E-commerce giant Amazon is expanding its presence in Japan’s cosmetics market through a business alliance with Istyle, which owns and operates the @Cosme store. 

Under the partnership agreement, Istyle will open @Cosme shopping on Amazon’s e-commerce site in Japan, offering beauty products from a “wide range of brands and diverse categories”.

The Japanese retailer will issue US$18.7 million-worth of convertible bonds and $86.3 million in warrants to Amazon. If the bonds were converted to shares it would give Amazon a stake of about 36 per cent in the business.

Istyle will also issue $11.2 million in convertible bonds to Mitsuit & Co to support its overseas businesses and domestic retail operations. 

Besides its partnership with Amazon, the company also plans to acquire MIZ Corp-owned cosmetics specialty store chain Tokyo Komachi, which operates four stores in large commercial facilities – Lazona Kawasaki, Lalaport Toyosu, Lalaport Yokohama and Aeon Urawa Misono. The acquisition deal is expected to be completed by the end of next month. 

As of June, Istyle has 26 directly managed stores across Japan and Hong Kong under the brand @Cosme Tokyo and @Cosme Store.