Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance and some Japanese regional banks partners with Amazon.com to offer a one-stop service for smaller businesses that hope to sell their "made in Japan" products in the United States.
Japanese goods are popular around the globe because of their quality. Various items from the nation like tea, sake, small digital devices, and daily necessities like ceramics and kitchen knives are known globally. Many of these items were manufactured in low quantity by small to midsize businesses that are unable to excel in international demand.
Many Japanese companies are reluctant from exporting their products because of the expensive logistics cost for the shipment of a small volume of items on their own and at the same time the heavy insurance expenses to cover a lawsuit in case a consumer files.
The new partnership plans to solve the problem of selling "made in Japan" brand to a much wider market. Currently, the Japanese market is shrinking because of oversupply. Tokio Marine plans to join with Hiroshima Bank and global brand in launching the all-in-one service by next month.
GlobalBrand's contribution includes collecting merchandise from sellers in Japan, arranging shipment to Amazon warehouses in the United States and marketing products in Amazon. It is also in charge of marketing the products on social media platforms.
The Tokio Marine Holdings is in-charge of the insurance to cover losses during the transport and storage of the products as well as the claims for the damages from consumers that files cases over defective items. The economics of sale allows the insurer to offer logistics costs and insurance premiums after bunching together products from multiple companies.
Hiroshima Bank will promote the partnership to small and midsize local businesses and encourage them to sell their products abroad. The partnership also calls on other regional banks all over Japan to join.
The market record reflected that the nation's consumer spending increased by 0.4 percent in real terms last year. The success of e-commerce globally is significantly increasing. The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry projected that the United States will buy 1.2 trillion yen of Japanese goods through business-to-e-commerce in 2021. The projection gives hope to small and midsize businesses that hope to sell their products to the western nation.
The United States' large market and the existing presence of Tokio Marine in the country make it a sure target market for the partnership. It is also expected that the partnership will expand to other markets depending on the outcome of the American market venture.
