How Rakuten is Preparing for The 2020 Holiday Shopping Season

How Rakuten is Preparing for The 2020 Holiday Season

We (virtually) sat down with Sebastiaan Rasterhoff, Marketing Director at Rakuten Germany, to discuss the challenges he and his team face when preparing for the peak holiday shopping season. From driving brand awareness in a competitive European market to why "the whole the company is a war room during Black Friday", Sebastiaan reveals what's behind Rakuten's strategy.

Rakuten, a Japanese company offering eCommerce, Fintech and mobile services, has focused heavily on sports marketing to help build their name overseas. Known in Europe for being featured on the shirt of soccer's most valuable player, Lionel Messi, they've also partnered with the NBA's Golden State Warriors in the US.

As Sebastiaan explains in this Q&A, the Rakuten team is focused both on building consumer understanding and helping their sellers increase profits.

Questions:

Introduce yourself and Rakuten (1:07)
What's your strategy for this year? (6:18)
What's your #1 learning from last year's Peak? (10:00)
Do you have any tips for fellow Marketing Directors during the Peak season? (11:16)
Have you had any technical challenges in the last few years? (16:07)
Complete this sentence: Black Friday weekend at Rakuten is like... (17:50)
How does Contentsquare help you during Black Friday? (20:00)

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Author

Sebastiaan Rasterhoff

Sebastiaan Rasterhoff is Rakuten’s Director of Marketplace Marketing in Germany. He has spent the last six years at Rakuten gaining experience in performance marketing, CRM, and data analytic. He also manages Rakuten’s e-Commerce businesses in the UK & Spain.