“Important notice: The Rakuten.de marketplace was closed by the provider on 15 October 2020. magnalister therefore no longer offers the Rakuten.de interface. As an alternative to the Rakuten.de marketplace we recommend Etsy as one of the most popular online shopping portals. The marketplace can easily be added to your magnalister account. Get started now.”
Connecting Shopify with Rakuten: How Shopify Sellers are Taking Advantage of This Emerging Online Marketplace
Founded in Japan, the Rakuten Marketplace is one of the world’s most up-and-coming Ecommerce platforms. It offers Shopify sellers an attractive sales channel across almost all shopping categories (except for fresh groceries). Especially as an additional point of contact or as an alternative to the two large online shopping portals Amazon and eBay, Rakuten offers new sales potential in an often less competitive environment.
Although the Rakuten Marketplace may still seem unknown to some Shopify sellers, the company has been active since 1997. The successful market entry was achieved by taking over the Tradoria marketplace operating out of Bamberg. In addition, Rakuten has secured a foothold in the lucrative e-book market by purchasing the e-book manufacturer Tolino (formerly Deutsche Telekom).
In the US, more than $1 billion have been earned by over 12 million sellers that are already listed on the portal.
Rakuten is increasingly establishing itself in the European market, proving Shopify sellers with a great sales opportunity since you can connect your Shopify shop to the Rakuten marketplace with little additional effort and reach millions of new customers. The smooth product upload from Shopify to Rakuten is not the only decisive factor to try out this marketplace for yourself. Should the Rakuten interface become your choice, you will also have extensive automation functions. For example, comparing stock levels and prices, importing orders,comparing order status, and matching product attributes.
This is where magnalister comes into play as the leading Rakuten interface for marketplace management directly from Shopify. Thanks to our Shopify Rakuten Integration, you can sell your first products on the shopping portal within minutes. All the above-mentioned important functions for product and order management are covered by magnalister and most of them are fully automated. Of course, in addition to the Rakuten marketplace, you can connect many other national and international online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Kaufland or METRO to Shopify and manage them centrally from the shop system backend. Try the magnalister app for Shopify without obligation and free of charge for 30 days with full functionality:
Here’s what the Rakuten marketplace offers Shopify sellers:
Rakuten offers transparent, low base fees, personal guidance from a Rakuten ECommerce Consultant, a customer loyalty system called “Rakuten Points” and support in the areas of advertising, logistics, and IT solutions provided by an in-house marketing agency that is available to sellers free of charge. Let’s look at the benefits in detail:
1. Transparent, low base fees
Rakuten currently offers sellers a flat rate, the so-called “Pro-Tariff”. It consists of the following components (prices plus statutory VAT, as of July 2020):
- Base fee: 39 euros per month (minimum contract period: 12 months)
- Standard selling fee: 9% / Reduced selling fee*: 5%
- Rakuten point fee: 1%
- Variable affiliate fee: 1%
- Cancellation fee (in case of seller fault): 3%
- One-time setup fee: 49 euros (not applicable if billed annually)
* The reduced selling fee applies to these categories
Please visit this Rakuten page for a detailed explanation of the above fees.
2. Personal guidance
Rakuten wants to stand out from the competition by offering personal support. Every seller that applies for a Rakuten account and whose registration has been approved will therefore receive support from the Rakuten team. The support team will advise you on how you can increase your sales opportunities on the marketplace with the right offer design and product placement. A consultation with a Rakuten consultant can be advantageous especially for Shopify sellers who connect the Rakuten Shopify app via the magnalister app. This allows you to learn right from the start how to prepare your shop offerings in magnalister so that they are ideally displayed and categorized on Rakuten.
3. “Rakuten Points” as a customer loyalty tool
Comparable to a payback system, Rakuten offers loyal customers discounts on future purchases on the portal. You can collect “Rakuten Points” while shopping on the marketplace and use them to reduce the price for your next purchase. By using this bonus point system, Rakuten wants to create long-term customer loyalty and encourage repeat purchases on the portal.
4. Marketing support provided by Rakuten’s in-house agency
A unique selling point that should be particularly relevant for larger online sellers: Rakuten’s in-house marketing agency will support you with customized campaigns, marketing tools, professional sales strategies and detailed sales and performance analyses. This service is available to Rakuten sellers free of charge and is particularly worthwhile if you want to display special offers across your sales channels.
In addition to the benefits mentioned above, another advantage for sellers is that Rakuten is not active as a seller and thus will not compete with you and your products. This is particularly worth mentioning because many sellers experience on Amazon that particularly successful products are simply manufactured by the marketplace itself or, for example, sold under the name “Amazon Basics”. Of course, this is not beneficial for the product ranking. This is how Rakuten stands out positively with its clear positioning as a partner rather than a competitor to sellers.
Many Shopify sellers can get their money’s worth at Rakuten: An overview of the extensive product range
The Rakuten marketplace is very diversified, similar to Amazon or eBay, and offers sellers from various sectors a point of contact for generating new sales. Still, there are top categories that achieve the highest revenues. These include, among others:
- Kitchen & Household Appliances, including coffee makers, kitchen utensils, sinks, cookware, and kitchen equipment
- Computers & Software, including PCs, tablet PCs, laptops, game consoles & games, and printers
- House & Garden, including garden tools, garden furniture, garden equipment, grills, and housekeeping products
- DIY, including power tools, hand tools, components & materials, plumbing & heating technology, and workshop equipment
- Furniture, Living & Lifestyle, including products for bathrooms and bedrooms, shelves, cupboards, decorations, and lighting
- Celebrations & Holidays, including products for Carnival, Mardi Gras & Halloween, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, weddings, parties, and gifts
- Beauty & Wellness, including nutritional supplements, facial care, hair care, body care, and dental care products
- Shoes & Bags, including men’s and women’s shoes, travel bags & suitcases, handbags and bags for sports & outdoors
- Fashion & Accessories, including men’s and women’s fashion, accessories, contact lenses & glasses, caps & hats, and belts
- Watches & Jewelry, including wristwatches, gold and silver jewelry, costume jewelry, and accessories
- Sports & Leisure, including cycling, camping, fitness & strength training, golf, and water sports products
- Hobby, Art & Collecting, including model making products, coins, creative craft ideas, and handicraft
- Musical Instruments, including DJ equipment, sheet music & songbooks, guitar accessories, drums & percussion, and keyboard instruments
- Books, Music & Movies, including merchandising, books, movies, non-fiction books, music and textbooks
- Games & Toys, including children’s toys, children’s vehicles, board games, educational toys, and stuffed animals
- Baby & Children’s Products, including children’s room furniture, strollers, nurseries, child safety, and child car seats
- Auto & Motorcycle, including tires & rims, auto parts & accessories, navigation systems, auto stereo equipment as well as tuning & styling products
- Food & Beverages, including spirits & beer, coffee & tea, chocolate, wine, and gift sets
- Pet Supplies, including dog accessories, cat accessories, equestrian accessories, and farm animal accessories
- Industry & Business, including commercial supplies, craft, gastronomy, construction industry, and work clothing
- Office & Stationery, including school supplies, office chairs, office supplies, stationery, and office desks
When looking at the range of products and categories, it quickly becomes clear that almost every online seller can sell their products on Rakuten. Regardless of whether your products are designed for the B2C target group or your customers include primarily B2B buyers, the breadth and depth of the Rakuten range, combined with a large number of buyers, offers great opportunities for new sales potential.
Rakuten France (formerly Priceminister): Developing the second largest market in Europe
Rakuten concentrates exclusively on the two countries with the highest revenues: Germany and France.
The story of the French Rakuten marketplace is the same as the German one. Here, too, the Japanese company bought a well-known national marketplace, Priceminister (France). The takeover took place in 2010. In the following years the new “Rakuten” brand established itself on the French market and currently (as of 2020) features more than 10 million active buyers on the marketplace. This development made Rakuten France the leading online shopping portal in France.
In addition to connecting the national Rakuten branch to Shopify, it is also worth taking a look at our French neighbors. And with magnalister, connecting to Rakuten France is just as easy as connecting to the German marketplace.
You can find out more about the cross-border trade from Shopify in this detailed article.
The core functions of the magnalister Shopify plugin for Rakuten at a glance
Whether you want to expand your Shopify shop with national or international marketplaces such as Rakuten, you will find the right tool with magnalister. The Shopify Rakuten Integration available in the Shopify App Store which has already been recommended several times by the Shopify editorial team offers a range of functions that is unique in its area:
1. Product upload: Upload products directly from Shopify to Rakuten and many other marketplaces
- Upload individual products or entire categories
- Product customization before submission (e.g. title, description, images)
- Clear presentation of the products prepared for Rakuten in the “Upload” tab
2. Price Synchronization: Send prices fully automated or individually from Shopify to Rakuten
- Automatic synchronization of current product prices from Shopify to Rakuten
- Price differences on the Rakuten marketplace via percentage or fixed price markups and discounts
3. Inventory synchronization: Always sync current stock levels between Shopify and Rakuten
- Shop inventory is automatically synced with Rakuten
- When an order is submitted in the Shopify shop, the stock level on Rakuten is automatically reduced by one
- When an order is submitted on Rakuten, the stock level in the Shopify shop is automatically reduced by one
- The data is based on the shop system database so that merchandise management systems connected to Shopify can also be synchronized
- Inventory synchronization can optionally be deactivated in the magnalister plugin
4. Automatic order import: Import and manage Rakuten orders to Shopify
- Orders on Rakuten are transferred to Shopify
- The Rakuten order number is also imported, meaning orders can generally be better assigned and selected
- Import of shipping and payment methods
- Email templates to contact customers directly and inform them of the order status
5. Order status synchronization: Send order status from Shopify to Rakuten (e.g. “shipped”)
- Automatically submit order status changes such as “shipped” or “canceled” to Rakuten buyers
- Provision of tracking information such as shipping company and tracking code
6. Plugin Customization: Adapt the magnalister plugin to your requirements using hook points
- For example, customized product descriptions or your own fields in the order information when importing orders
- Note: Programming skills are required to use hook points
Multi-channel sales from Shopify don’t stop with Rakuten: Connect additional marketplaces using the magnalister Connector
This magnalister plugin let’s you do more than easily integrate the German and French Rakuten marketplace into Shopify. You can connect even the largest national and international online marketplaces to Shopify with just a few clicks. Currently (as of July 2020), we offer the following interfaces:
- Amazon (DE, AT, FR, ES, IT, UK, USA)
- eBay (worldwide)
- Kaufland
- METRO
- Etsy (worldwide)
- Check24.de
- Ricardo (Switzerland)
- idealo
- Cdiscount (France)
- Hood.de
Test the full functionality of the magnalister plugin with Shopify for 30 days for free with a trial. You can also secure a free on-screen training session valued at 199 USD. You will receive more information on this as soon as you have registered for magnalister.
