You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Kinokuniya, Japan’s leading privately owned bookseller, is rolling out an e-commerce
platform throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific region. It is aiming to become a major opponent to Amazon, which currently only has Asian operations in Japan and China.
The platform is among the most ambitious projects Kinokuniya has ever undertaken. Five websites were launched during the autumn—serving Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and Taiwan—selling books in English, Chinese and local languages. A Dubai e-commerce site is expected to be up and running by the end of 2014.
The development of the e-commerce platform is being overseen by Hiroshi Sogo, a Kinokuniya veteran of 25 years and, since 2013, the managing director of Kinokuniya-owned AsianBasis Corporation, a company that was set up specifically to spearhead the digital foray. “It is to our advantage,” Sogo said, in regard to competition with Amazon, “that we are already well established as a brand name in all of these markets.”
The online offers are the logical complement to the bricks-and-mortar presence Kinokuniya has established in each region. Founded in 1927, the Tokyo-based company is one of Japan’s largest bookselling operations—with sales of JPY124bn (approximately £688m) in 2013—and it also has a formidable international presence. Sixty-four of its 90 branches are in Japan; eight stores operate under the Books Kinokuniya brand in the US; four shops are located in Singapore; there is one each in Malaysia, Dubai and Australia; three in Thailand; and five in Taiwan. Three Kinokuniya stores in Indonesia are run as franchising operations with local partners.
The US branches have had an online presence for some time, but internet sales have been on a backburner for its other international stores, until now. According to Sogo, every new online shop is locally customised, and targets local customers and those in surrounding areas. Sales so far have predominantly come from English-language titles, but the aim is to significantly expand sales of non-book items in due course.
Kinokuniya is well versed in digital matters, having been among the first booksellers with an online presence in its domestic market. The first online e-commerce offer was set up in 1996; four years ago its successor BookWebPlus was launched, accompanied by Kinoppy—an app for the whole range of e-readers on sale in Kinokuniya stores, but also an e-book portal in its own right, as it links with BookWebPlus. Since 2012, all of its branches have been equipped with Wi-Fi throughout.
While digital has become an important part of the business, Kinokuniya is actively cultivating its physical stores both in Japan and abroad, and is always looking for suitable locations. The company has a reputation as an innovative and dedicated bookseller. Domestic stores range in size between 300–4,000 sq m (1,000 sq m, on average), and every store is tailor-made for its location. The major focus is centred on Tokyo: around a dozen branches operate in the larger metropolitan area.
As is typical for a Japanese bookseller, all Kinokuniya branches carry a large range of Manga and Anime. But the company is also known for its wide offering of academic books in most of its stores, both in Japan and abroad. Kinokuniya is one of the largest Japanese importers of academic books, mostly from the UK and US, but also from Germany and France.
Internationally, Kinokuniya is not afraid to open large bookshops if its management thinks they are sustainable. Its Dubai branch is an example: opened in 2008, Books Kinokuniya covers a massive 6,000 sq m in the luxurious Dubai Mall, which attracts more than 750,000 visitors every week. A substantial part of its 90-strong staff (from 20 different countries) speak Japanese, and all are fluent in English.
When choosing a location Kinokuniya has a clear set of requirements: among the major factors are a substantial Japanese expat community, an affluent international customer base and first-class local infrastructure.
While foreign-language books are the backbone in Kinokuniya’s international stores, they are not in demand in most of its domestic branches. But with the Olympic Games heading for Japan in 2020, Kinokuniya made an early statement back in May, opening a large foreign-language department in its Shinjuku South store, one of its two flagship stores in Tokyo.
Covering 1,000 sq m and occupying the entire sixth floor of the 4,000 sq m store, Books Kinokuniya Toyko is arguably the largest foreign-book department in Japan, carrying around 120,000 titles in English and a “healthy selection” of titles in German, French, Italian and Spanish.
The department caters to Japanese customers seeking foreign books and magazines, as well as to more than 400,000 people from around the globe who live in the Tokyo area.