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

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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. 

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Japan Consumer discretionary / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Fashion is already the largest single category online, but it also a sector that is developing rapidly. While the bulk of sales come from the leading malls, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/409" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:409:1">Amazon.com Inc (AMZN US)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/31" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31:1">Rakuten (4755 JP)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/19603" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:19603:1">Yahoo Japan (4689 JP)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/18379" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:18379:1">ZOZO Inc (3092 JP)</a>, more competition is emerging from a growing number of smaller malls.There are clear signs of a 2-speed fashion e-commerce market emerging, with a small group of winners among malls and retailers (reviewed below) and the rest slowly catching up behind.At the same time, fashion retailers are increasingly looking to add their own, directly controlled online stores.For now, there is plenty of room for everyone to expand, but we will increasingly see a two-pronged system emerge, with brands still selling on malls, but also developing exclusive brand lines for their own stores.At the same time, they will adapt retail stores to become part of a full omnichannel experience, most likely expanding showrooming stores with big (positive) implications for profitability.

Fashion is already the largest single category online, but it also a sector that is developing rapidly. While the bulk of sales come from the leading malls, Amazon.com Inc (AMZN US), Rakuten (4755 JP), Yahoo Japan (4689 JP) and ZOZO Inc (3092 JP), more competition is emerging from a growing number of smaller malls.There are clear signs of a 2-speed fashion e-commerce market emerging, with a small group of winners among malls and retailers (reviewed below) and the rest slowly catching up behind.At the same time, fashion retailers are increasingly looking to add their own, directly controlled online stores.For now, there is plenty of room for everyone to expand, but we will increasingly see a two-pronged system emerge, with brands still selling on malls, but also developing exclusive brand lines for their own stores.At the same time, they will adapt retail stores to become part of a full omnichannel experience, most likely expanding showrooming stores with big (positive) implications for profitability.

Japan Fashion E-Commerce Review: More Competition Coming for ZOZO and Rakuten