Summary
Rakuten Ichiba's “Genre Festival” (Janru Matsuri), held from October 4 to 9, and its multi-shop shopping campaign, launched on October 24, have injected fresh energy into the entire e-commerce sector. The system, which boosts points return rates when customers buy from multiple stores, skillfully taps into shoppers' impulse to add “just one more thing” to their cart, and it is raising traffic across the Rakuten ecosystem. What makes this push stronger is that it is designed as a continuous campaign spanning multiple months rather than a one-off sale.
Details
au PAY マーケット has directly countered Rakuten's momentum. Combining its October “Santaro Day” benefits with a shopping rally, the company has rolled out a campaign that highlights generous returns, aiming to keep au economy users within its orbit. In the cashback race, Rakuten Rebates is not falling behind either. It announced that its partner store network has surpassed 1,000, underscoring the growing scale of its points return service. Turning to dining, Rakuten Gurunavi launched the “Gotochi Onigiri Grand Prix 2026” on October 1, expanding the points for regional flavors and broadening the point of contact between food and e-commerce. Tabelog also unveiled a coupon distribution campaign linked to online reservations, reflecting how the lines between restaurant bookings and e-commerce-style referrals are becoming increasingly blurred. In the hometown tax donation space, Furunavi announced on October 21 that it had added travel point-type returns from the city of Asahikawa, supporting the shift in return gifts from “things” to “experiences.” Activity is also brisk in payment and points economies. V Point began linking its points club with the power spot app “Pawasupi” on October 22 and simultaneously ran a lottery campaign, aiming to attract younger users. Ponta also announced a new exchange service slated to start on October 29, seeking to retain users by expanding how points can be used. au PAY continued to emphasize the sense of value unique to payment services through point exchanges with Tokyo Point and joint campaigns with Kappa Sushi. In the gift market, Pochitto Gift launched the second phase of its large-scale gratitude festival celebrating its 20th anniversary on October 16, working to establish digital gifting as a standard gift format.
- 1Rakuten Ichiba's “Genre Festival” (Janru Matsuri), held from October 4 to 9, and its multi-shop shopping campaign, launched on October 24, have injected fresh energy into the entire e-commerce sector.
- 2It announced that its partner store network has surpassed 1,000, underscoring the growing scale of its points return service.
- 3Turning to dining, Rakuten Gurunavi launched the “Gotochi Onigiri Grand Prix 2026” on October 1, expanding the points for regional flavors and broadening the point of contact between food and e-commerce.
- 4V Point began linking its points club with the power spot app “Pawasupi” on October 22 and simultaneously ran a lottery campaign, aiming to attract younger users.
- 5In the gift market, Pochitto Gift launched the second phase of its large-scale gratitude festival celebrating its 20th anniversary on October 16, working to establish digital gifting as a standard gift format.
Conclusion
Taken as a whole, today's e-commerce and points economies are expanding around the cashback race between Rakuten and au, two dominant forces, while drawing in adjacent areas such as hometown tax donations, restaurant reservations, and digital gifts. The shared goal of these companies is becoming clear: rather than one-time purchases, they aim to build loyalty to their “economies” and capture consumers' everyday lifestyle flows through points as a common language. As the autumn sales season reaches its peak, attention is focused on how far this cashback competition will drive consumer spending.