Rakuten defends e-mall charging model

It blows my mind 100 times over that Rakuten is as popular as it is. That website is HORRIBLE! The design is horrid. The search engine, one of the worst I have ever seen. Doesn't matter if you type in Japanese or English. It will bring up thousands and thousands of hits, 99% of don't seem to have any relation to what your are shopping for. Yahoo's design is even worse, but it is still 10 times easier to buy and sell on Yahoo. But compared to Amazon. How can either of these two sites even stay in business. The amount of sellers and items on Rakuten, it is like the world just vomited it all up on Rakuten. Impossible to compare, to shop, to find, to pay for anything consistently. Where is the feeback system. I had two friends that went to the same seller because they both wanted the same game to play together. The seller said he 7 in stock. They both placed their order. One friend got the game game in 48 hours. The other friend got his purchase email 3 days latter, and no other contact and finally got the game 2 weeks later. So... what was the deal. The seller didnt really have 7 in stock? No way to leave seller feedback?

If Yahoo is going to let sellers sell for free using their platform, both Rakuten and Amazon, who charges more than 15% fee for the selling item, will be facing trouble. Many stores use all three platform of Amazon, Rakuten and Yahoo. But it seems, from now, they can be at least 10% cheaper in Yahoo shopping. That will be good for the buyers.

Rakuten could have 10 million tenants, it wouldn't matter. I still won't buy through them. Like inakaRob, I find their website horrendous and the search engine pathetic. Or at least it was the last time I tried looking at it. I was doing trying to do some basic research. I WILL NEVER buy through them no matter what I find. I did buy one thing, in 2007. I still get junk mail. I tried contacting Rakuten. I tried blocking. I can not make it stop. NEVER again.

Great idea. This will open so many doors for second hand goods. I've been trying to buy a nice used slicer for a year. Not gonna pay ¥35,000 for something I'm only gonna use once a month.

Yahoo Auctions used to be free to sell up until 2003. At that time their only serious rival was eBay's failed attempt to get into Japan. Once eBay exited Japan, (some people claim this was done in return for Yahoo UK exiting the UK auction market) then Yahoo Japan started charging sellers.

These days it's really Amazon Japan, that is winning the ecommerce battle in Japan. Amazon is free to list items. Rakuten is very expensive for sellers.

Like using google you need to refine your search parameters to find what you want. It takes time to figure out how to search for anything properly on the internet which takes practice and dedication. If it was easy nobody would come to me to find info. Searching is just as much an art form as it is to developing the search engine itself and since it is organic and continues to evolve, you also have to up your game to filter out the crap. I can pretty much find anything on the net, but the key is to find what you need as quickly as possible, time is money. If need be, use google to find stuff on Rakuten. Use kakaku.com as a reference, cross check with Yahoo Auction & Amazon, check out other sites depending on what your looking for like biccamera and decide beforehand how much time you want to waste on buying that 500yen thing if postage is going to cost 800yen. Have fun.

I've used rakuten for years and never had any trouble at all. Even the search is five if you know how to use it and refine your search. I will continue to use it regardless. You can buy just about anything up to 50 or 60% cheaper than the shops and it's delivered to your door within a week.

I bought a pair of new Ray-Ban aviators from Rakuten. They took 2 days to arrive and only ¥9000, a full ¥7000 less than they would have done on the high street. Great website.