Summary of Research Findings

The domestic B2C ecommerce market size in 2022, including the sectors of merchandising, service, and digital, was estimated at 22,744.9 billion yen (109.9% on YoY), according to “Results of FY2022 E-Commerce Market Survey Compiled” by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Merchandising sector amounted to 13,999.7 billion yen (105.4% on YoY), whose ecommerce rate having reached 9.13% (an increase by 0.35 points on YoY). This indicated that use of ecommerce, triggered by the pandemic, expanded furthermore among consumers, fueling the market expansion, though the growth rate slowed down from the previous year.  

It was again Amazon Japan that drove the online retailing market, just like preceding years, with its sales for FY2022 exceeding 3 trillion yen, keeping year-on-year double-digit growth. Favorable growth was observed also for online retail sales by the companies developing food subscription services and/or online supermarkets. While ecommerce rate of items “Food, Beverage, and Liquor” in 2022 was 4.16% (up 0.39 points on YoY), lower than other commodities, B2C ecommerce for these merchandises attained 2,750.5 billion yen (109.2% on YoY) in the same year, continuing the growth and achieving the largest market size in merchandising sector of online retailing. Food in ecommerce expanded the dealings mainly in online supermarkets, which could expect increase in users and could be promising for growth.

*Source: Results of FY2022 E-Commerce Market Survey Compiled by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

Noteworthy Topics

Enhanced Measures for Last Mile Delivery, and Increased Collaborations among Logistics Companies

Last mile delivery refers to the last journey of the whole delivery process to the final destinations, i.e., from the final logistics base to the home of a consumer or close to it. Ecommerce market players have striven to differentiate from other competitors in last mile delivery logistics services by offering free delivery fees or the same-day delivery. There also are moves to enhance last mile delivery by placing the bases even closer to user locations to shorten the delivery distance. However, last mile delivery has some issues, such as CO2 emission increase and re-delivery problem powering already significant driver shortage, in association with soaring manpower costs, aging drivers, and challenging working environment. Logistics vendors, therefore, are suffering from providing or maintaining conventional quality services. Triggered by the 2024 logistics issue, the Consumer Affairs Agency encourages ecommerce companies to reconsider displaying free-delivery charge aiming to reduce the burden in the logistics industry. Year by year, parcels delivered to consumers proliferate. Added with surging access to ecommerce and diversified lifestyles since the pandemic have urged consumers to demand for receiving services and products at the timing suitable to their lifestyles. To solve the issues, new attempts have been addressed, such as further increase in delivery box installations, services to accept parcels or of lockers at convenience stores or at railway stations, enhancement of contactless delivery, delivery by means of drones or delivery robots, etc. In October 2022, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has allowed “kei cars” or light automobiles to be used in the light motor truck transportation business that has conventionally used minitrucks or minivans for the transportation.  

While various challenges burden the logistics industry with shortage of drivers and the 2024 logistics issue, enhancement to get together among multiple logistics businesses for effective use of operational resources, i.e., manpower and locations, thereby to press ahead with better logistics services in the form of collaboration. So far, Japan Post and Sagawa Express, and Japan Post Group and Yamato Group have formed cooperative relationships. It should be noted how such collaborations change the positioning in the delivery business especially among major logistics companies.

Research Outline