Rakuten EXPRESS Delivery Service Launches in Osaka Prefecture

Tokyo, October 17, 2018 - Rakuten, Inc. today announced that the Rakuten EXPRESS door-to-door delivery service will launch in the 24 wards of Osaka City as well as Sakai City in Osaka Prefecture^*1 on October 17.

Rakuten EXPRESS currently provides delivery services for goods ordered through Rakuten Direct, Inc., a Rakuten Group e-commerce service offering daily necessities, Rakuten Books and some of the deliveries handled by the Rakuten Super Logistics service, which provides logistics services for merchants on the Rakuten Ichiba marketplace^*2. In addition to the 23 wards of Tokyo and 14 cities in metropolitan Tokyo^*3, as well as four cities in Chiba Prefecture^*4, the service now covers parts of Osaka Prefecture, with plans for further expansion in the future.   

As a part of its efforts to reduce the number of missed deliveries, Rakuten EXPRESS also offers the “Oki-hai” service for deliveries of products from Rakuten Books, which allows customers to set a location on their property for products to be delivered to in the event of their absence. This service has been well received, and from October 10, has been expanded to include orders from Rakuten Direct delivered by Rakuten EXPRESS, with the aims to accelerate efforts to improve the efficiency of deliveries and offer more convenient delivery services to customers.  

This expansion of Rakuten EXPRESS is part of Rakuten’s “One Delivery” vision for a comprehensive logistics and delivery service providing everything from storage to delivery for merchants on Rakuten Ichiba.

*1 With this expansion of the service, Rakuten EXPRESS now covers approximately 13% of the population of Japan.
*2 In Osaka Prefecture, only orders from Rakuten Direct are eligible for the Rakuten EXPRESS service. Orders from Rakuten Books and deliveries handled by Rakuten Super Logistics Service are not eligible for the Rakuten EXPRESS service (as of October 2018).
*3 The cities of Fuchu, Chofu, Nishitokyo, Mitaka, Kodaira, Hino, Musashino, Tachikawa, Tama, Kokubunji, Koganei, Inagi, Komae, and Kunitachi in metropolitan Tokyo
*4 The cities of Ichikawa, Funabashi, Urayasu, and Matsudo in Chiba Prefecture

Rakuten EXPRESS is the delivery service operated by Rakuten. In addition to products from Rakuten Direct and Rakuten Books, the service also delivers some of the products from merchants on Rakuten Ichiba handled by Rakuten Super Logistics. The service coverage area is comprised of the 23 wards of Tokyo, 14 cities in metropolitan Tokyo, four cities in Chiba Prefecture, and parts of Osaka Prefecture. In order to reduce the incidence of redeliveries to absent customers, Rakuten EXPRESS allows customers to specify a time for redeliveries up to midnight and offers the “Oki-hai” unattended delivery service option which allows customers to set a location on their property for products to be delivered to in the event of their absence.

Rakuten Super Logistics offers comprehensive distribution services from storage to shipment for products from merchants on the Rakuten Ichiba marketplace. It provides a high-quality logistics service covering everything from the arrival of goods at the warehouse to delivery, and offers services that meet the unique requirements of each merchant, such as gift-wrapping or the attachment of promotional materials. By outsourcing their delivery work to Rakuten Super Logistics, merchants are free to focus on tasks such as product planning and marketing.

In recent years, the increasing number of missed redeliveries, staff shortages and other issues faced by the domestic logistics industry are becoming broader issues for society at large, and e-commerce merchants are finding it increasingly difficult to ensure stable operations. In order to address these issues, Rakuten has established its “One Delivery” vision for a comprehensive logistics service to manage processes ranging from product orders to deliveries for merchants on the Rakuten Ichiba marketplace, in which the company is undertaking various initiatives.