Is Rakuten.co.uk a good marketplace to sell on?

[SimplyMyLove]

We've just launched our shop on Rakuten.co.uk, which used to be Play.com. The monthly subscription fee is much more expensive than eBay and Amazon, although the commission fee is fairly cheaper. I personally never bought anything on this marketplace before, and wonder whether someone here had some experience with either shopping or selling on Rakuten or Play.com in the past.

 

[Raw Rob]

I don't know anything about it, I just think the name change was insane for the British market. Play.com was such a good domain name!

 

[NewGardenStyle]

Used them when they were play.com to buy a few CD's (must have been quite a few years ago!) Had no problems with them.

They don't come up in the SERP's for my industry. I don't see Rakuten on a regular basis for the type of products I search / buy online (clothes, household goods). All you can do is test them out and see if they work for you or not.

 

[SimplyMyLove]

Many thanks for the share of your view on this. I googled some background information on Rakuten and the previous Play.com, and it looks like the change of Play.com to Rakuten.com is a bad decision.

 

[NewGardenStyle]

Yes I quite liked play.com. They could have had a shot at being Britain's answer to Amazon. Bet the founders did well out of the Rakuten sale though

 

[SamStones]

We were approached by them a few months ago and it looked like a waste of time. Anyone who makes money out of a subscription fee instead of a decent margin on each sale isn't set up for a lasting relationship! When j looked at some of our competitors they had been on there for several months and had a feedback score of "3" at best!

Ok Amazon charge a fee , but everyone has heard of them!

Feel free to come back and tell us you're making a profit tho! Would happily be proved wrong to see some competition for Amazon and eBay

 

[SimplyMyLove]

Thanks for your post SamStones. I recognise that the number of sellers on Rakuten is much much less than these on Amazon and eBay, which to be honest was the No.1 reason why we wanted to give it a try. So far the seller support team is very helpful, and we have launched the shop a few days already, but the traffic is next to zero. 1 view in nearly a week, with more than 2000 products listed.

 

[SamStones]

Thanks for the reply, please do let us know how you get on!

 

[Lucas24]

Hi,
I am a professional seller from France and I am looking to expand in UK. So of course, I directly thought about Amazon.
But in France the n°1 is Cdiscount and I am satisfied because an account manager and always the same, help me every day to manage my account. I am not sure to have the same with Rakuten and Amazon?

Thanks for your advises,
Ps:I don't think that Thibault will be angry if I give him his contact: thibault tassain cdiscount

 

[SimplyMyLove]

Hi Lucase24, welcome to the UK and I believe you have now landed in the right place to expand your business in this country.

I have got two orders directly from Rakuten in the past week. Not too exciting though, but good enough to cover the cost so far. Rakuten charges £30 + vat for the monthly subscription, equivalent to £1 + vat per day.

Rakuten also provides a dedicated account manager who will offer you the assistance to set up your account and listings, but I'm not sure whether the level of services is the same as these from Cdiscount.

I agree that you should try Amazon and eBay first, before considering Rakuten.

 

[SimplyMyLove]

Having just closed my account on Rakuten. Having launched the shop for a month, it only generated two orders. The traffic on their uk site is very minimal. Not worthwhile keeping the shop with them.

 

[AMS79]

Yes I quite liked play.com. They could have had a shot at being Britain's answer to Amazon. Bet the founders did well out of the Rakuten sale though

Nowhere near as well as they should..

Can't post the link but Google "play.com sold for 25 million" and you'll find plenty of articles from the time of the sale.

Once the loophole was closed their USP was effectively gone so it was time to cash out. Still I'm sure they're enjoying retirement

 

[SteveBurns]

Well Rakuten is a always a good alternative for eBay Amazon. But i think I just clicked this thread just in right time..

They are going to conduct a Webinar tomorrow 10th Aug'16 on selling on their marketplace. you can join them and ask any query you have..

Just Google "rakuten channelsale webinar" or "rakuten webinar 10th Aug'16" and you will find the path.

 

[johndon68]

They currently have this at the top of the .co.uk website so it looks like it's not going to be a place to sell at all...

Thank you for shopping at Rakuten.co.uk. We thank you for your support and hope you enjoyed shopping with us. We regret to inform you that we can no longer take new orders at the marketplace from the end of August 2016.
If you have outstanding Rakuten Super Points, you will be able to use them at the marketplace until the end of August 2016. Regarding any unused Rakuten Super Points, we are preparing an arrangement where Rakuten Super Points can be transferred to other Rakuten group services such as Wuaki (wuaki.tv) and Viber (viber.com). A further announcement detailing how to use your Super Points on Rakuten group services is planned for early August 2016.

John

 

[Mistahclarke]

More expensive than Amazon? Wow, they take some beating.

 

[antropy]

Anyone who makes money out of a subscription fee instead of a decent margin on each sale isn't set up for a lasting relationship!

Actually wouldn't that sort of model favour established sellers and put off the newbies? People complain that if you make a large amount of sales on Amazon/Ebay/Shopify that they take loads of money but this model would be the opposite. As a percentage of sales their fee would drop the more you sell.

 

[James Lees]

I do believe that Rakuten are closing down their marketplace function now in the UK. I think I saw a notification com through at my previous employers around May time.

 

[johndon68]

The closing notification is on the .co.uk website, I posted it a few replies ago.

John

 

[James Lees]

So you did @johndon68 my bad