Overseas expansion activities | Supported by local e-commerce platforms, brand enterprises are flocking to these mature overseas markets.

Currently, both the global trade market and China's export landscape are undergoing disruptive structural changes.

Taking the global e - commerce market as an example, although the United States remains the largest e - commerce market outside China, with a market size of $1.2 trillion in 2024 (data from Statista), under the shadow of the uncertainty of the US tariff policy, overseas - going enterprises have to shift their business focus to other regions.

Adjusting the market landscape is no easy task. Enterprises not only need to invest more time and additional costs, but also face the challenge of choosing a suitable new market. For established brands, emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and Latin America are growing rapidly, but their overall market sizes are relatively limited, and the consumption levels are still lower than those in economically developed regions. Although the Middle East market has a relatively high average customer order value, it has unique social, cultural and religious backgrounds, resulting in high implicit entry barriers.

In contrast, mature markets such as Europe and Japan have become the key overseas destinations for more and more brand - type enterprises. To help Chinese brands enter these markets, local e - commerce platforms, represented by Rakuten Group, one of Japan's largest e - commerce platforms, are actively making efforts.

Mari Takama, General Manager of the Market Planning Department of the Executive Director of Rakuten Group, details Rakuten Group's global strategic layout

1. Japan and Europe become new focuses for brand expansion overseas

According to Statista data, the Japanese e - commerce market, with a size of $169 billion (about 1.22 trillion yuan), ranks third globally, second only to the United States. According to the GlobalData report, the size of Japan's digital retail market reached $191.9 billion in 2024, a year - on - year increase of 8.4%. It is expected to continue growing at a rate of 7.7% to $206.8 billion in 2025 and is likely to exceed the $261.8 billion mark in 2029.

Ulike, the world's top - selling epilator brand in 2023 (data from Frost & Sullivan research), has been in the Japanese market through the Rakuten platform for about three years. Fia, the operation manager of Ulike's overseas division on the Japanese Rakuten platform, introduced that relying on Rakuten's rapidly growing ecological scale, perfect event system, comprehensive resource support and system innovation, Ulike achieved a breakthrough from scratch to becoming the top brand in the category through the "STEP" principle - that is, transmitting product advantages from the user's perspective, testing multi - type and multi - channel marketing plans, concentrating resources to boost sales and extending the product's "life cycle".

Fia, the operation manager of Ulike's overseas division on the Japanese Rakuten platform

The European market is also performing strongly. Taking France as an example, e - commerce sales exceeded 175.3 billion euros in 2024, a year - on - year increase of 9.6%. Understanding the consumption trends and consumer preferences in the French market is the key for merchants to succeed. According to Tingting Wang, the key account manager of Rakuten France, categories such as gardening tools and cleaning appliances have been popular on the French Rakuten platform for a long time. Merchants should keep up with market trends and flexibly adjust their product selection strategies. In addition, merchants can plan their marketing strategies in advance based on the operation calendar and festival promotion information provided by the platform to seize the sales peak season.

Tingting Wang, the key account manager of Rakuten France

2. Local e - commerce platforms become a new growth track

On the one hand, there are China's strong supply - chain advantages and innovation capabilities. On the other hand, there is the rapidly growing demand in overseas markets. During this current dividend period for Chinese enterprises going overseas, some local e - commerce platforms are accelerating their entry, achieving new growth by helping Chinese brands "go overseas with high quality".

Rakuten Group in Japan is a typical example. On April 10, the 2025 Rakuten Global E - commerce Brand Summit, jointly hosted by the Shenzhen Cross - border E - commerce Association, Rakuten Ichiba under Rakuten Group and Rakuten France, was held in Shenzhen. The summit focused on the strategic collaboration, ecological empowerment and localization practices of the Rakuten markets in Japan and France, providing forward - looking insights and practical guides for the global layout of Chinese brands.

It is reported that currently, domestic brands can enter the Japanese Rakuten platform in two ways: "direct entry" and "agent entry". At the summit, the Rakuten platform announced a variety of preferential policies for newly - entered brands. Mingming Gao, the director of the operation department of the Shenzhen branch of Rakuten Group, reminded merchants that on the one hand, they should actively take advantage of Rakuten's characteristic of focusing on providing a pleasant shopping experience. On the other hand, they should also use the platform's marketing tools to do a good job in local operations according to market demand and consumption trends.

Mingming Gao, the director of the operation department of the Shenzhen branch of Rakuten Group

In terms of logistics, in response to the high - timeliness demand of the Japanese market, Rakuten Logistics Network, an e - logistics and distribution service brand under Rakuten Group, is committed to providing merchants with global logistics and distribution services to reduce merchants' logistics costs, improve logistics efficiency and customer satisfaction. OCS Logistics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. has also launched a "one - stop cross - border logistics solution" for domestic merchants.

In the French market, Rakuten has proposed a "local ecological empowerment" strategy to enhance consumer purchasing power, establish a professional logistics network and build a digital shopping mall. Zenan Liu, the key account manager of Rakuten France, introduced that Rakuten France will launch the Spanish market in June, providing opportunities for novice sellers to make quick orders, and offering exclusive discounts such as free monthly rent, low commissions and logistics discounts.

Zenan Liu, the key account manager of Rakuten France

Since its establishment in 1997, Rakuten Group currently has about 30,000 employees globally and more than 2 billion users in 30 countries and regions. The "Rakuten ecosystem" it has built provides users with more than 70 services through the interconnection of "ID + points", and its domestic e - commerce turnover in Japan is about 6 trillion yen. Rakuten has also developed into one of the top 5 comprehensive e - commerce platforms in France, covering 14 categories with a total of 200 million products, attracting 15 million independent visitors per month, and 30% of French online shoppers visit its website every month.

Against the background of the reshaping of the global e - commerce landscape, the overseas expansion paths of brand enterprises are evolving from single - market breakthroughs to multi - polar layouts. E - commerce platforms such as Rakuten Group, with their operational experience and ecological synergy advantages in the local market, provide Chinese brands with more diverse market solutions.

For brands, the success of cross - border expansion does not only depend on platform resources. They still need to seek a dynamic balance among supply - chain resilience, local innovation and compliance management. While seizing the current window period, they should build global brand assets with a long - term perspective to truly gain a foothold in the competition in mature markets.