Your average convenience store is a small shop with just 100 sq. meters of floor space.

But leading companies in a wide variety of industries see a bright future in those little stores and are rushing to form alliances with them to establish footholds in e-commerce retailing.

Industry watchers say that Japan's ubiquitous convenience stores have great potential as a base for e-commerce, linking "virtual" online shopping malls and "real" shopping space where consumers receive and pay for goods.