Connecting Japan to the world with Rakuten Global Express
With some 57,000 merchants and over 360 million products ready to be shipped anywhere in the country, Rakuten Ichiba is the destination of choice for many online shoppers in Japan.
But what about the rest of the world? Enter Rakuten Global Express (RGX).
“RGX is an international shipping service,” explains Miyu Nakajima of Rakuten’s cross-border trading business. “You can shop on Rakuten Ichiba or any other Japanese EC mall, and we provide international shipping to overseas users.”
It is through RGX that Rakuten is looking to match global demand for Japanese products with supply from Japanese merchants – Rakuten or otherwise – who require assistance with the complexities of international shipping logistics.
“Japanese products are very popular around the world for their high quality and good design,” Nakajima says. “However, merchants in Japan often do not have the skills or knowledge on handling international orders, global shipping and other important matters such as customer support.”
Nakajima and her team have worked to make the transaction experience as simple as possible for both parties.
“We provide the user with a warehouse address for shopping, which they can use in place of their overseas address,” she explains. “For merchants, it’s a very domestic transaction – they are shipping to a warehouse address in Japan, so the handling itself is almost the same as when selling to Japanese customers.”
The purchased products are processed for shipping at Rakuten’s warehouse in Kawasaki city, just south of Tokyo.
“We combine items bought from different merchants into one box and provide support with operations for export, such as issuing invoices and packing. Then we send them to our overseas users directly.”
Goods from Japan are in demand
Today, RGX ships to over 80 countries and regions across the globe and enjoys particular popularity in Asia and the United States. Nakajima says that the platform is a popular way to seek out niche products that have not made it to global markets.
Especially in Asian countries, Japanese products are already popular, so those products that everyone wants to purchase already have offline stores in local areas,” she explains. “Through RGX, users can purchase very niche items, such as hobby or anime goods. Fashion, too, can be very unique – everyone has their own style which can be very different from what is available locally.”
This demand for unique products drives how Nakajima and her team promote their platform: “That is why we are focusing on niche products, such as local sake. These unique products can be very popular compared to what is available in local stores overseas.”
In other regions, well-maintained Japanese second-hand branded goods enjoy significant popularity. Additionally, Nakajima highlights a love of Japanese pop culture in certain European countries: “In France, Japanese culture is very popular – comics, anime, cosplay. While this may be a niche market, dedicated fans are eager to purchase these items.”
Inbound rush: Tourist-fueled demand for local products
Another source of demand for Japanese products comes from visiting tourists. Since borders fully reopened to tourism in late-2022, the country has been undergoing an inbound rush, with arrivals approaching that of pre-pandemic 2019.
“Inbound users can be a very similar segment. They are interested in Japan – they are purchasing Japanese goods like souvenirs, and often repurchasing after they go back to their countries.”
Rakuten also happens to operate one of Japan’s biggest accommodation reservation platforms, Rakuten Travel, with whom RGX has been collaborating to capitalize on the recent tourism rebound.
“We launched a collaboration to give travelers postcards with beautiful Japanese landscapes and coupon codes for Rakuten Travel,” she reveals. “It coincides with a very happy time for users – they can see the beautiful landscape and recognize all the travel services Rakuten provides.”
High-tech solutions to export hurdles
Japan’s KYC (know your customer) requirements present another tricky hurdle for exporting Japanese goods – local businesses must verify each customer’s identity and address.
RGX previously required customers to send in their documents for manual verification – a process that could take a week. Solving this hurdle was a major priority for Nakajima’s team.
“We implemented R-eKYC, which is an ID verification technology service handled by the Rakuten Asia AI Team,” she explains. The system uses facial recognition to complete the verification process in just ten minutes, for a significantly smoother transaction experience.
“Originally we had outsourced it to vendors in the UK because Japanese vendors don’t handle global ID verification,” she reveals. But the system was clunky and unstable, so the RGX team turned to Rakuten’s own talented engineers to develop something better.
“R-eKYC is our internal product, so we can modify the UI/UX. Our team in India is supporting us 24/7 so if anything happens, we can communicate closely and solve issues immediately.”
Rakuten operates a number of online services that require ID verification – particularly in the fintech sector – and Nakajima is optimistic that the tech they developed can be useful elsewhere around the Rakuten Group. “Contributing to Rakuten tech development was part of the original motivation to start this collaboration.”
A bridge to Japan
“During the COVID era, many logistics services were temporarily closed because there were no planes,” Nakajima recalls. “However, many of our users found themselves longing for food and other items from Japan – especially Japanese users living overseas. So, we expanded our contract with service providers and worked to keep our warehouses running. It was a tough period, but I was very happy to be able to help provide reliable infrastructure for our overseas users.”
It is stories like these that serve as motivation for Nakajima’s team.
“I hope I can continue to be a bridge, to accelerate this kind of business expansion for Rakuten between Japan and overseas.”
