Prior to launching this service, 7dream.com will enter into a tie-up with e-Shopping! Books Corp., a subsidiary of Softbank e-Commerce Corp. operating a book-selling site eS! Books. This tie-up has been planned to help 7dream.com and e-Shopping! Books jointly operate an Internet site as a double-brand site, while managing a service that will allow consumers to order books through multimedia terminals Seven-Eleven Japan is introducing this autumn.
As one of the decisive advantages of the new site, consumers can receive a book they ordered through the Internet, and pay for the book at the store counter of Seven-Eleven on a 24-hours 365-days basis. This tie-up is expected to encourage 7dream.com and e-Shopping! Books to further enhance contents and formats of the services. First, customers have so far been charged fees (fees for handling cash and keeping merchandise) at receiving or paying, but from August 1, they can receive a book and pay for it without any additional charges. Second, the number of titles dealt with will be increased from 200 thousands at present (including stocked and ordered books) to 500 thousands. At the same time, in addition to books, customers will be able to use these services for magazines. Starting with six business magazines, the fields and types will be increased gradually. Moreover, 7dream.com and e-Shopping! Books are intending to provide more convenient and secure services in concert, promoting merchandising and holding various events, and supplying information on daily-life scenes and subjects.
In addition to enhancement of contents and formats of the services, we are trying to develop and provide new services. For example, as stated above, consumers are allowed to order books easily on multimedia terminals at 8,200 7-Eleven stores from this autumn, but they will become able to access the site through cellular phones in the near future. Through the tie-up with e-Shopping! Books, 7dream.com intends to continue providing new shopping ways in the field of publications, while establishing a new business model for net trading of publications based on the globally unprecedented scale, convenience and reliability by linking stores to the Internet.
