Amazon.com to launch a virtual shopping mall in Japan

Online ecommerce giants Amazon.com’s Japanese unit has announced its decision to launch a virtual shopping mall.

The aim is to provide competition to Web mall operators like Rakuten and Yahoo! Japan. The market is growing fast and Amazon wants a slice of this lucrative pie.

Amazon Japan currently sells goods directly to consumers via its Web site and they would soon start allowing retailers in the country to sell their products using their services on their web portal.

This announcement by Amazon Japan showed its affect as shares of both Rakuten and Yahoo Japan dropped at the stock market.

Market analysts expect that the entry of Amazon would boost the market even further and customers would start preferring to shop online rather than going to regular stores to make their purchases.

Amazon Japan boasts of around 6 million users and they have an amazing brand value in the market.