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Office
Depot Japan opened its' first store in November 1997. There are
currently 23 stores, both large and small. Real estate costs
in Japan are much greater that of the U.S so it is very difficult
to justify having all large locations.
Our
customers reach us by foot or by train since our stores have no
parking lots. The average sale is much smaller than in the U.S.
because people can only buy what they can carry in their arms back
to their office. This means delivery becomes a very important part
of our distribution mix. We market our website/delivery capabilities
strongly in our stores. Office Depot Japan, like the U.S., can provide
overnight delivery of 10,000 items to customers all over Japan,
through our large warehouse just outside Tokyo. We have our own
call center, that handles catalog and fax orders, and opened our
website in September 2000.
The
website displays our full assortment, and has the same features
and functionality as our other international websites. It was extremely
difficult to create, because the Japanese language is a "double
byte" system, which makes it unique in the world - this was not
merely an issue of translating English to a different language -
the whole site had to be created from scratch.
VIKING
Viking
Office Products entered the Japanese market in March 1998. It uses
the same hi-low pricing model as in other countries, and uses the
same sophisticated ink-jet technology/database driven offers to
customers as well. A separate call center handles the catalog, fax
and internet offers. The Viking website launched in August 2000.
Both websites are doing approximately 4% of our total catalog volume.
Factoids
about Japan:
The
population is roughly half that of the U.S. (approx. 130 million)
but occupies a space the size of California. And, only 10% of the
space is habitable, the rest being mountainous or farmland.
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