PriceMinister has been fully migrated to Rakuten

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23 Aug 2018

The popular French ecommerce website and marketplace PriceMinister has now been fully migrated and rebranded as Rakuten. The Japanese online giant bought Priceminister in 2010. The rebranding and launch of their German site, previously Tradoria, was completed some months ago.

The new website and domain name is the culmination of a project that has taken well over 18 months. In March 2018, PriceMinister officially became Rakuten France. But before that there have been considerable incremental changes including a new logo, an amended colour scheme, rebranding of apps and the introduction of various programmes including Rakuten ID, Super Points, Club Rakuten and the EXPO.

Thanks to this change, we will be able to implement a new dynamic SEO, deploy new collaboration logic with Google teams, work with new communities of influencers that we did not cover before. This is an opportunity to expand our footprint and the coverage of the brand.
– Fabien Versavau, DGA, Rakuten France (Translated from French using Google)

From a brand and technological perspective, taking all your ecommerce marketplaces onto the same platform offers convenience and significant benefits. Specifically, it can mean greater uniformity in your offering across the world and economies of scale. But there is always a risk in rebranding, if the old brand was well loved and enjoyed support from a loyal and passionate community. That’s why, in this case, the gradual evolution over time makes sense because it gives merchants and shoppers alike the chance to adjust.

And, as far as we know, the transition has been almost entirely smooth with no major reported disturbance to merchants. If your experience has been different, do let us know.

In the UK, Rakuten bought Play.com and successfully operated that for several years before shutting down the service altogether in 2016. Rakuten.co.uk is still in operation but exists simply as a shopping comparison site. It would be interesting to know if they plan a reentry to the Uk market any time soon.