Retail in Asia

In Trends

Japanese merchandise e-commerce to grow 6.6 percent in 2022

The latest report from Fuji Keizai on the state of the Japanese e-commerce market suggests that non-store physical merchandise sales will grow by 6.6 percent to JPY 15.4 trillion (USD 114.7 billion) in 2022. This follows estimated growth of 5.4 percent in 2021. By channel, e-commerce sales will rise 7.6 percent to JPY 13.6 trillion (USD 101.28 billion), TV shopping by 1.2 percent to JPY 613 billion (USD 469.9 billion) and catalogue-based sales will fall 0.4 percent to JPY 1.1 trillion (USD 8.19 billion). The consultant also reports that physical merchandise e-commerce sales rose 6.4 percent in 2021 to JPY 12.62 trillion (USD 93.98 billion), TV Shopping by 0.8 percent and catalogues fell 1.5 percent.

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This year, Fuji Keizai says that e-commerce in the food industry will be one of the growth highlights, albeit from a small base. The research company expects the netsuper market alone to grow 12.1 percent to JPY 277 billion (USD 1.69 billion) within a wider food e-commerce market of JPY 2.19 trillion (USD 16.39 billion), up by 10.5 percent. Surveys of online supermarkets also found that new customers from the early stages of the pandemic have stayed and have actually increased their frequency and volume of online shopping.

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Also in 2021, online food sales grew faster than any other category, up 11.3 percent. This was followed by fashion, up 7.7 percent, against 4.1 percent for home decor and 3.4 percent for consumer electronics (a correction after the spike in sales in 2020 during lockdown). In 2022, Fuji Keizai expects further growth of 7.8 percent for fashion, 9.8 percent for consumer electronics and 4.9 percent for home decor.

(Source : Japan consuming)