--- title: "What Supports the Survival of Japan's Physical Retail?" description: "Compared to China's booming e-commerce, Japan's physical retail seems quieter, yet it thrives. This article explores the reasons behind Japan's successful physical retail, including quality assurance, customer respect, coexistence with e-commerce, tax policies, and craftsmanship, offering lessons for China's physical retail." author: "New Distribution" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2017-09-08" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/what-supports-the-survival-of-japan-s-physical-retail-6f04a42d/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/what-supports-the-survival-of-japan-s-physical-retail-6f04a42d.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/O6SS1DUS0znriOLWjvw41A" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E5%AE%9E%E4%BD%93%E5%95%86%E4%B8%9A-%E6%B4%BB%E5%BE%97%E5%A5%BD-%E7%9A%84%E8%83%8C%E5%90%8E-%E6%98%AF%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E5%9C%A8%E6%94%AF%E6%92%91-6f04a42d.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/what-supports-the-survival-of-japan-s-physical-retail-6f04a42d/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # What Supports the Survival of Japan's Physical Retail? > Compared to China's booming e-commerce, Japan's physical retail seems quieter, yet it thrives. This article explores the reasons behind Japan's successful physical retail, including quality assurance, customer respect, coexistence with e-commerce, tax policies, and craftsmanship, offering lessons for China's physical retail. Click on the image for details **Compared to the bustling e-commerce scene in China, why does Japan seem much quieter?** In China, e-commerce companies are making a fortune in one self-created "festival" after another, while physical retail is experiencing one "disaster" after another. Let's turn our attention to our neighbor Japan and see what's happening there. It is an indisputable fact that traditional retail is facing difficulties. What is the reason? Many believe that the rapidly developing e-commerce is the culprit. But in Japan, despite the impact of e-commerce, physical retail has not fallen into the same predicament as in China, where businesses are at a loss or in a panic. Moreover, as global e-commerce continues to heat up, physical retail in Japan is showing its value and vitality. **What supports the survival of Japan's physical retail?** 1. Long history combined with new concepts Department stores, as symbols of modern urban civilization, play an important role in improving urban functions, creating a good business environment, and promoting comprehensive consumption. Japan is the birthplace and mature market for modern department stores in Asia, with a history of over a century. With dense channels and strong emotional bonds, most Japanese customers value interactive shopping experiences, so physical retail has a solid foundation. In addition, Japanese shopping centers keep up with the times by incorporating the latest technology and concepts. For example, Grand Front integrates numerous new social function formats, such as high-tech laboratories and university research institutes; it incorporates various social functions to attract a wider consumer base and increase consumer stickiness, and has become a popular tourist destination in Osaka. 2. Many brands, but absolutely no defective or counterfeit goods One of the most reliable aspects of Japan's physical retail is the absolute absence of defective or counterfeit goods. Japanese merchants strictly control product quality. If you buy a defective product in a large department store, you will not only receive substantial compensation, but the manager will also personally come to apologize. Uncompromising quality and superior products are the main reasons why Japan's physical retail can stand firm in the market. In Japanese supermarkets, to let customers know the latest product information, electronic price tags are updated at any time and are connected to the backend management and cashier systems. Fruits and vegetables on sale have their own "ID cards," showing the product name, origin, merchant number, harvest time, soil conditions, and other information at a glance. 3. Respect and attention to people "Man is the measure of all things," is Protagoras's most famous philosophical viewpoint. The spirit of "people-oriented" can be seen everywhere in Japan. When dining in a restaurant, the waitstaff in the service area are always busy, but they also notice when the napkin box is half empty and promptly refill it, keeping it neat. If they see a soy sauce bottle or chair out of place, they will promptly restore it. On rainy days, Japanese shopping malls, considering customer needs, prepare towels for wiping rain gear and bodies, which is thoughtful and reusable. When choosing clothes, salespeople patiently and meticulously attend to each fitting, introducing each color and style and giving personal advice... Physical retail does not exist just because it is built; it is born out of demand, and because it meets needs, it is needed, allowing it to develop sustainably. The business services mentioned above are all details. These details are the yardstick of Japanese commerce, and the only standard for this yardstick is respect and attention to people. 4. Physical retail and e-commerce are not a life-and-death relationship In Japan, after shopping, if consumers do not want to carry their bags home, they can entrust the department store to pack and deliver them. This service is not limited to large items like home appliances; any clothing, shoes, bags, daily necessities, etc., can be delivered directly to the customer's home or hotel room. Japan's parcel service providers can use convenience stores for mailing packages, and online retailers can also use convenience stores for nearby delivery. Because Japan's e-commerce delivery system is built on the basis of physical convenience stores, this means that the e-commerce system and physical stores have a symbiotic relationship, not an absolute life-and-death competition. Consumers only consider cost-effectiveness and experience! In recent years, many Japanese physical stores have cooperated to launch e-commerce platforms and physical store synchronized sales services. Products purchased on e-commerce platforms can be picked up at the physical stores of the department store, and out-of-stock items in physical stores can also be purchased through e-commerce platforms. It can be seen that Japanese department stores, facing the new consumer demands under the new situation, do not reject new shopping models but keep pace with the times, actively building online shopping platforms and developing e-commerce business to cope with the impact. 5. Japan implements tax policies on e-commerce In China, we prefer to shop on e-commerce websites, and the most important reason is definitely price. Generally, e-commerce prices are cheaper than offline physical stores, coupled with the convenience of online shopping at home anytime, physical stores without price advantages have no place to stand. In Japan, a survey once found that the main reasons Japanese consumers love to shop in physical stores are the enjoyment of browsing and the frequent discount activities. This is because Japan implements tax policies on e-commerce. Japan has long imposed taxes on enterprises engaged in e-commerce within its territory. Since China currently does not impose taxes on online store enterprises, the threshold for opening online stores in China is low, which also gives online stores a price advantage. The price advantage of Japanese e-commerce enterprises is not very obvious. Coupled with frequent promotional activities in physical stores, this balances the price competition between online and offline. 6. The admired "craftsman spirit" The deepest impression of Japan's physical retail is focus. A sushi shop can operate for 150 years, even 250 years, which is common in Japan. Japanese craftsmen take pride in inheritance and continuous improvement. In their minds, there is no distinction between big and small businesses. They find satisfaction in continuous focus, so they are calm. Opening a store is not about having as many as possible, but about being good enough to satisfy oneself. Craftsmanship is the source of the vigorous vitality of Japan's physical retail. 7. What should China's physical retail do in the future? Compared with Japan, China's physical retail has a shorter history, lacks prestigious large physical stores, has scattered and unsystematic retail channels, and relatively weak emotional bonds. In addition, unlike Japan's synchronized online and offline sales, the price difference between domestic physical stores and online stores has become a hard injury to the development of domestic physical retail. Nevertheless, as long as domestic physical retail grasps these two points, it can still achieve significant development. **First, attach importance to customer shopping experience. This may lead to physical stores reducing excessive attention to e-commerce in the next few years and instead reinvesting in physical store sales;** **Second, the online shopping market in first- and second-tier cities is mostly saturated with fierce competition, while in third- and fourth-tier cities and rural areas, logistics cannot effectively reach. The opportunity for physical stores lies here.** First- and second-tier cities need a good shopping experience and to establish a good brand image to attract traffic online; third- and fourth-tier cities and rural areas need warehousing and logistics. Physical stores can provide these elements for them. Source: iyiou.com Click on the image for details **The 3rd (CFIC) China FMCG + Internet Conference** will be held in Chongqing in October 2017. The conference will closely focus on the theme "New Forces, New Ecology," inviting **1000+ distributors, 500+ brand owners, 200+ B2B platform founders, and 100+ investment and financing institutions** to jointly explore new chapters of cross-border integration! **Core topics of this conference:** > * How can the FMCG industry leverage B2B to achieve new growth opportunities? > > > > > > > * How should the new supply chain behind new retail be built? > > > > > > > * How can intra-city logistics help B2B achieve leapfrog development? > **Highlights of this conference:** > * The industry's first "2017 China FMCG B2B Industry Competitiveness White Paper" > > > > > * Excellent transformation and upgrading distributor case sharing > > > > > * Conference + exhibition upgrade, Hall 6 Internet Technology Exhibition strengthens docking > > > > > * Alibaba Retail Link, ProLogis Finance, Eternal Asia Supply Chain, Best Store Plus, Yijiupi, Unilever, Hitech Technology, Yunmei Shares, and other well-known enterprise leaders from various fields will give speeches and express pioneering views. > > October 17-18, 2017 Chongqing International Expo Center Registration channel is now open. Long press the QR code below or click "Read Original" to register. Early bird tickets before September 15 enjoy a 30% discount! Add friend and note "Conference Registration" Click the links below to review the highlights of the first and second FMCG + Internet conferences: 2016 "FMCG + Internet" Summit Forum 2017 (2nd) China FMCG + Internet Conference Click the links below to review the highlights of the first and second FMCG + Internet conferences: [2016 "FMCG + Internet" Summit Forum]() -END- --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671