Rakuten and BIC CAMERA Collaborate to Launch New Consumer Electronics Service

Tokyo, April 11, 2018 –Rakuten, Inc. and BIC CAMERA INC. today announced the launch of new joint services in the consumer electronics sector and the opening of “Rakuten BIC,” a new consumer electronics e-commerce site that is part of Rakuten Ichiba.

Rakuten BIC, operated by Rakuten and BIC CAMERA, will leverage the strengths of the two companies to offer a wide range of products at competitive prices, and by breaking down barriers to combine the advantages of online and offline retail, will be able to meet the increasingly diverse needs of its customers.

In addition to a variety of features to make shopping more fun, from today, Rakuten BIC users will be able to utilize a feature where they can check to see what products are in stock at 45 of BIC CAMERA’s brick-and-mortar stores (including outlet stores) via the Rakuten BIC site. This feature has been made possible through enhanced coordination between online and offline retail. Furthermore, Rakuten Point Card, Rakuten’s point program available across the company’s various services, will be introduced to 47 of BIC CAMERA’s brick-and-mortar stores (including outlet stores). When users purchase products, they can choose to either receive Rakuten Super Points or BIC Points. There are plans to make it possible to make payments using Rakuten Super Points in the future as well.

The two companies are also working to implement a system in Rakuten BIC which can smoothly handle everything from product purchases to installation work. Rakuten and BIC CAMERA will also seek to further improve the convenience in consumer electronics EC by providing innovative services such as a same-day home delivery service throughout the 23 wards of Tokyo for products purchased by a certain time. In addition, the collaboration will also enhance efforts to allow online customers to easily move offline, such as by promoting additional purchases at brick-and-mortar stores by allowing customers to pick up products purchased via Rakuten BIC at BIC CAMERA’s physical stores. In addition, the two companies will combine the knowledge and expertise they have cultivated to date to develop original products aimed at a variety of different customers, including women and young people. The plan is for these to be sequentially rolled out for sale via Rakuten BIC and at BIC CAMERA stores throughout Japan.

Going forward, Rakuten and BIC CAMERA will continue aiming to further improve customer satisfaction by breaking down the barriers between offline and online retail in order to provide a highly convenient shopping experience.

Overview of Rakuten BIC
Service start date / time: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 at 10:00
URL: https://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/biccamera/

Features:
Products
・Extensive lineup of competitively priced products
・Rollout of original Rakuten BIC products (release date TBC)

Delivery
・Development of a system which can smoothly handle everything from product purchases to installation work (release date TBC)
・Same-day home delivery within the 23 wards of Tokyo (release date TBC)

Combining the advantages of online and offline retail
・Ability to check inventory at BIC CAMERA’s brick-and-mortar stores on Rakuten BIC
・Pickup for products purchased at Rakuten BIC to be offered at BIC CAMERA’s brick-and-mortar stores (release date TBC)
・Customers can earn and use Rakuten Super Points when they present their Rakuten Point Card when purchasing at BIC CAMERA’s brick-and-mortar stores (release date TBC)

Campaign Overviews

Campaign 1
URL: https://event.rakuten.co.jp/campaign/rakutenbic/sale/
Period: 14:00 on April 11, 2018 – 19:59 PM on April 14, 2018
Details: Offering products at attractive prices, as well as Rakuten Super Points up to 10%

Campaign 2
URL: https://event.rakuten.co.jp/campaign/rakutenbic/city/
Period: 14:00 on April 11 – 23:59 on April 20
Details: After registering via Rakuten BIC ahead of time, customers will be able to receive Rakuten Super Points at up to 10% rate when presenting their Rakuten Point Card when purchasing products at brick-and-mortar BIC CAMERA stores.  
* Participating stores: A total of 47 BIC CAMERA, BIC CAMERA OUTLET stores
* Certain products are excluded
* Points capped at 10,000 points per customer.

 Campaign 3
URL: https://pointcard.rakuten.co.jp/campaign/biccamera/spotevents/20180411/
Period: 00:00 on April 11 – 23:59 on May 6
Details: After entering the campaign, one out of every 100 customers will be chosen by a raffle to receive Rakuten Super Points equal to the amount of their purchase when purchasing products at participating brick-and-mortar BIC CAMERA group stores by presenting their Rakuten Points Card or the app
* Participating stores: A total of 47 BIC CAMERA, BIC CAMERA OUTLET stores
* Points capped at 100,000 points per customer.