The Singapore site (www.rakuten.com.sg) currently features more than 120 Japanese and local merchants with over 40,000 products across more than ten categories including fashion, food, health and beauty products, electronics, kids’ and babies’ products, toys and games, livingware, furniture and decoration, books, pet products, and vehicle accessories. Rakuten Singapore aims to acquire 300 merchants by the end of this year.

Merchant highlights include:

Kuriya Fish Market

Enjoy air-flown shipments of fresh fish, premium seafood and fresh fruits from Japan and other leading exporters. One of its bestsellers on Rakuten.com.sg is the frozen king crab leg, which is prized for its sweet, delicate and tender flesh.

Kenko.com

The number one e-drugstore in Japan and Rakuten Ichiba Japan’s Shop of the Year (medicine category) features an extensive array of health, personal care, beauty and baby products.

VANILLABEANS

The Yokohama-based confectioner is Rakuten Ichiba Japan’s Shop of the Year (sweets category). Famed for its amazingly rich “Japan’s No. 1 chocolate cookie sand” which will make chocolate lovers go weak in their knees, VANILLABEANS now makes its debut in Singapore on Rakuten.com.sg.

GALSTAR (available as of January 14)

Fashionistas will love Rakuten Ichiba Japan’s Shop of the

Year (fashion category) with its extensive collection that

ranges from girlie casuals to edgy grunge and stylish chic

Rakuten is well-known for its unique B2B2C marketplace platform which it pioneered globally in 1997. This means merchants get to build an online storefront on Rakuten and sell directly to consumers, allowing for merchants and consumers to build a direct relationship with one another.

Mr Okamoto Shingo, Head of Singapore e-Commerce Business, Rakuten said, “At Rakuten, we believe ‘Shopping is Entertainment’ – our idea of service is to provide shopping as a form of entertainment in people’s lives. To do that, we make sure we have many merchants providing an exciting range of quality products. Our reward programme, Rakuten Super Point allows our customers to shop more, for less. To make shopping even more enjoyable, we will also be bringing our hallmark Rakuten Super Sale – a big discount festive event – to our Singapore customers later this year.”

Now for the exciting offer: 

To mark the start of its operations, 

Rakuten is offering everyone free delivery for all products (minimum purchase of S$30) from January 14, 2.00pm to January 17, 11.59pm. Members can also earn ten times Rakuten Super Points if payment is made by MasterCard  (till March 31, 2014).

To celebrate its launch, Rakuten will be organising a series of activities from March that will bring to its life its “Shopping is Entertainment” tagline. Keep a lookout for them

To begin the Rakuten shopping experience, log on to www.rakuten.com.sg

But that's not all!!!

On top of the free delivery campaign, Rakuten Sg is offering to my readers an additional offer.

Receive a  S$20 discount for a minimum spend of S$100 (before delivery charges, if any) 

Discount code: JIAHUI20

Quick facts

 Omotenashi (おもてなし), meaning the Japanese spirit of service, is what Rakuten aims to have its merchants deliver to its customers

 Earn Rakuten Super Points as you shop – 100 Super Points are worth S$1 which can be spent on products across the website

 Shop on the move! The Rakuten Singapore site is mobile-optimised for those who like shopping on the go

 Convenient payment modes: Payment can be made by VISA, MasterCard and PayPal