Rakuten, Uniqlo announce European expansion

Two Japanese companies, Rakuten and Uniqlo, have confirmed plans to further grow their businesses in Europe.

Online shopping mall Rakuten, which acquired Buy.com in May, is breaking into Europe through the €200 million (£167 million, $248 million) acquisition of France’s PriceMinister website. PriceMinister, an online marketplace where users can buy and sell books, music, apparel, and electricals, is the most-visited ecommerce site in France accessed by more than 11 million users a month. Outside of France, PriceMinister also has a presence in the UK and Spain. In Japan, Rakuten has approximately 64 million registered members and generated sales of $3.2 billion (£2.16 billion) in 2009.

Another Japanese brand, apparel retailer Uniqlo, is expanding its foothold in Europe by bolstering its web presence. Currently the UK Uniqlo website offers just a selection of the range, but the company plans to sell its entire collection online as well as some online exclusives. In a statement, Uniqlo’s UK chief executive Simon Coble said he aims for the “Uniqlo ecommerce operation to be the most profitable store by the end of 2010”. To this end, Uniqlo is recruiting staff for its ecommerce team. And whilst the business is also opening retail outlets in France and Russia, its ecommerce business will continue to be handled in the UK with a view for it to be the “platform for future European ecommerce expansion”.