Retail News CRM

Tag: JR East

  • Starbucks Japan launches Smart Lounge railway station concept

    Starbucks Japan launches Smart Lounge railway station concept

    Starbucks Japan has launched a new concept store in collaboration with railway operator JR East.

    The “Starbucks Coffee Takanawa Gateway Station” opened yesterday, introducing its Smart Lounge concept – a store space focused on business use. The store features numerous semi-private and single-seat seats to meet the needs of using a cafe for work purposes as well as a large table used for meetings with multiple people.

    Two fully-private booth-style share offices are provided within the store. Power outlets are available for all seats, and the store also operates a mobile battery sharing service. Wifi is available throughout the premises.

    The cafe also specializes in speedy cashless payment via Starbucks Card and Suica, among other e-payment platforms. Via a dedicated app, it allows customers to settle orders in advance and receive products smoothly at stores, designed to allow more effective use of time and reduction of waiting time at cash registers.

    “Starbucks has more than 1500 stores nationwide and connects with 800,000 customers a day,” said Starbucks Japan head of store development Kazuhiro Ishihara. “Each store has its own personality and expression that reflects the locality and needs of each individual.

    “At the Takanawa Gateway Station, we provide a smart and comfortable experience that suits its location and purpose, and integrates with people’s lives to create a future city that no one has yet seen. We aim to be a store and base that can be created with people.”

    Takanawa Gateway Station is situated in Shinagawa town, a new urban area under development that aims to be a new gateway to Tokyo.

    JR East aims to operate 30 shared office spaces by the end of the financial year.

  • JR East metro station outlets opening in Singapore

    JR East metro station outlets opening in Singapore

    East Japan Railway Co. is expanding its operations into Singapore with new JR East metro station stores launching in island’s metro stations.

    The firm is planning to set up store clusters at 27 out of the 32 stations on the Thomson-East Coast Line, which will be partially operational by the end of the year. It is the first Japanese railways firm to start-up commercial operations in another country.

    The firm’s contract to establish JR East metro station stores along the line was secured via its local unit along with SMRT Experience and store chain operator NTUC Fairprice Co-operative for S$24 million (US$17.3 million) last month. The three partners will trade as Stellar Singapore, in which JR East will hold a 35 percent shareholding.

    Under the terms of the agreement, Stellar Singapore will rent 5000sqm of total floor space at the stations under a 16-year lease. The largest single shopping center will cover 1570sqm at Woodlands Station.

    Lees ook:

  • JR East’s Atre to open first shopping mall outside Japan in Taiwan

    JR East’s Atre to open first shopping mall outside Japan in Taiwan

    The East Japan Railway is launching its first overseas shopping mall in Taiwan next month. The mall is opening under JR East’s station complex management subsidiary Atre, following an extended consideration of alternative international locations that included Thailand, Malaysia and the US. Taiwan was was chosen for its affinity with Japanese brands, which will occupy around 60 per cent of the mall’s 51 stores.

    The mall will open in Taipei Nan Shan Plaza’s Breeze Center on January 10.

    “We have no specific targets or plans at this point on how many shopping malls we want to develop outside Japan,” a spokesman for East Japan Railway said.

    The firm has 29 malls to date within Japan.

    Lees ook:

  • Unstaffed shop to open in Tokyo on trial basis

    Unstaffed shop to open in Tokyo on trial basis

    A Japanese railway network operator is testing an unmanned store in a Tokyo railway station. The store will use artificial intelligence in place of cashiers to transact with customers in a trial expected to last about two months. The venture was opened by East Japan Railway, otherwise known as JR East, this week at the Akabane Station in Tokyo’s north.

    It has some 80 cameras mounted in the ceiling and on shelves recording customer behaviour before the AI software detects which items customers select.

    Customers pay using stored value cards issue by railway companies for transit.

    If the concept proves a success, JR East says it will begin rolling the technology out in stations across the city.

    The store is loosely modelled on unmanned stores opened in Mainland China, along with the Amazon Go concept in the US.

    Lees ook: