Major Japanese clothing retailer Shimamura Co. will soon expand into online sales in Taiwan to better meet the needs of young consumers and improve sales in the already robust market.
Its local unit plans to open an e-commerce channel on Taiwan's two major online shopping sites — momo and Yahoo Jima — by June after having run brick-and-mortar retail stores for two decades.
Shimamura said its local arm will sell its Closshi brand online and also promote some products still unavailable at existing shops to stoke demand from shoppers in their 20s to 40s.
A Shimamura corporate planning official told NNA in a telephone interview that the company might even launch its own online shopping hub if sales from the two sites are brisk.
The Saitama Prefecture-based chain opened its first outlet in Taiwan in 1998 and now runs 45 branches there. It also operates 11 shops in China following its foray into the market in 2012.
The company started online sales in China last year through T Mall, a major online site run by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The corporate planning official added that the company has been successful in attracting new customers.
Shimamura, which boasts a network of around 2,000 stores in Japan, will begin online sales at home next month through e-commerce sites run by Rakuten Inc. and Amazon Japan K.K., a local unit of U.S.-based Amazon.com Inc.