That video on your site is so surreal. In that way it really fits with the Japan-theme.
Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
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Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it would be great if it could continue like that, but extrapolating a bit from that chart it seems this service could experience a slow death unless I can figure out a way to market it (and reduce churn).
Have you thought about adding a candy "rewards" program? If someone starts a subscription from a referral maybe they and the referrer can each get a bonus candy package when they start? That would probably be much cheaper than trying to do advertising with only a marginal increase in packaging complexity.
Yes, that's been on my mind, especially since I keep having candy left over because there is a difference between the bulk amounts I buy (which have to be divisible by 60 generally) and the amount of subscribers I have.
I have to be careful though, since it does actually cost a bit to send a package. Another thing I considered was starting some page similar to http://duckduckgo.com/spread.html and reward the most helpful people (as judged by me or by voting) with free extra packages.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#33I had heard of your service before and thought it was a really neat idea! I wished there was a service like yours for getting paprika chips in the US. For some reason, it is nearly impossible to get them here. At one point I even thought I'd start a service that regularly ships just these chips to people in the US/Canada. When I looked into the import laws though, I was very confused how to navigate through them. I'v…
Have you tried Amazon? Amazon is the first place I go for non-perishable specialty food items.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#34That video on your site is so surreal. In that way it really fits with the Japan-theme.
Thanks. Having a video on the site has also improved conversions a lot. I suppose it gives people confidence in subscribing to see that there are actually people in Japan running this service.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#35I love your idea and love candy more than you can imagine; however I found the service quite expensive and since I live in a big city I can find most Japanese candy in Chinatown (yes, there are some Japanese shops in London's Chinatown). I did assume the shipping pushed up the cost and it turns out to be correct. If I didn't live in a big city though, the cost probably wouldn't be an issue. Best of luck.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#36You should be targeting tech startup's kitchen staff with this. Imagine if the people who stock Google or Facebook's food pantries bought a bunch of subscriptions. You could also target campus stores at universities with a large Asian population.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#37Why don't you buy candy directly from one or two Japanese suppliers rather than pay for the supermarket's margin? Although that wouldn't address your decline in subscriptions it would improve your bottom line.
I do get a bit of discount from them (5%). Mostly it's just really convenient since they save me a lot of time by doing the packaging on site. Maybe if I reached really big volume then it would start making sense. The price of product is only 23% of the cost even now. Shipping is the biggest one at 33%.
Would it reduce your shipping costs if you shipped all candy to your US subscribers to one person in the US, who would then mail out the individual packages? Just a thought.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#38maybe if you made it not just japanese candy but candy from all over the world, it just seems like a service that could work.
Thanks! Perhaps other countries could be added and there could also be an overall subscription to get from any country, it's a good idea. I do feel I should get this working well for Japan before expanding.
I saw you're Finnish - salmiakki products would be popular with Scandinavian expats... (Norwegian here, living in the UK - Amazon delivers some salty licorice / ammonium chloride candy, but their selection is very limited and mostly to Dutch brands I'm not used to)
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
How would you streamline the shipping process? It would seem that the next wave of movement to web services will be SAAS services that address larger business side services like shipping and piece-meal manufacturing, but I'm not sure how that is going to be done. /thread-highjacking.
Amazon does this. It works well from what I've heard. http://www.amazonservices.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon.... There's a full API: https://developer.amazonservices.com/gp/mws/index.html/177-6...
Actually I tried this.
I sent Amazon one pack of candy and then shipped it through them to see how it would work and what it would cost. Had no trouble with the service itself, but it adds a slight cost for me since I have to ship to Amazon and then pay for shipping again.
I sold a pack of candy there for $9.90. After Amazon's fees I got $5.60. Someone bought it from Amazon.com instead of me dispatching it through the API, which would have cost more. The cost for me to buy that candy was $2.05 and shipping it to Amazon cost $4.20.
Of course in reality I would ship much larger amounts, but then there would be new fees too since I would need to clear customs and pay import taxes.
Also it seems we have to attach some kind of label with a bar code to each individual candy because they don't have a normal UPC code so that the Amazon system can deal with it. Biggest killers for me from using this is having to clear customs and that they won't send you the money for your sales unless you have a US bank account.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#40Have you considered the possibility of starting distribution branches? For example, might you save on shipping if you shipped via a single shipment to a central location (country) where your primary subscription base is. From there, mailing them from the central hub to the clients. For example, if you set up a US branch and then sent them via UPS or FEDEX to the customers. Obviously the shelf life of the candy is figures into this process, but if its mostly hard candy I imagine it probably has a couple months of shelf life. Maybe you could offer a 4 or 6 month subscription plan at a lower rate.