Japan has a population of 126 million people, making it the 3rd largest economy in the world. This alone makes it an exciting marketplace for online sellers. And Amazon in Japan works just like it does in Europe and North America so it offers a very familiar feel. Of course, the language is a bit crazy, but we’ll come on to that shortly. First, let’s look at why Amazon Japan is a fantastic place to sell.
Over 90% of its residents have access to high-speed internet and it has a magnificent delivery network (Source). This recipe is a great start. But there are some other fantastic reasons too:
- Advertising costs are still low
- The Yen is strong against £
- British Products are in high demand.
- Many competitors listings aren’t optimized very well
- Taxes are easy – you pay upon import and that’s it.
- It can be profitable from the start thanks to low PPC costs
- You can have an enhanced content listings to make your product stand out.
- Competition is low – You don’t need a huge number of reviews to start making sales
- Amazon Prime is growing very quickly thanks to Japan’s world-leading courier systems
You’re probably thinking that sounds too good to be true, but of course, nothing in life is so easy so let’s look at the downside:
- You need to get your product descriptions written in Japanese
- You need to manage customer service in Japanese
- The sales volume is not as large as .com or .co.uk
On balance, it’s a great place to expand to if you already understand Amazon. The only difference is the language, and that’s easy to outsource. With the Yen to £ exchange rate so favourable at the moment, it’s worth definitely worth considering.
This guest blog post was written by John Cant from Rising Sun Commerce – A UK based consultancy helping British brands to succeed on Amazon Japan. For more details and to see an in-depth case study of how they got a product to become a bestseller on Amazon Japan visit http://risingsuncommerce.co.uk/