Note: This article covers Rakuten ECC, a merchant support program specific to Rakuten Ichiba, a Japan-only online marketplace. This will not be relevant if you do not sell on Rakuten Ichiba.
Rakuten Ichiba is one of the largest mall-type shopping sites in Japan. For merchants selling on Rakuten Ichiba, this article explains tips for working with your Rakuten ECC (Rakuten Ichiba's official consultant), drawing on insights gained from actually running a store on Rakuten Ichiba. If you're a merchant looking to grow your sales on Rakuten Ichiba, be sure to read on.
*This article is written based on the knowledge of a member of Tsun's writing team. Please note that it may not necessarily apply to every Rakuten ECC representative.
What Is a Rakuten ECC?
Rakuten ECC is short for Rakuten EC Consultant, and refers to a Rakuten employee who acts as a partner to stores selling on Rakuten Ichiba, supporting their store operations.
A Rakuten ECC's main job is to propose ads to their partner stores, inform them about events, propose SEO measures, and inform them about new features. In principle, Rakuten ECCs only handle consultations related to growing sales for the store or for Rakuten Ichiba as a whole, so questions about back-office tasks such as how to register products or process orders are often outside their purview. For back-office questions, contact the Support Desk except in urgent cases.
Image source: Rakuten Ichiba
Communication Tools Used to Contact Your Rakuten ECC
The two standard communication tools used to contact your Rakuten ECC are Viber and Zoom. Communication mainly happens via Viber chat or phone calls, and Zoom is sometimes used when the Rakuten ECC presents an ad proposal or a current-status analysis.
Note that Rakuten is strict about information security and compliance, so all communication via Viber, phone, and Zoom is recorded (video or audio). Also, the system is set up so that important information about other stores or figures for Rakuten Ichiba as a whole cannot be disclosed.
How Many Stores Does Each Rakuten ECC Handle?
Each Rakuten ECC is responsible for at least a few dozen partner stores, and often 100–200 or more. Naturally, it's impossible to give detailed advice and support to every single one of such a huge number of stores, so the system inevitably ends up prioritizing support for stores with larger sales volumes.
Depending on the category you sell in, once your monthly sales exceed roughly 50–100 million yen, or once your sales growth compared to the previous year starts to stand out significantly, support from your Rakuten ECC tends to become noticeably more attentive.
The Difference in Goals Between Your Store and Your Rakuten ECC
One point worth keeping in mind when communicating with your Rakuten ECC is that "your store's goals and your Rakuten ECC's goals are not necessarily the same."
Let's look at how each one's goals differ, in concrete terms.
Your Store's Goals
As the merchant, your goal is to grow sales and profit, or to expand awareness of the brands you carry.
Your store's goal is to minimize every possible cost — advertising costs, SG&A, shipping, cost of goods, sales commissions, and so on — while maximizing sales and profit, and to expand awareness of your product's brand.
Your Rakuten ECC's Goals
Your Rakuten ECC's main goals are to grow the sales of the stores they're responsible for, and to grow the amount those stores spend on advertising. This is because when a store they handle grows its sales, or increases its ad spend, each Rakuten ECC's internal performance evaluation improves.
Summary of the Goal Difference Between Your Store and Your Rakuten ECC
Your store aims to increase sales, and your Rakuten ECC's internal evaluation also improves when the stores they handle increase sales — so on the goal of growing sales, you're aligned. However, when it comes to growing profit rather than just sales, the goals aren't necessarily aligned.
The clearest example is the use of advertising: using ads tends to grow sales but often reduces profit. As a store, you'd like to keep ad spend down while raising profit, but for a Rakuten ECC, the more ad spend a store puts in, the better it reflects on their own evaluation. So the goals around profit aren't aligned, and this is something to be mindful of when communicating with your Rakuten ECC.
The difference between your store's goals and your Rakuten ECC's goals can be summarized in the table below.
| Goal | Store | Rakuten ECC |
|---|---|---|
| Grow the store's sales | ◯ | ◯ |
| Grow the store's profit | ◯ | △ |
| Grow Rakuten Ichiba's overall sales | × | ◯ |
◯ = Goals are aligned
△ = Goals are not necessarily aligned
× = Goals are not aligned
Tips for Building a Good Relationship with Your Rakuten ECC
Even though your store's goals and your Rakuten ECC's goals aren't exactly the same, you're aligned on growing the store's sales, so it's important to build the relationship as a good partnership.
Here we explain tips for building a good relationship with your Rakuten ECC. Broadly speaking, it's important to keep the following 3 points in mind.
- Give the impression that you're proactively working to grow sales
- Make active use of advertising
- Put some thought into how you decline ad sales pitches
1. Give the Impression That You're Proactively Working to Grow Sales
As a basic premise, each Rakuten ECC is responsible for hundreds of partner stores, so they inevitably have to prioritize stores with large sales or stores that make use of advertising. As a result, support tends to be thinner for stores that show no sign of growing sales, or that aren't making an effort to grow sales.
For that reason, when communicating with your Rakuten ECC, be conscious of giving the impression that you're proactively working to grow sales. Specifically, it helps to do things like the following.
- Increase the number of products you carry
- Ask them for a competitor analysis
- Ask them for suggestions on improving your product pages
- Ask them to analyze issues with the ads you're currently running and suggest improvements
2. Make Active Use of Advertising
If you give your Rakuten ECC the impression that you're "a store that doesn't use advertising," it becomes harder to get useful information about store operations from them. For that reason, make active use of advertising, whether display ads or performance-based ads.
If you're not sure which ads to use, we recommend starting by putting budget toward RPP ads and Coupon Advance ads, which tend to be efficient to run.
3. Put Some Thought Into How You Decline Ad Sales Pitches
Making active use of advertising is one way to build a good relationship with your Rakuten ECC, but at the same time, there are plenty of ads that won't pay off depending on your store's sales scale or the products you carry. If you're pitched an ad that won't be profitable, there's no problem declining it rather than forcing yourself to use it. That said, you need to be careful about how you decline.
When your Rakuten ECC pitches you an ad, if you simply say "no, I won't do that," it can give the impression that your store is passive about advertising, reducing your chances of getting useful information in the future.
So when declining an ad, be sure to communicate in a way that conveys you're considering it positively — for example: "I can't do this right now because of [specific reason], but I'd like to reconsider it once [specific timing/condition] comes around."
How to Use Your Rakuten ECC to Grow Your Store's Sales
To grow your store's sales, it's essential to draw on the help of your Rakuten ECC, who has access to internal Rakuten information and information about competing stores.
Due to Rakuten's regulations, you won't always get a clear answer to every question, but your Rakuten ECC is an important partner who does what they can to help, aiming together with you to grow your store's sales.
Here we explain, in concrete terms, what kind of information you can get from your Rakuten ECC.
Ask About the Situation of Competing Stores and Products
Your Rakuten ECC has detailed knowledge of recent trends, such as the sales scale of competing stores and products and their advertising activity. So rather than trying to analyze competitors on your own within your company alone, be sure to lean on your Rakuten ECC.
They won't disclose specific figures like other companies' actual sales or sales performance, but they may be able to tell you what kinds of products are selling well in the market right now, and what measures the stores that are selling well are taking.
Don't hesitate wondering whether it's okay to ask — go ahead and communicate proactively.
Ask for Tips on Growing Ad-Driven Sales
For performance-based ads like RPP ads, you can get specific information about which products have potential to grow sales and which keywords still have room for growth. You can also consult them about analyzing issues with your current ad operations and getting suggestions for improvement. When you're stuck on ad operations, actively reach out to your Rakuten ECC for advice.
When your Rakuten ECC proposes display ads, rather than simulating cost-effectiveness on your own within your company, ask them what kind of results that ad has produced for other competing stores. After hearing about the track record of competing stores that carry similar product categories, purchase, run, and evaluate ads that seem likely to be cost-effective — this lets you grow sales with reduced risk.
Ask About Overall Market Conditions on Rakuten Ichiba
As a store selling on Rakuten Ichiba, it's important to know the trends in rising and falling sales on the Rakuten Ichiba platform as a whole. By asking about things like whether Rakuten Ichiba as a whole is up or down year-over-year, or how the latest Rakuten Super Sale went for Rakuten Ichiba overall, you can use that information to help analyze whether your own store's rise or fall in sales reflects the broader market or is an isolated event.
Due to Rakuten's regulations, you won't be given detailed information, but you may be able to get a sense of the general trend, so be sure to ask proactively.
Research Keyword Volume
If you have a clear reason, you can sometimes get a rough sense of the search volume for a specific keyword on Rakuten Ichiba.
For example, if you say "I want to run ads on [specific keyword] for [product], so please tell me roughly what the monthly volume for this keyword is," they often won't give you an exact figure, but they may be willing to show you the general trend in monthly search volume.
One thing to watch out for: asking about keyword volume without a clear reason risks giving the impression that you might use the information for a purpose other than growing your store's sales, so be sure to clearly explain why you want that information and what your question is really asking.
Treat Your Rakuten ECC as a Partner, Not an Adversary!
Some people may see their Rakuten ECC simply as a Rakuten sales rep, and to some extent that's true. But your Rakuten ECC isn't an adversary — they're a partner aiming to grow your store's sales alongside you. Since this is a business relationship, both your store and your Rakuten ECC have their own respective goals, but you're aligned on the goal of growing the store's sales.
There will be moments that feel like a bit of a negotiation, but work to build a relationship of mutual respect as partners working together to grow your store's sales.
