Rakuten restructuring European business
Rakuten has announced that it will be closing its dedicated marketplaces for the UK, Spain and Austria by the end of August. In a statement issued yesterday (7 June), the Japan-headquartered company said that it had undertaken a “strategic review of its operations in Europe”.
The company continued: “Rakuten will focus its e-commerce marketplace investment in France and Germany as the businesses there have the scale and potential for sustainable growth. However, in UK and Spain, the cost of growth relative to the size of the businesses has led to plans to close these operations.”
Rakuten said that it will provide “timely information and support” to merchants and customers to ensure that all transactions on current sites can be fully completed. Austrian merchants and customers will be able to use the German site.
