Rakuten Germany closes its door

One of the top 5 marketplaces in Germany exits the market. Source:?unsplash.com

Rakuten.de will no longer accept any new orders, Ecommerce News reports. The online marketplace announced it will close its doors on 15 October. The decision was made due to challenges with “leading the e-commerce business to a relevant market presence”.

The Japanese company had its online platform Rakuten.de for more than 10 years and managed to become the number five of the biggest online marketplaces in Germany.

The press office of Rakuten confirmed the closure. It also said it would switch its business model to the open e-commerce platform Club R. That concept is similar to an online shopping club where dealers and buyers meet. Rakuten is doing a similar thing in the United Kingdom and Spain. At Club R, customers can browse products from hundreds of retailers and brands and collected Rakuten Points, which they can exchange for films (on Rakuten TV), shopping credit at major brands, and more.

In Germany, about 5,500 retailers are registered at Rakuten.de. For many of them, the closure came as a complete surprise. Not so long ago, some dealers even got attracted with an introductory offer to join the marketplace. And during MultichannelDay 2020 two weeks ago, Stefan Winter, Sales Director at Rakuten Germany, even promoted the marketplace among the participating retailers. During his presentation he spoke of 4.5 million active users.

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