Japanese Internet giant Rakuten is to open a shopping site in Singapore before 2013 ends.

Rakuten says the shopping site will cater to the local shopping preferences and will offer products including books, house items, toys, electronics, fashion, sports goods and more.

The site will also offer rewards program that will give loyalty points to customers every time they order.

Rakuten, through its global market site, has already been shipping to Singapore, but decided to open a local shopping site due to the high number of orders from Singaporeans.

It also learned that there is high demand for Japanese products in Singapore.

While Singapore has small population, it has strong web and mobile penetration as well as high per-capita spending which makes it an attractive online retail market.

Rakuten also has shopping sites in Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia. It recently split with Indonesian partner MNC.