Japanese companies tap into China's Double 11 shopping day

TOKYO - "Double 11 is increasingly well-known in Japan now. We are excited that we could take part in this major Chinese online shopping festival," said Michio Takahashi, a manager from Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Inc..

Rakuten, eyeing a slice of the lucrative Chinese market, have opened a flagship store on NetEase's Kaola, a Chinese cross-border e-commerce site specializing in foreign goods.

For the Double 11 event, the company and its Chinese partner have been making preparations months in advance, including conducting researches, choosing the goods that Chinese consumers probably like and making recommendations.

"China has a large population and strong spending capacity. We attach great importance to the Chinese market and believe the Double 11 day is a good opportunity," said Takahashi.

"We hope that Chinese consumers could buy our products not only when they come to visit Japan as tourists, but also back in China, and we hope they can make repeated purchases," said a Rakuten supplier of Hokkaido snacks.

Chinese consumers are expected to purchase over 1 trillion yen's ($9.37 billion) worth of Japanese commodities in 2016 through cross-border e-commerce platforms, according to an estimate made by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

"Japanese companies, by tapping into the Double 11 day and Chinese e-commerce platforms, could not only increase sales, but also get into touch with Chinese consumers, understand their needs and better adjust to the Chinese market," said Zhao Weilin, a researcher of the Fujitsu Research Institute.

Meanwhile, Japanese businesses including Yahoo Japan, FamilyMart and Softbank, have also started to put on sale on Nov. 11 to coincide with the Chinese Double 11 event, making the day a special shopping day even in Japan.

Double 11, also known as Singles Day, which started as an "anti-Valentine's" celebration for single people in China, was adopted by China's e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2009 and became the world's biggest online shopping day.

China's 16 biggest e-commerce sites, including Alibaba, JD, Suning and others, rang up 177 billion yuan ($25.94 billion) in sales during the 24 hours of this year's Double 11 day, according to data provider Syntun.