Online Shoppers Cheer & Wallets Cringe: Rakuten Is Coming!

Fans of the Japanese e-commerce company, Rakuten can let out a pre-weekend cheer as Rakuten Online Shoppingis making its way to Malaysia. Rakuten promises to introduce consumers in Malaysia to a whole new online shopping experience and is currently recruiting merchant partners to populate its online shopping mall leading up to its launch in late 2012.

Rakuten Online Shopping will focus on offering Malaysian consumers the best in local and international goods while employing Japan’s world famous customer service standards. Malaysia will be Rakuten’s third expansion in the region, coming after TARAD.com in Thailand and Rakuten Belanja Online in Indonesia.

“The Rakuten shopping experience brings the best of both worlds to consumers and merchants,” said Rakuten Online Shopping President and Chief Executive Officer Masaya Ueno. “We empower merchants with the platform, tools and know-how they need to run successful online businesses. We also enable them to customize their storefronts to maximize their own brand appeal and allow them to communicate directly with their customers. This flexibility and interaction bring the online shopping experience to life and puts the fun back in shopping.”

Personally, this is very bad news for a lot of people I know as well as my wallet. In Japan Rakuten is such an amazing outlet for one-stop shopping, I can’t wait to see what the local version has in store!