|
Magazines Archives - 2007 July
Set up shop site by invitation only
Story 9
AMAZON JAPAN, the Japanese portal of global e-tailer Amazon.com, has launched its own virtual mall, allowing third-party vendors to set up shops on its website.
To maintain the quality of the products offered online, companies are selected to open their stores by invitation only, said Amazon Japan president Jasper Cheung. The company has begun with invitations to 50 companies. It will later extend invitations to smaller local businesses.
With this new portal, the company does not deal directly with online customers. Instead, retailers will pay a commission to Amazon Japan, and follow up on the delivery and customer service for products purchased.
In Japan, where the online sales market exceeds ¥3.5 trillion (US$28.33 billion ) in value, Amazon Japans portal will heighten the competition with existing online malls, including Rakuten Ichiba and Yahoo! Shopping Portal.
Launched in 2000 to sell books online, the portal now covers 12 categories of products, including DVD titles, home appliances and sports equipment, and accounts for approximately 10% of Amazon.coms global consolidated sales of US$10.7 billion.
|
