Ellis Rugby, the rugby heritage fashion brand has joined forces with Rakuten Ichiba the largest online sales channel in Japan, who boast a quarter of the nations online transactions through their marketplace.
Kevin Ellis, Ellis Rugby Founder commented ‘We’ve been looking for a partner in Japan for sometime and working with Trade Japan and Rakuten Ichiba provides the business with the perfect solution’, he continued, ‘We see the Japanese market as a great opportunity to grow the brand internationally – the 2019 Rugby World Cup is being staged in Japan, played in twelve venues throughout the country, including Sapporo, Yokohama and Tokyo and I’m certain the tournament will be a huge success. It provides us with great window of opportunity to establish the brand and we are developing our online presence during the remainder of this year and 2018, prior to the tournament”.
Nearly 90% of Japanese Internet users are registered members of Rakuten and Patrick Kelly, Director of Trade Japan, commented “Fashion brands are one of the key categories and I’m confident Ellis Rugby will be extremely successful and thrive at ‘cross-border’ sales”
All the indicators point to success for Ellis Rugby in Japan – UK brand heritage, high quality garments combined with a large online audience, fourth largest population of rugby players and a tournament that is likely to put rugby ahead of more popular sports like Sumo and Baseball in the media.