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

Oh No ZoZo! An Overly Complicated Buyback+Issuance To Stay Prime

Marui to Invest ¥80 Billion over 5 Years in FinTech & Buildings

Zozo – 2021 Conviction Call Short Unlikely to Hit Its GMV Targets

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

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/zozo-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:18379:1" rel="noopener">ZOZO Inc (3092 JP)</a>  had a great 2020, boosted in part by consumers’ buying online in the pandemic but also because of longer-term strategic changes to its business – and its new collaborative engagement with its majority shareholder, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/z-holdings-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:19603:1" rel="noopener">Z Holdings (4689 JP)</a>. While there may be a short-term correction once consumers return to stores, Zozo’s current operations and its future plans are so much stronger and more viable than two years ago that it is likely to emerge as a contender to be 2nd in apparel rankings behind Uniqlo.OPM should also improve on the back of category expansion into high ticket items such as luxury and designer brands.Zozo is also working on a plan to create new sources of profit that don’t rely on ever-growing GTVs, with a target of hitting ¥100 billion in operating profit in the next few years. The three areas where Zozo expects to find new revenues are in:<ol>
<li>Increasing traffic for non-shopping activities </li>
<li>Expanding its role in design and production through private/D2C brands, and </li>
<li>Selling technology licenses overseas.</li>
</ol>Zozo's renewed strategic direction and controlled management should deliver a smoother and more consistent progress than in recent years.

ZOZO Inc (3092 JP)  had a great 2020, boosted in part by consumers’ buying online in the pandemic but also because of longer-term strategic changes to its business – and its new collaborative engagement with its majority shareholder, Z Holdings (4689 JP). While there may be a short-term correction once consumers return to stores, Zozo’s current operations and its future plans are so much stronger and more viable than two years ago that it is likely to emerge as a contender to be 2nd in apparel rankings behind Uniqlo.OPM should also improve on the back of category expansion into high ticket items such as luxury and designer brands.Zozo is also working on a plan to create new sources of profit that don’t rely on ever-growing GTVs, with a target of hitting ¥100 billion in operating profit in the next few years. The three areas where Zozo expects to find new revenues are in:
Increasing traffic for non-shopping activities 
Expanding its role in design and production through private/D2C brands, and 
Selling technology licenses overseas.
Zozo's renewed strategic direction and controlled management should deliver a smoother and more consistent progress than in recent years.

ZOZO Inc

Zozo: Record Sales and a Future Plan