How OIOI quietly became a financial company
“Isn't Marui a department store?”
I think many people feel that way.
A place to buy clothes.
A company that holds sales.
A shopping building in front of the station.
Certainly, that is also one side of Marui.
However, if you look at the current Marui Group through its financial results, a different picture emerges.
The current Marui Group is more of a fintech company centered on the Epos Card than a “retail company.”
Moreover, it is not as if they recently entered the financial business.
About 15 years ago, the card business was already the core of their profits.
What you will learn in this article
・When Marui became a financial company
・The reason why Epos Card became the core business
・The unique system that combines retail stores and finance
・The differences from Rakuten and PayPay
The core of profits is no longer “shopping”
The current Marui Group operates two main businesses: “Retail” and “Fintech.”
Retail is the business that operates commercial facilities such as Marui and Modi.
Fintech is a business that provides payments, rent guarantees, and more, centered on the Epos Card.
For the fiscal year ending March 2026, the operating profit of the retail business is approximately 11.2 billion yen.
Meanwhile, the fintech business is approximately 47 billion yen.
When you combine the operating profits of these two businesses, the proportion accounted for by fintech is approximately 81%.
In other words, what generates about 80% of Marui Group's profits is
finance, not retail stores.
The current reality is closer to
"a company that sells clothes at Marui"
than it is to
"a company that generates profits centered on the Epos Card"
.
When did Marui become a financial company?
So, when did Marui become a financial company?
Actually, this is not a story that just started recently.
Looking at the financial results for the fiscal year ended March 2011, the operating profit of the card business was approximately 13.7 billion yen.
In contrast, the operating profit of the retail business was approximately 2.1 billion yen.
In other words, as of about 15 years ago, the card business was already generating about 6.5 times the profit of the retail business.
Comparing only the operating profits of retail and cards,
the card business accounts for approximately 87%.
What is surprising is that the profit composition ratio of the financial business did not suddenly skyrocket recently.
Marui has been a company that earns money through its card business for quite some time.
So, what has changed in these 15 years?
What changed was the "scale" of the financial business rather than its "proportion".
Operating profit in the card and fintech sector expanded from approximately 13.7 billion yen in the fiscal year ended March 2011 to approximately 47 billion yen in the fiscal year ending March 2026.
It has grown 3.4 times over approximately 15 years.
Transaction volume has also grown significantly.
Marui Group's total transaction volume has expanded from approximately 1.7 trillion yen in the fiscal year ending March 2016 to approximately 5.4 trillion yen in the fiscal year ending March 2026.
In other words, Marui did not just start its financial business recently.
They have spent a long time growing a card business that was already strong to begin with.
The turning point was stopping the use of the card solely for Marui.
When you hear the name Epos Card,
you might have the image of a card
used when shopping at Marui.
Marui's cards in the past primarily played the role of supporting product purchases at their stores.
The card was a means to grow their retail business.
However, in 2006, they issued the current Epos Card and transitioned it into a card that could be widely used at Visa merchants.
Because of this, the places where it could be used were no longer limited to inside Marui stores.
Convenience stores.
Restaurants.
Online shopping.
Utility bills.
Rent.
It changed into a card used for various payments in daily life.
Currently, they have expanded their reach to include co-branded cards with commercial facilities nationwide, collaboration cards with anime and characters, rent guarantees, and corporate cards.
The important thing is that they are not simply increasing the number of cards issued.
What they are aiming for is a long-term relationship with each individual member.
Getting them to use the card every month.
Getting them to set it up for utility and rent payments.
Getting them to use other services, such as gold cards.
In this way, they are building a system to earn revenue from a single member over a long period.
Stores are not 'places to sell,' but 'places to meet members'
The strength of the Marui Group cannot be explained by its financial business alone.
The point is that they have physical stores.
Typical card companies spend large amounts of money on advertising and point campaigns to acquire new members.
On the other hand, Marui has stores.
They let people who come to the store know about the card.
They get them to sign up on the spot.
After the card is created, they get them to use it in places other than Marui.
If usage increases, it can be connected to other services such as apps, gold cards, and rent guarantees.
In other words, Marui stores are places to sell products, but at the same time, they are also places to meet Epos Card members.
Meet customers at the store, connect with them through the card, and extend that relationship through financial services.
This is the Marui Group's unique system.
It cannot be easily imitated by retail companies that only have stores, or by financial companies that only have cards.
Differences from Rakuten and PayPay
Marui is not the only company trying to expand financial services into daily life.
Rakuten expanded into finance from e-commerce platforms like Rakuten Ichiba.
PayPay is expanding from smartphone payments into cards, banking, and securities.
On the other hand, Marui's starting point is physical stores.
Rakuten went from e-commerce to finance.
PayPay went from payments to finance.
Marui went from physical stores to finance.
The entry points are different.
However, what each company is aiming for is the same.
It is to make cards and payments not just products used once, but infrastructure used continuously in daily life.
It is not that a retail company became a financial company
Marui Group has been conducting installment sales since its founding.
Installment sales is a system where customers pay for products in installments.
In other words, Marui was originally a company that combined retail and credit.
It did not just sell products; it trusted its customers and had them pay for the goods later.
It had financial functions from the very beginning.
Therefore,
rather than thinking that a retail company became a financial company along the way,
it is more accurate to think that
a financial company that started with retail has expanded its business scale.
It is probably closer to reality to think of it that way.
Summary
Marui is a department store.
This perception is now only half correct.
The current Marui Group is,
a fintech company that meets customers at its stores,
builds relationships through Epos cards,
and maintains long-term engagement through financial services.
Moreover, it is not a recent development that finance has become the core of its profits.
In the fiscal year ending March 2011, the card business was already generating approximately 6.5 times the operating profit of the retail business.
What happened after that was not a sudden shift to a financial business.
It was the expansion of the card used within Marui into a card used for all aspects of daily life, growing the business scale by more than three times.
The true nature of a company cannot be understood solely by its signage or the image of its stores.
Where do they meet customers, through which business do they maintain relationships, and where do they generate profits?
Looking at those aspects reveals why Marui is a fintech company.
This is the reality.
