It never rains but it pours for Japan’s department store operators, once the driving force behind Japan’s bubble-era consumerism. This summer already-flagging sales plunged further as recession-hit consumers cut back on spending. Nature didn’t help out, either, as poor weather hurt sales.
Yet, even when the recession eases and the weather improves, don’t expect a big bounce in sales. These days, Japan’s recession-hit shoppers increasingly prefer to shop without ever leaving home.
The numbers are startling. Using data from the Japan Direct Marketing Assn. and Nomura Research Institute [NRI], the Nikkei daily estimates online shopping sales in Japan rose 22 percent to $67.2 billion. That’s despite Japan’s deepest recession in the postwar era savaging consumer confidence following the collapse of Lehman Brothers last fall.
If catalog shopping is also included, the figure rises to over $86 billion — or more than is spent in Japan’s department stores or ubiquitous convenience stores. Noritaka Kobayashi, senior consultant at Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo, says that while the growth will likely slow due to the recession, the consumer e-commerce market will continue to outstrip other forms of shopping. Excluding eating out and other forms of consumption that can’t be easily conducted online, Kobayashi reckons $2.2 trillion of consumption could be made from computers and cell phones. “A growing number of people are simply avoiding the trouble of visiting stores,” he says. “This market has a big growth potential.”
Sugomori: “Chicks in the Nest”
What explains Japanese consumers’ shift to shopping online? In the last year, as the global recession pounded the Japanese economy, pundits began using the term sugomori [“chicks in the nest”] to describe people who stay home to keep outside expenses to a minimum. Shopping online is not only often cheaper, especially when compared with expensive department stores, but it also saves on transportation and eating…