Japan's Largest Online Fashion Mall "ZOZOTOWN" Brings Japanese Fashion to the World with PayPal as the Exclusive Payment System on Its New Global E-Commerce Site

TOKYO, May 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- PayPal Japan announced today that all the payment at "ZOZOTOWN.com" (http://zozotown.com/), a global site newly established today by Start Today, will be executed by PayPal. "ZOZOTOWN.com" is the global site for Japan's largest online fashion mall "ZOZOTOWN" (http://zozotown.jp/), immediately making it a top online shopping destination for Japanese fashion lovers worldwide. At launch, "ZOZOTOWN.com" offers more than 700 brands and over 500,000 fashion items, providing a strong reflection of the latest fashion trends in Japan. For the participating brands, "ZOZOTOWN.com" offers an E-Commerce platform that facilitates sales of their products toward millions of overseas consumers. PayPal is one of the largest online payment services with 98 million active accounts in 190 markets and supports 25 currencies worldwide.

With the increasing interest and popularity for Japanese fashion around the world, overseas consumers are now able to purchase Japanese-branded fashion items that were not previously available for purchase from outside Japan through "ZOZOTOWN.com" with the opening of this site. "ZOZOTOWN.com" supports 5 languages including Japanese, English, Chinese (traditional), Chinese (simplified), Korean and ships to 82 countries around the world. Products are shipped directly from Japan to overseas sites using EMS (international express mail).

PayPal is the leading online payment service worldwide and has been acclaimed for its security capability where consumers can more safely pay without having to disclose their financial information to merchants. In addition to a faster checkout process that can be completed in a few clicks, consumers also benefit from PayPal's Buyer Protection Policy which protects their purchase transaction if the item is not received or if the item is significantly different than what was described (subject to eligibility requirements and other terms and conditions). Thus the addition of PayPal as the exclusive payment option on "ZOZOTOWN.com", which could significantly improve usability of the online shopping mall for customers living outside of Japan, will contribute to the growth of the site.

"Upon rolling out the ZOZOTOWN global web site this time, we believed it was vital to secure safety and reliability in product sales and payment processes since our site is not yet widely recognized in overseas.  As a result of exploring various global settlement services from the safety and reliability point of view, we arrived at PayPal. By looking at the fact that PayPal can be used in 190 countries and regions, and has 98 million active accounts worldwide, we were astonished by its high level of safety and reliability on a global scale and made prompt decision to introduce PayPal," said Koji Yanagisawa, Director and Chief Financial Officer of Start Today.

To commemorate the opening of ZOZOTOWN.com, JPY5,000 cash will be given away to 200 lottery winners from users who made purchases of more than JPY5,000 between May 18 to May 31, 2011. Cash back will be paid directly into the users' PayPal account. 

About PayPal

PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online. The service allows PayPal users to make payments for goods or services purchased without sharing financial information with the sellers, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts*, credit cards or promotional financing**. With more than 98 million active accounts in 190 markets and 25 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce. More information about the company can be found at PayPal.com. PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. and its international headquarters is located in Singapore. PayPal is an eBay company.