Japanese retailer Cecile opens in Second Life

Written by: Michael Keferl on June 13, 2007 at 1:24 am | In Marketing & Ad Trends |

Back in February, WhatJapanThinks.com blogged about a poll in which 80.3% of those polled had never even heard of Second Life, and only 1.1% had actually used it. Now that Second Life Japan is in beta and will be opening soon, will Japanese buy into the hype?

Massive Japanese catalog retailer Cecile has recently opened a home base in the Ginza district of Second Life to promote the brand as well as bring customers directly into their online catalog system. Visitors to the shop are offered free clothes for their avatars, with a complete suit for men or a skirt and top outfit for the ladies. The front of the shop has a stage where the models/staff hang out and talk to people who come and promote the company.

We went in just to look around and take pictures, and the staff were helpful in showing us around, despite their constant wondering if we knew what we were doing. Perhaps they were put off by our randomized male avatar decked out in jeans and a bra. Too sexy perhaps? The inside of Cecile at this point is pretty bland, though there are hyperlinked posters upstairs to their online catalog system catering to men, women, children, teens, home lifestyle, and more.

The problem until now has been that, despite Japanese language support, Second Life is geared towards English. The new Japanese Second Life may solve that problem, but it’s yet to be seen whether it will catch on among Japanese who are typically more comfortable with a phone or a game console than in front of a computer monitor. This is slowly changing of course, so we’ll wait for the grand opening of the new Japanese world.

Visit Cecile in Second Life

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