Xin Ou
Research expert covering Greater China
Online shopping behavior in Japan - statistics & facts
The retail store-loving Japanese consumers are embracing the convenience of online shopping but still unable to forego the familiarity of physical stores. They change the purchase channels depending on the desired products and do not hesitate to abandon their shopping carts if the process until checkout is not satisfactory. With over half of Japanese multi-person households shopping online, formulating a digital strategy that caters to consumer preference in the online space has become more important than ever in Japan’s e-commerce market.
What are Japanese shoppers buying online?
Due to the time required from ordering to delivery, Japanese consumers are more inclined to order services and items that are not immediately needed. With the return to outdoor activities, the travel segment has reclaimed the top position in the online service sector. Physical media and consumer electronics were the categories with the highest e-commerce penetration rate in the merchandise sector, as the majority of book sales and 43 percent of electronics sales were attributable to online channels. Food items were the largest online expense items in households’ account books, but the low e-commerce ratio to overall sales reveals that food retail occurred mainly offline. As the freshness of perishables is a major challenge in mail-order delivery of groceries, packaged food and beverages will remain the pillar of the online grocery segment.Are Japanese consumers fickle online shoppers?
The challenge of e-commerce companies will be to convince online shoppers to finish a purchase, as more than two in three carts are abandoned before checkout. Particularly, the mobile commerce subset shows a high share of incomplete orders. The flexibility of shopping anytime and anywhere encourages browsing without commitment, with the ease of switching apps or windows further reducing consumer engagement. Visiting e-commerce platforms without purchase intention is commonplace in Japan’s e-commerce landscape, and understanding sales channel preferences and search behavior will be necessary to increase the conversion rate of website visits to order completion.
