Reason why Rakuten Mobile Post Office “closes 200 stores” … Is there a detonator after the “0 yen plan” is abolished?

Rakuten Mobile announced last week that it will close a total of 200 “Rakuten Mobile Post Office Stores” in post offices by the end of April.

While continuing to operate 80 stores,Placing leaflets introducing Rakuten Mobile services to 20,000 stations nationwideIt is said that

Immediately after the start of the expansion, it seems that you felt a response to “about 100 visitors a day”, but why did you decide to reduce it to this extent? Let me explain.

Has the customer who visited the post office been ‘cognised’?

The Rakuten Mobile Post Office store started from June to the end of August 2021, when 10 post offices opened for a limited time.

The event space in the post office was rented, and staffed at a simple counter, and a tablet in the booth could be used to discuss prices and make contracts online.

At the manned counter, the contract was completed on the spot, and if it was in stock, I could take the smartphone home. The SIM card and smartphone will be sent to your home at a later date for the online contract at the booth.

Japan Post invested 149.9 billion yen in Rakuten, so it was a natural flow that “Rakuten Mobile Post Office Store” was born.

However, among industry insiders”It’s too late to open a store at a post office,” he said.was looked at with cold eyes.

For example, HISMobile, an MVNO (cheap SIM operator) whose parent company is the travel agency “H.I.S.”, said at the beginning of its entry, “We can explain and contract at HIS stores nationwide.”

But years have passed”The purpose of customers who come to HIS travel agency is to go on a trip, not to sign a mobile contract. Because the customer base is different, we had no choice but to change routes.”(HISMobile President Hidetomo Inokoshi).

When Rakuten Mobile opened a post office store, I once asked the question, “Is there a difference between the customer base that comes to the post office and the customer base that is interested in smartphones?”

The response at that time was as follows.

“Most of the customers who come to the post office do not know that there is Rakuten Mobile here.

Many people visit the post office several times a month.When you first come to the post office, have them recognize the Rakuten Mobile counter.

Such an environment may be different from other business types.” (Rakuten Mobile Business Incubation Department Manager Norihiro Nakamura)

A year and a half has passed since then, and 200 stores will be closed, but according to Rakuten Mobile officials”The post office is a place visited by repeat customers, and Rakuten Mobile’s recognition and contracts have already spread among repeat customers.”That’s what I’m talking about.

Even if they continued to open stores at the same post office, it seems that they decided to close the store because there were only repeat customers and no new customers to approach.

Of course, renting an event space at a post office incurs rent, and if it is a manned counter, it also incurs labor costs. After a year and a half, they probably reviewed their strategy and started cutting costs.

By the way, at the end of 2022, there was a topic on SNS that “Rakuten mobile shops in the city are closing one after another.”

According to Rakuten Mobile Public Relations”There is no change in the store management policy of carrier shops, and the number of stores that have closed is limited. On the other hand, there are many stores that are opening new stores.”That’s what I was saying.

What Rakuten Mobile needs is a detonator

Rakuten Mobile has not stopped the outflow of users since the 0 yen plan was abolished in 2022.

Even after October 2022, according to MVNO officials, “the inflow from Rakuten Mobile is still high.”

Regarding “network quality”, which is a weak point for Rakuten Mobile, it seems that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications can manage to secure a platinum band, but it will take time to develop a nationwide network.

Of course, there are few users who say, “I subscribed to Rakuten Mobile because I was assigned a platinum band.”The platinum band is just “one of the tools to fight on an equal footing with other companies”.

After all, once we lost the trust of users by abolishing the zero yen plan, we need a “detonator” that will make the world pay attention to Rakuten Mobile again.

In fact, looking at Rakuten Mobile, the existing three companies have not been able to develop the “campaign for students” that they are enthusiastically developing. There is a clear lack of effort before the detonator.