Online retail giant Rakuten opened its first café in its home country of Japan, as the firm continues to expand into new markets.
The flagship, Kashiwa Sato designed “Rakuten CAFE” was inaugurated in Shibuya, Tokyo on Thursday, May 29, 2014.
The new venture will offer customers a menu featuring desserts and snacks from Rakuten Ichiba and will allow patrons to experience a variety of Rakuten services.
The cafè will offer information to the public on financial services, Kobo eReading, and online shopping.
Kobo eReaders are located throughout the café for customers to freely use, in addition to complementary use of power sockets and mobile phone chargers
In addition, Rakuten CAFÉ will offer 1GBPS Wifi, free of charge. Rakuten CAFE will also offer customers multiple payment methods, including Rakuten Edy touch payments and SmartPay mobile credit card payment processing service. A concierge is also on duty at all times, ready to answer any questions customers might have about the company’s services.
On the menu are Rakuten Ichiba’s most popular desserts, light meals and drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
As a true café Rakuten CAFE prides itself on the quality of its coffeehouse beverages and aims to offer a selection of premium coffee-based beverages (including drip coffee, latte, cappuccino, and espresso) made from selectively curated coffee bean varieties.
In addition, coffee and tea menu beverages are half price if purchased using Rakuten Card.
In collaboration with the NPO Entrepreneurial Training for Innovative Communities (ETIC), part of the sales will be donated to the Disaster Recovery Leader Development Project and a range of other youth causes.
