Local Hawaiian Brand Makes History with Rakuten Japan Debut
Homegrown Fashion Brand Coradorables Makes Asia-Pacific Waves
HONOLULU, HI – FEBRUARY 23, 2021 – Honolulu-based Coradorables – a fashion brand for people who aspire to a fun, colorful, Hawaiian-kissed getaway lifestyle for their families and children – has just become the first Hawaiian-based shop to have their own store on Rakuten Japan.
Often referred to as “the Amazon of Japan,” e-commerce giant Rakuten is an online retailing company and electronic commerce platform headquartered in Tokyo. Reporting revenue of $13.8 billion dollars last year, it’s listed as the #2 most-visited retail website in the world, opening Coradorables up to some of their massive global audience (Rakuten Group boasts almost 1.4 billion members around the world). Rakuten receives an average 268 million visits each week, which is equivalent to two times the total population of its home market in Japan. To reach them, Coradorables is partnering with the Yamato Transport Company, Ltd., one of Japan’s largest door-to-door delivery service companies. “We’re making history as not just a woman-owned or BIPOC-owned brand on Rakuten (which we are), but as the first Hawaiian-based store there, period,” says owner Cora Spearman. “We’re manufactured locally here in Honolulu, and it’s exciting to give the world a glimpse of homegrown Hawaiian creativity and quality goods.”
Coradorables’ Rakuten debut marks the next step in its expansion into the Japanese market; they had previously built bridges by launching their Coradorables.com website in both English and Japanese in response to the overwhelming popularity of the pop-up they hosted at the exclusive Hankyu Department Store Hawaii Fair in Tokyo shortly prior to the pandemic. “The Japanese public’s reaction to our clothing line, and their hunger and passion for a little bit of a Hawaiian escapism in the form of fashion, made Rakuten the next right step,” says Spearman. “It opens us up not just to Japanese consumers, but to global ones who are keeping an eye on popular trends and fashions in Japan.”
Coradorables’ 100%-owned and run Rakuten storefront offers a broad array of the colorful, smile-inducing clothing and accessories they’re known for and is called (in a tip of the hat to their island roots) “Aloha From Hawaii,” available here: https://www.rakuten.co.jp/alohafromhawaii/.
Coradorables’ owner Cora Spearman is a former Hawaiian Governor’s Fashion Awards Emerging Designer of the Year, PBN’s 2020 Women Who Mean Business Awardee and currently lives in Honolulu with her husband and two children, Izzabelle Ka’iulani and Zoe Heimakaokalani, bringing a little made-in-the-islands aloha spirit with them wherever they go from keiki to kupuna.
For more information on Coradorables’ Rakuten debut, or to request an interview with CEO Cora Spearman, please call Chris Kalani Chang at 808-783-1664, or e-mail chrischang@coradorables.com
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