Rakuten closes in Spain

The next August Rakuten fulfill three years in Spain, after landing on the peninsula in 2013. Coinciding with this date the Japanese multinational decided to close its Spanish ecommerce division, with offices in Barcelona. In addition to Spain, Rakuten announced the closure of its store in the UK.

The reason that close is not clear, as they did not leave them profitable cost growth for the volume of business handled. Instead, they pose further focus their investments in France and in Germany, where they say have “scale and potential for sustainable growth.”
If true, that Rakuten never get to achieve too much popularity in Spain. Their model, which consisted exclusively allow third parties they sold through its platform but own products, failed to catch on among netizens. Neither numerous promotions or advertising to publicize managed entirely to Rakuten.
We were surprised as it was a few days Barcelona technical department contacted us to add the Rakuten Canal Spain in our iwebconnector solution. But after we announced major business opportunities for eCommerce from Spain want to expand their international market with Rakuten Channels France and Germany.
For more information on the progress of our integration. Get in contact with us