Japanese retailer Muji (無印良品) yesterday opened its first online store in Taiwan through its collaboration with online shopping mall operator Taiwan Rakuten Ichiba Inc (台灣樂天市集).
“We opened our online shop to cater to the increasing demand from consumers who live in places where there are no Muji stores and wish to buy our products online,” Wang Wen-hsin (王文欣), president of Muji (Taiwan) Co (台灣無印良品), told a press conference yesterday.
Wang said the integration of Muji’s real and virtual stores was aimed at providing complementary services for consumers who shop at stores or who wish to obtain product information before going to the store.
The company plans to boost its sales growth to between 15 percent and 20 percent this year from a year ago on the back of new stores, she said.
The company opened one store in The Mall (遠企購物中心) and another in Kaohsiung’s Hanshin Arena Store (漢神巨蛋購物廣場) last month, and plans to open one more in either central or southern Taiwan before the end of the year, Wang said.
Wang added that while the company has felt the pressure of the nation’s economic slowdown, it also found sales growing, especially during promotional periods, which indicates that consumers are careful about spending.
Since the official launch of its virtual mall in May, Taiwan Rakuten Ichiba has developed around 300 online stores, with another 200 stores in the preparation stage. The company plans to increase its number of online shops to 1,000 this year.
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