Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets, JapanConsuming

Michael Causton

Michael is co-founder and partner at JapanConsuming.

JapanConsuming is a specialist research firm producing intelligence on Japanese retail and consumer markets. Founded in 2000, JapanConsuming has become the leading provider of insights on Japanese retailers and consumer trends to retailers, brands, government agencies and investors. As well as a highly regarded monthly report on the market, JapanConsuming produces in-depth reports and seminars on retail sectors and consumer trends, as well as telephone consulting/meetings with investors. 

All of JapanConsuming's team are bilingual and bi-cultural, and the company's research sources are:

Direct meetings with retailers, wholesalers, distributors, trade body staff, govt., marketing firms, academics etc.
Govt. data
Trade association data
Trade Press across all consumer sectors
Unique Network of buyers/managers/marketing staff at retail, as well as wholesalers and trading firms.
Editors/Journalists at publishing houses and PR/Ad firms.


JapanConsuming was founded by Michael Causton and Roy Larke. 

Michael Causton set up and ran a consumer distribution business in Tokyo for 10 years and developed this into a business responsible for annual imports to Japan of several billion Yen, at the same time building up an inside knowledge of how Japanese distribution works and developing a network of contacts across the industry. Seeing the lack of quality market intelligence on Japanese markets, he co-founded JapanConsuming in 2000. He divides his time between Japan and Europe/US consulting for companies, governments and investors, including providing talks, seminars, and webinars as well as writing reports and books.

Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets

The Big 3: Amazon’s Lead Grows as Rakuten Stumbles

Rakuten and Yahoo (And Zozo) Take More Share in Japanese E-Commerce Market

Real Insight on Japanese Consumer Markets

JapanConsuming

JapanConsuming is a specialist research firm producing intelligence on Japanese retail and consumer markets. Founded in 2000, JapanConsuming has become the leading provider of insights on Japanese retailers and consumer trends to retailers, brands, government agencies and investors. As well as a highly regarded monthly report on the market, JapanConsuming produces in-depth reports on retail sectors, seminars on key trends and telephone consulting to investors on trends and retailers.

JapanConsuming was founded by Michael Causton and Roy Larke. 

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>Competition among the big three e-commerce platforms and the wider sector continues. </li>
<li>All three big firms (Rakuten, Amazon and LY) are leveraging investment in AI, ecosystem capture, and improved customer service to grow market share. </li>
<li>However, last year only Amazon Japan outperformed the sector by a significant margin and has consistently outperformed Rakuten in the past five years too.</li>
</ul>


Competition among the big three e-commerce platforms and the wider sector continues. 
All three big firms (Rakuten, Amazon and LY) are leveraging investment in AI, ecosystem capture, and improved customer service to grow market share. 
However, last year only Amazon Japan outperformed the sector by a significant margin and has consistently outperformed Rakuten in the past five years too.


Rakuten Continues Fight to Hold Share Against Amazon and LY but Amazon Is Ahead