Rakuten Establishes Expert Advisory Council to Support New Fashion Strategy “Rakuten Fashion”

Tokyo, October 15, 2019 – Rakuten, Inc. today announced plans to establish an expert advisory council comprised of industry professionals with experience from across the fashion world in order to support realization of its new fashion category strategy, Rakuten Fashion.

The Rakuten Fashion strategy aims to create a platform that serves both as a one-stop digital support system for fashion-related businesses and provides high-value added services to fashion customers. Rakuten Fashion will provide one-stop digital solutions to fashion businesses by employing Rakuten Group assets that cover the entire process from production to sales, including demand forecasting, order management, payment systems, fulfillment services, overseas sales support and product planning. Through this vision, Rakuten plans to further empower the fashion industry by building a more open platform.

With the support of this new expert advisory council, Rakuten will aim to leverage the advice and expertise of fashion industry professionals in order to further strengthen site design, user communication and more. By building proactive partnerships and engaging in constructive dialogue with apparel companies, Rakuten will seek to run a robust, well-rounded platform that includes UI/UX design improvements and service development. In addition to leveraging Rakuten's IT and business expertise through Rakuten Fashion, brands and users will be able to take full advantage of industry experience that can only be acquired from fashion professionals and apparel companies. Rakuten aims to transform Rakuten Fashion into a digital platform that features helpful support functions, products and services.

Moving forward, Rakuten will continue to empower the Japanese fashion industry and provide a more enjoyable shopping experience to customers.

* Rakuten’s fashion e-commerce site, which currently hosts more than 1,100 popular fashion brands, also operates as Rakuten Fashion (formerly "Rakuten BRAND AVENUE.")

Expert Advisory Council Overview
Established: November 1, 2019
Council Members: 3
Executive Fashion Creative Director: Toshiko Nakajima, Former Editor-in-Chief of GINZA magazine
Advisors:
Ako Tanaka, Numéro TOKYO magazine Editor-in-Chief and Fashion Director
Takashi Kumagai, Stylist

About the Rakuten Fashion e-commerce site
https://brandavenue.rakuten.co.jp
Rakuten Fashion is an online fashion shopping website made up of over 1,100 popular fashion brand shops (as of September 2019). Users can find and purchase their favorite fashion items from a wide selection of products, for which they can pay with and earn Rakuten Super Points, Rakuten Group's loyalty points.
* The name was changed from "Rakuten BRAND AVENUE" to Rakuten Fashion on Tuesday, October 1, 2019.