clear them.
The EC market in Japan is dominated by the three strongest EC malls, Amazon, Yahoo! Shopping, and Rakuten Ichiba.
As of 2017, Rakuten Ichiba’s total EC distribution exceeded 3 trillion yen. It has succeeded in retaining its members due to its high point redemption rates and linkages with various services such as credit cards and has a huge membership base.
Because it is an EC mall with such name recognition and honesty, it is natural that customers trust it deeply. To maintain that, it is necessary to demand a certain level of quality from the shops that open stores.
First of all, individuals with a separate main job, such as a company employee, are not allowed to open a store as a side job. This is the case not only in Rakuten Ichiba but also in other malls.
However, if you are a sole proprietor who has submitted a business registration, you can open a store as long as you do not fall under any of the other conditions.
Rakuten prohibits the handling of prohibited products.
Items that violate the law, dangerous items, and items that violate morals are carefully stipulated, so be sure to check carefully before applying to open a store.
Even if you have cleared the above items, it does not necessarily mean that you will pass the screening process. If Rakuten determines that your store has some concerns, it will be difficult to open a store.
For example, whether or not you have a track record. It would be difficult to open a store for a completely unknown brand or a product with no sales record. In advance, it is necessary to devise ways to build up a track record by opening stores in malls with lower screening standards than Rakuten and to raise brand awareness on SNS.
If you fail the screening process, you may not be able to log in to RMS itself. If you cannot log in, you may not be able to contact the person in charge or access important information. Please refrain from doing so beforehand, and approach the screening process with caution.
Flow of Operation Method of Rakuten Ichiba
Once you have finally opened your shop, it is time to start operating your EC site.
To efficiently generate sales from your online store, you need to implement the PDCA cycle using the concept of EC marketing. Rakuten Ichiba provides an environment that makes it easy to manage these operational measures.
Analyze Using RMS
Within RMS, there is a “Store Record” screen where you can view analysis reports of your store.
Rakuten Ichiba uses the following formula for sales: “number of visitors × conversion rate (number of purchasers/number of visitors) × unit price per customer”. Conversion rate is also commonly called CV rate.
In addition to viewing the number of visitors, conversion rate, and average spend per customer, the store chart can also examine the ratio of new customers to repeat customers, the route of inflow, which products are selling well, and whether the site is accessed more from PCs or smartphones.
The key to success is to analyze these data and take the appropriate measures for your store’s customers.
Resolve Problems After Analysis
Analyzing the data will reveal problems that need to be improved within the site.
For example, if the number of visitors is sluggish. There is a possibility that the page is not properly caught by the user’s product search, so countermeasures are necessary.
Even if the number of accesses is good, if it does not lead to a conversion rate, some factors reduce the user’s willingness to purchase.
Once these problems are found, how can they be improved? RMS also offers an A/B testing tool to verify the effectiveness of the two measures, which is useful for site improvement.
Is the Exit Rate High After Opening a Store on Rakuten Ichiba?
Even if you pass the open examination and open a shop in Rakuten, unfortunately, there are cases where you have to choose the path of closing.
To prevent this from happening, find out in advance what kind of closing risks there are.
Reasons for Going into the Red after Opening a New Store?
The most common reason for leaving a store is when sales turn red and the site becomes unmanageable.
What is the reason why Rakuten Ichiba, which has a strong ability to attract customers and a well-organized environment, ends up in the red?
If the necessary expenses are calculated incorrectly, the profit cannot be predicted accurately.
First of all, in mall-type EC like Rakuten Ichiba, commissions are charged at various places that operate. In addition to that, there are a lot of expenses involved in operating an EC, such as labor costs and various running costs.
It is difficult to operate a site with inappropriate product pricing for a long time.
In mall-type EC, you can easily compare products with other shops in the mall. Therefore, if the price is set too high, no one will choose the product.
On the other hand, it is also a good idea to lower the price too much with low profit and high sales. It is not easy to review the product price once it has been lowered due to the credibility of the site.
It is necessary to carefully research the market conditions and the target demographics of the product and first determine the appropriate price.
If this is neglected, or if a problem is found but not dealt with by an accurate PDCA cycle, customers will leave and the sales of the site will be sluggish.
What Does it Take to be Successful in Rakuten Ichiba?
So what do you need to do to run a successful online store on Rakuten Ichiba?
One way to do this is to prepare mainstay products with high customer-attracting power as hooks for users.
Even if a user lands on a page on your site, if they are not attracted to the products introduced on that page, they will easily leave the site. To prevent this from happening, and to have users view as many products as possible on the site, special attention should be paid to the appearance of the entrance page and the level of information provided.
Many users use search engines such as Google and Yahoo! to find products when shopping online. Stores that have a store on Rakuten Ichiba also need to take measures to be caught by these searches.
This search strategy is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). By incorporating compound words that are easily searched for when searching for products, you can improve your store to appear higher on the search results page and attract more customers.
