Buy.Com starts Rakuten ‘super points’ scheme
Japanese owner expands scheme outside Asia for first time
Buy.com is launching the “Rakuten Super Points” program enabling regular customers to build up points redeemable as payment towards future purchases.
US-based Buy.Com was bought by Rakuten in May this year. Little known in the West, Rakuten’s e-commerce site is much more widely used than Amazon in its home Japanese market and is used by 33,000 merchants.
The launch marks the first time the Rakuten programme will be available outside Asia.
In Rakuten has 64 million users in Japan, while Buy.com has 14 million customers mainly in the US and Europe.
Buy.Com says all items (with the exception of gift certificates) purchased by credit card via a Buy.com account will earn the points.
To incentivise early holiday shoppers, it will award 20 times the points for all Toy & Baby Store purchases until Wednesday, November 24, and triple points on all other items sitewide until November 19.
Rakuten has also introduced the points programme in China, Taiwan and Thailand. It includes partnerships with airlines and brick-and-mortar retailers.