ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it formed a business partnership with AoyamaLab, Inc. (headquartered in Meguro-ku, Tokyo; Kazuya Uchiyama, CEO and COO; hereinafter "AoyamaLab") to jointly launch SECRET MALL, for shopping at special prices exclusively to employees of the companies in our business alliance, and AOYAMA GIFT SALON, which provides online vouchers for gifts.

The e-commerce market has rapidly grown in the past ten years. There are increasing opportunities for online transactions of goods and services. In addition, the shift to contactless services is gathering momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic. The e-commerce market is expected to grow continuously. ^*1
In response to this trend, ITOCHU has decided to operate convenient and efficient services leveraging e-commerce.
As of December 2020, it had procured at least around 2,000 items from suppliers for SECRET MALL and at least 200 items for AOYAMA GIFT SALON.

SECRET MALL is an online shop offering goods at attractive prices exclusively to the employees of corporate members. Taking advantage of ITOCHU's wide network in the food industry, it offers alcoholic and other beverages, meat, fish and other food items at special prices with the cooperation of the allied companies. To satisfy the diverse needs of the employees, it will sell not only food but also daily goods, tickets for entertainment events and other items. It also offers food items nearing their best-before to contribute to the resolution of the food waste problem.
AOYAMA GIFT SALON sells vouchers for gifts limited to corporate customers. It deals with a wide variety of gift items, ranging from confections often used as souvenir for business dinner to items requiring refrigeration and freezing, which are normally not suited for the souvenir. It aims to provide a smarter way to exchange gifts and to widen the options available. This will help to reduce the workload of administrative staff in preparing gift items and propose them new means of arranging for gifts amid diversification of work styles, including working from home.

ITOCHU will capitalize on its extensive industry-bridging network to procure goods to each website and to increase corporate customers. In an era of drastic change requiring quicker and more flexible collaboration, ITOCHU will jointly establish both services with AoyamaLab, which has specialized knowledge in e-commerce, in a bid to accelerate the shift to e-commerce of food and daily items during the pandemic, thereby cultivating new markets.