Zozotown, which swooped in as a little-known retail website and prodded once-reluctant Japanese consumers to shop online for clothes, is now facing stiff competition in the industry whose image it remade.
Arriving on the scene in 2004, the site made a killing selling clothes from shops such as Japanese boutique United Arrows and minimal French label A.P.C.
Zozotown's success turned its founder into one of Japan's richest entrepreneurs, and its name adorns a baseball stadium.