There’s growing investment in Japan’s logistics sector as consumers in the country increasingly move to online shopping platforms, calling for more courier-type deliveries.According to a report by Transpor t Intelligence (Ti), Japanese consumers have been embracing e-commerce since the Covid pandemic. It accounted for 11.8% of total retail sales in the country in 2021.This is an almost 5% increase considering that Japan was not advanced in terms of internet service and e-commerce prior to the outbreak of Covid-19. According to Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten, a Japanese electronic commerce and online retailing company, e-commerce has now grown into an indispensable part of people’s daily lives, and there has been a demand for improved convenience to meet the needs of e-commerce users across the country.This is supported by McKinsey & Company research that found that luxury shoppers in particular had embraced online shopping. In a survey, it found 41% of luxury consumers were now researching and purchasing across channels. Increasingly, shoppers are turning to a variety of e-commerce and social media channels for inspiration, information gathering, and purchasing.“More than 30% of consumers say that they compare products, pricing, and reviews on e-commerce platforms. When asked to identify their preferred online channel for information gathering, shoppers still visit a brand’s official website above all others,” reads the survey report.It is, however, not only in Japan where the move towards e-commerce is gaining ground. Cross-border e-commerce has continued to grow in popularity. Earlier this year, Rakuten announced its plans to launch an internet shopping mall in Malaysia. At the same time, more international shoppers are purchasing from Japanese sites due to the lower prices and good quality.According to Ti, all these developments have led to growth in the Japanese logistics market, which is now the second-largest in the Asia Pacific region. Investment in warehousing in particular has been on the rise, and major players in this sector have announced plans for new infrastructure. A $1.5-billion logistics park in Osaka, Japan by ESR Cayman is set to service the growing e-commerce market. Logistics real-estate developer GLP earlier this year reached financial closure on $9bn in logistics developments in Japan.In March this year, e-commerce giant Amazon opened a 100 000-square-metre warehouse in Japan, underscoring its intent to grow its footprint in the country.
