Japan is a market ripe for exploration. The financial services leader, JP Morgan says Japan is a very attractive prospect, noting “The e-commerce market in Japan presents an opportunity for international merchants to court an audience with money to spend and an appetite for consumer electronics and fashion.”

The US department of international trade also highlights the growing opportunity emerging, with its figures suggesting the ecommerce sector continues to expand at an average of around 6% each year.

Now is the perfect time to start planning your Japanese digital marketing campaign. Here are three other compelling arguments for activating your Japanese expansion in 2021:

The world is changing

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, more and more consumers all over the globe have been turning to digital channels for everything from light entertainment to fast-moving consumer goods such as groceries.

The Japanese market is no different, with many people heading online to satisfy their need for items and services that they would normally purchase from bricks and mortar establishments. In particular, Japanese online shoppers have embraced the freedom and convenience of buying items such as food and drink, clothing and travel services via the internet.

Investment in digital is on the up

Many brands are all too aware of what a lucrative market Japan is for businesses who get it right. A growing number are making a significant investment into new digital marketing tools and tactics to capture the attention of Japanese consumers.

This increasing investment means the market is maturing – but it also means your competitors may already be getting out in front of the Japanese consumers you’d like to bring closer to your brand.

The good news is that smaller firms are able to complete with bigger international players as long as they stay agile thanks to the possibilities offered by digital initiatives such as SEO, local search, email marketing, influencer marketing and social media. You don’t need to be an international monopoly to get those right, but you do need to make the investment to actually get out there and begin building a presence.

Platform popularity is changing

If you’ve spent hours perfecting your content strategy over multiple platforms to engage with a Japanese audience, then leaving your plan to languish could result in campaign failure.

The popularity of digital platforms in Japan is in a constant state of flux, with changes happening on an almost daily basis.

One example of this is Yahoo! As the search engine’s popularity continues to wane in the west, Yahoo! has commanded a 20% share of Japanese web searches in 2020, including a quarter of all searches on mobile. This is just one example of how platform popularity is forever changing, meaning plans that you fail to act swiftly on could become quickly out of date.

Tags: digital marketing campaigns, Japanese market, digital platforms