4 Reasons Profits are Higher on Amazon Japan
If you haven’t sold on Amazon Japan before, you may be thinking that you have a task of mammoth proportions lying ahead of you.
However, this really isn’t the case. We’re going to give you some insider knowledge to demonstrate why selling on Japan is both [relatively] easy and profitable.
Getting To Best Seller On Amazon Japan
Unlike other popular Amazon marketplaces, such as the UK or US, when you’re selling on Amazon Japan it’s easier to get your product listing to the top of page rankings. You don’t need mountains of reviews for people to believe you are a reputable seller.
As long as your listing is well optimized and your product well researched and desirable to the Japanese market, your listing will rise to the top. There’s no need to use fake reviews and review groups, which is better for both sellers and customers.
Read an honest overview of how Rising Sun Commerce helped one UK company launch their 1st product on Amazon Japan and get to Best Seller in their main category within a few months.
Advertising costs (Sponsored Listings – AKA PPC) so cheaper on Amazon Japan
Based on our data, we know that the costs for Amazon’s PPC advertising in Japan are a lot lower than in the UK. Taking the example of our baby car mirrors; in the UK, the average cost for one click of the phrase “baby car mirror” is £1.08. In Japan, it costs us ¥45, which translates to about £0.33. This is a massive difference and though different phrases will result in different prices (for example “car mirror” gives you a cost of £0.94 in the UK and £0.40 (¥56) in Japan you can see prices for PPC advertising in Japan are still cheaper.
The Yen to Pound exchange rate is great [at the minute]
With Brexit throwing things up in the air, there are indications that your finances will suffer if you choose to invest your time and money into selling overseas; but selling on Amazon Japan diversifies the risk. The favorable exchange rate means that some products are selling for almost double the UK RRP on Amazon Japan.
For example, we sell monocles for a UK client on Amazon Japan for ¥4,999, which is roughly £35 at todays exchange rate. The RRP of these is £24.99 in the UK, and on Amazon.co.uk the can sell for just £20. So by selling on Amazon Japan, you’ve got an easy way to access fantastic profit margins (£15 extra in this case per sale).
Taxes are low (and easy) in Japan
There’s no VAT in Japan. All you’ll need to pay is an 8% consumption tax on import. Paying VAT in the UK is a real hit to profits because on Amazon it is often difficult to pass the 20% VAT on to customers. So in Japan no VAT = big win!
Summary
There are so many factors that make selling on Amazon Japan a no brainer; not only is it straightforward, it’s also realistic to expect to be profitable from your launch batch of products.
What now?
No matter what stage you are at please get in touch with us now.
Maybe you have some questions, or maybe you are ready to go. Whatever your situation we’re here for you.
WE SPECIALIZE IN:
- Amazon Japan Listing Creation & Optimizations
- Amazon Japan Advertising
Our goal is to help brands launch and grow sales on Amazon Japan.
PRICING SUMMARY
We want to make our pricing as clear and simple as possible, which is why we have fixed fees rather than complex commission based pricing or contact us for a quote links.
NEW LISTING SETUP OR OPTIMIZATION
$449 per product type + $30 for any additional variation
UNBOXING/ EXPLAINER VIDEO/ VOICE-OVER VIDEOS
$199 per video
ACCOUNT & ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT
From just $799/month or 5% of revenue
AMAZON JAPAN LISTINGS
LISTING CREATION / OPTIMIZATION PRICING
$449 per product type (Parent ASIN) + $30 for any additional variation (Child ASIN)
EXAMPLE PRICING CALCULATION
10 x product types with each product type having 3 colour variations.
- 30 products in total, 20 of which are classed as Child variations and 10 are classed as Parents
- (10 x $449) + (20 x $30) = $5090
Having a well written and keyword rich product listing is essential because:
- Shoppers need to be able to find your product on Amazon Japan.
- When they do find you product they then need to have confidence so they buy.
See a finished result for one of our clients on Amazon Japan - https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/product/B08RS5MKW5
This was quite a complex project with a lot of size and type child variations. But the effort was definitely worth it.
The Rising Sun Commerce Amazon Japan Product Listing Process:
We gather all the information needed to fully understand your product and brand. We need to understand your products' features and benefits in fine detail so that we can hone the copy of your listing. We can use your English Amazon listings as a guide, however Amazon Japan is VERY strict in the wording you can use and often your English listings would be rejected instantly.
2.
We conduct detailed keyword research using specialist software such as Helium10’s Cerebro tool to analyze the keywords used by your main competitors on Amazon Japan. We also use Amazon’s own Brand Analytics data to ensure we pull out all of the most important keywords. Finally, we manually read over your competitors listings to pick out common keywords.
3.
Our optimally written product listings are professionally translated by one of Rising Sun Commerce’s experienced native Japanese listing editors who carefully integrate the keywords from the extensive keyword research process as they translate your product listings - check out Shiori’s short video where she discusses a client's listing here.
4.
We annotate any text in your images into Japanese, because everyone knows that the images are one of the most important aspects of your Amazon Product Detail Page.
5.
We construct an upload (AKA flat) file and upload your listings to Amazon Japan. We complete as many fields as possible in the flat file to help with Amazon indexing and categorisation. We apply any keywords that are not integrated into the product listing into the Generic Search Terms (AKA back end search terms). Uploading the flat files to your Amazon Japan account can sometimes be a smooth process, but due to Japan’s quirks and glitches this can often be a bumpy process. We guarantee that your product listings will be uploaded to Amazon Japan, even if it takes multiple Seller Support cases and multiple revisions to remove and replace text or images to satisfy the Amazon Japan gods.
6.
We upload your Japanese specific images to Amazon Japan. This can be a complex process and often requires multiple attempts and Seller Support cases. It also requires Brand Registry access so there is additional admin required.
7.
Any appropriate listing videos will be annotated and/ or a voice over will be applied at no extra cost. The videos will be uploaded to your listings.
8.
Using your English A+ content as a guide we construct and upload A+ content for your product listings. Like the Product Detail Pages this can often be a tough process because Amazon Japan are irrationally picky about the words you can use. We have a database of banned words and phrases, but we are still surprised by Amazon when they pick up on a new term. Again, we guarantee your A+ content will be uploaded to Amazon Japan, no matter how long it takes.
9.
Finally, once the listing has been on Amazon Japan for a few days we do Keyword Index Checks to make sure the listings are correctly indexed.
The video below show how we make sure your products are fully indexed on Amazon Japan.
JAPANESE UNBOXING & VOICE-OVER VIDEOS
Using one of our trusted native Japanese creators we can commission custom unboxing videos for your products.
We ensure the creators discuss the main benefits and features of your product.
Alternatively, if you have a good promotional video in English, we can replace the English voice with a professional standard Japanese voice.
Having a video on your Amazon Japan product listing is a major benefit and helps show the shopper exactly what they will get and reinforces the main product selling points.
$199 per video
