For the fiscal year ending in February 2012, Seven-Eleven Japan Co. has announced annual sales of over 3 trillion yen (approx. $37 billion), the highest record of any convenience stores in the country. Seven-Eleven also says their operating profits are a new record for the year. Other convenience store chains, Lawson Inc. and FamilyMart Co., are also experiencing record high sales and operating profits.
The surge in sales is directly tied to the post Tohoku earthquake period when convenience stores were easily accessible with many locations and being open 24 hours. Many people were able to quickly get food supplies when they didn’t have access to large grocery stores. In addition, with the introduction of new products during the recovery period, it resulted in a wider appeal among women and elderly customers.
The last time the convenience store industry experienced a wave of sales like this, the Japan Franchise Association says, was in 2008 when there was a distinct increase in the sales of cigarettes. The introduction of an age-verification system for tobacco purchases from vending machines led to many customers preferring to make their purchases at convenience stores instead. But those sales increases still don’t match up to last year’s record highs, which came to an increase of 8.3% over the previous year.
Using the prepaid card model that online PC games have been using for the past years, the prepaid cards will be sold at convenience store chains like FamilyMart and 7-Eleven in Japan and Taiwan starting next month. Instead of doing online purchases like before, users who choose to buy the emoticon-like stickers can now use the load in their prepaid cards to purchase sticker packs and other in-app purchases.
The prepaid cards can be used possibly for other apps in the Line platform as they continue to expand, like for e-books and magazines. Currently, they have a family of 52 apps, including games, tools, communication services, photo apps, and they have been downloaded more than 290 million times, both for iOS and Android platforms. Their Line camera is the most popular and has been downloaded 48 million times alone. They are also making money by charging corporate messaging accounts. For the second quarter of 2013, they announced $132 million in revenue. With this new prepaid card model, they are expecting even more in-app purchases since it’s easier to do so. Out of its 230 million registered users, 75% are located out of Japan and 16 million are from Taiwan alone.
[ via Tech in Asia ]