Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten has added Malaysia to its international footprint as it opened its online shopping mall there.

Called Rakuten Online Shopping, the online mall initially offers more than 11,000 goods including consumer electronics, fashion apparel, healthcare, computer and IT, jewellery and accessories from more than 40 retail brands. The company says it will continue to grow its base of merchant partners across key industries to expand its product categories in Malaysia.

“The launch represents a significant first step in our journey towards growing Rakuten into a full internet services company in Malaysia,” said Rakuten Online Shopping president and CEO Masaya Ueno.

Unlike existing shopping sites, Rakuten Online Shopping is a virtual mall populated with multiple stores that cater to various sectors of interest. It also features Rakuten Super Points loyalty rewards programme that incentivise shoppers with points for all purchases that are redeemable as payment for future purchases.

“At Rakuten, our philosophy is ‘shopping is entertainment’. We believe that shopping online can and should be as exciting and interactive as a live market and not simply the vending-machine-like experience that most sites offer,” said Ueno.

Rakuten Online Shopping is the company’s third e-commerce business in Southeast Asia after Tarad.com in Thailand opened in 2009 and Rakuten Belanja Online in Indonesia opened in 2011.

With the launch of Rakuten Online Shopping, the company is set to tap the booming internet retailing market in Malaysia which is expected to exceed MYR1.9 billion (US$623 million) by 2016.

GB