Amazon is expanding its presence in Japan’s cosmetics market by partnering with Istyle, the owner and operator of the @Cosme stores.
Istyle will offer beauty products from a “wide range of brands and diverse categories” on Amazon’s e-commerce site in Japan. In addition, Istyle will provide their members with the latest on beauty products and sell cosmetics from a variety of brands on Amazon’s site, tentatively called @Cosme Shopping.
Amazon will receive USD 18.7 million worth of convertible bonds and USD 86.3 million in warrants from the Japanese retailer. A conversion of the bonds to shares would give Amazon a stake of about 36 per cent. Besides issuing convertible bonds to Mitsui & Co, Istyle plans to issue another USD 11.2 million to support its overseas business and domestic retail operations.
In Tokyo’s Harajusku district, Istyle opened a brick-and-mortar store to merge online and offline sales. In addition to drug stores and department stores, Amazon may also be able to boost its presence in the cosmetics market through this partnership.
