UK Fulfillment by Merchant on Amazon Japan
If your product is relatively small and light then using the Fulfillment by Merchant option to sell your UK products on Amazon Japan is a viable option.
Posting from the UK to Japan
If you have chosen Fulfillment by Merchant on Amazon Japan then when someone places an order you will get a notification within your Amazon Japan dashboard (and also by email if you have email notifications set up).
Clicking on the ‘Unshipped’ tab will open up the order information, as shown in the screenshot below.
The first thing you need to do is select ‘Print packing slip’ and then print off the packing slip details. The top section is the address so you can cut this off to stick onto your packaging (Jiffy bag, box etc.). Of course this is all in Japanese, so you should write ‘JAPAN’ on to the address label.
When sending from the UK to Japan you need to complete a customs sticker and stick this to the package. The Post Office gives you this customs sticker and it is a simple process. The easiest option is to check the ‘Gift’ checkbox and put in a simple description of what the product is. Ours was a glasses lens, so we put ‘Glasses lens’. Put in an approximate value of the product in the ‘Value’ section. If your product is over £20 the Post Office will offer you some kind of cover/insurance postage option. It is up to you if you choose this. We generally do not for our product that sells for 4999 Yen (approx. £35).
NOTE: We charge postage on top of this 4999 Yen, so you need to figure out if your customers are willing to pay for this extra cost. Using FBA means Prime customers not only get next day delivery but it is also free. This is an obvious advantage and will increase sales.
Sign the customs slip at the bottom and stick it to the package. The final thing to do is to write your name and address onto the package in case it needs to be returned to you.
That’s it, hand it over at the Post Office and they will send it off. They may ask for some address details for your receipt, but all they will need is the ZIP / Post Code which is generally the top numeric code on the address slip. Also they tend to ask for house number, which is on the address slip. If you do not provide this information they can still post it, but it means it will be harder for you to dispute a failed or damaged delivery.
Don’t forget to mark your order as sent! – After you post your product off to Japan head back to your Amazon Japan dashboard, click on the ‘Unshipped’ link and select ‘Confirm shipment’. Make sure you confirm the shipment because if you do not two things happen:
- You don’t get paid
- Amazon gives you a black mark for not posting quick enough
You need to make sure Amazon looks at you as a good seller, so getting black marks
Time and cost of posting to Japan
For our small package it costs £4.45 to post to Japan and takes about 7 days. We are lucky that our product is very niche and there is minimal competition on Amazon Japan. Therefore customers are willing to wait 7 days. If there was higher competition then we would use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which is what we do for another product we sell – This product here.
FBA means that you store your products in Amazon warehouses out in Japan and then if someone orders your product Amazon handles all packaging and postage. It also means you do not have to worry about sending things off quickly or updating your account to mark as sent. Amazon takes care of everything.
Summary
Amazon Fulfillment by Merchant from the UK to Japan is definitely an option for a lot of UK sellers. In
Our office is located close to a Post Office but it still took 30 minutes in total to walk over there and post the product off to Japan. There was also the printing of the packing slip and packing preparation to add to this. Because this product is a relatively new test sample we are willing to do this, but as sales
Storing in Japan also allows buyers to choose Amazon Prime next day delivery, which not only means they get their order the very next day but it also means they get it delivered free if they have Prime. This undoubtedly increases sales over
If you are currently using Fulfillment by Merchant and want to start using FBA in Japan then get in touch. We can help ship your products into Japan warehouses.
Alternatively, if you are yet to get started selling on Amazon Japan, see how you can get started today for just £19.99.
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