7-Eleven founder Toshifumi Suzuki wants to turn more than 50,000 of its stores in Japan into a new online empire, according to MSN News.
Suzuki, 81, chairman and CEO of Seven And I Holdings, was responsible for making 7-Eleven the biggest convenience store chain worldwide. Now, he wants to innovate what 7-Eleven and his other companies and transform all of them into portals to a new online empire.
"I've been talking for a while inside the company about integrating the real (bricks and mortar) side with the Internet, but nobody was taking it seriously," Suzuki told Reuters.
He envisions his company to become a drop off and pickup points of customer orders. Goods ordered online from Seven & I's department stores and supermarkets together with its outside partners will be delivered to and picked up from 7-Eleven outlets across Japan, MSN News said. It will be a great convenience to Japanese customers considering that most 7-Eleven stores are open 24 hours a day.
Suzuki's idea was inspired by the U.S.' approach to retailing. He sent 50 of his companies' head officials to the U.S. and instructed them to visit the country's biggest retailers including Macy's Inc., as well as shopping malls and Internet companies.
"In the U.S. they observed, they listened and they realized that this was possible, and now they're all motivated," Suzuki told MSN News.
Currently, Suzuki is seeking partners to make his plans into a reality. He and his companies are in discussions on point-of-pickup arrangements for Japan with online retailers, the report said.
"We've had lots of approaches from people wanting to be partners," Suzuki said. However, Amazon.com is not among them.
Amazon does have point-of-pickup arrangements Family Mart Co. Ltd. And Lawson Inc., 7-Eleven's biggest rivals.
But 7-Eleven only offers such services for limited online product offerings, such as upscale cosmetics, purchased from other Seven and I retailers.
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