The world’s most suitable market for Chinese sellers—Amazon Japan
The Japanese market is very unfamiliar even to traditional foreign trade practitioners. China’s total trade with Japan has not been high in recent years. Amazon sellers of cross-border e-commerce can be said to be the first batch of Chinese companies to pioneer retail trade with Japan. Although the Amazon Japan market is not as big as the US market, the Amazon Japan site is very suitable for Chinese sellers to operate.
The website address of Amazon Japan is www.amazon.co.jp.
1. Japan’s population exceeds 100 million
Japan’s population exceeds 100 million, and more than half are middle class. The huge population base, small land area, and very fast delivery mean that sellers have a high inventory turnover rate and capital turnover is more than twice as fast as that of the US site.
2. Opening a store is easier
The competition in the US site is fierce, and the KYC review and VAT tax in the European site will increase the initial operational difficulty for new sellers. However, the Japanese site registration is strongly promoted and supported by Amazon’s investment team! Register for a Japanese site account from January to July every year, and you will receive the official registration link in 3 to 5 days. The most important thing about operating in Japan is that there are no tricky VAT tax issues. There will be tariffs only when shipping to Japan, but the tax rate is very low.
3. Convenient logistics
Japan is close to Shanghai, China. Even shipping from Shenzhen to Japan only takes 15 days. If air transportation is used, it can be signed for in 3 to 5 days, and logistics The fees are very cheap compared to European and American sites. On the Amazon platform, not only Chinese sellers are operating, but also American sellers, British sellers, and German sellers. From the perspective of seller competition, the convenience and low cost of logistics will become powerful competitive conditions for Chinese sellers.
4. Don’t worry about KYC
The Japanese government currently has a relatively liberal e-commerce policy towards online shopping, and does not strictly check the qualifications of online e-commerce companies. In addition, Japan’s local Physical stores can provide an excellent shopping experience, so e-commerce is a supplement in Japan, but its market share is also very large.
5. Huge profit margins
Japan’s per capita annual income was close to US$50,000 in 2017. Therefore, as long as your product is of good quality, it can be sold at a high price in the Japanese market. Some sellers have never operated a Japanese website because they do not speak Japanese. Thinking back to when you were working in the European and American markets, did you need to use Google Translate for a lot of English? In fact, language is not the most important factor in running an Amazon store.