Here's an idea to generate some revenue: Some people might love some specific candy you sent. Let people buy packs of that candy through you.
Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
51–60 of 131 posts
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#52You 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.
@bemmu maybe you should get in touch with the guys at Zerocater. Try emailing Andrew Badr, andrew@zerocater.com.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://member.ly/ (no affiliation)
I'm a designer at Memberly — this is precisely what we do. If anyone has any questions/interest, feel free to contact me (email in profile)!
Asking here because I'm sure many people will have the same question...
...how much does your service cost? There's no pricing info on the site :/
Thanks!
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#54Candy, coffee, cigars, women's shoes/accessories... There seems like a ton of subscription businesses around and I almost feel there might be room to create a white/gray-label platform that can handle the website, subscription management, payment and shipping labels to potential operators of these kinds of services. Wondering how big the addressable market is. UPDATE: http://member.ly already does this according the…
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.
Personally, I wouldn't because it's too specific to the particular goods being sold and thus can't easily be abstracted. Coffee is going to need to be handled v differently to candy or women's shoes.
I would offer a service up to the point of providing the labels and packing slips to the merchant and let them execute the fulfillment themselves.
My guess is that for most 'normal' people the website, payments and subscriber management aspect is the most difficult part of the operation to run so it seems best to focus there.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, the price is a bit high for candy... have you tried a one envelope a month subscription?
I could try that, but am hesitating a bit to introduce more complexity to this, since then I would have multiple tiers of subscribers.
Do you have to precommmit to the grocery store with how much candy you'll buy? If not, then really the only added complexity would be the label printing step - you just print some labels on different frequencies from others. If I were you, I'd be listening carefully to the feedback you're hearing in these comments - seems like there's a lot of demand for a less frequent/less expensive option.
If you want more data on whether you should do this, try asking customers that have canceled their subscription if they'd stay on if it was once a month. Also, think about running an a/b test with once a month vs twice a month...
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#56You 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.
@bemmu maybe you should get in touch with the guys at Zerocater. Try emailing Andrew Badr, andrew@zerocater.com.
Alright, trying that.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 th…
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Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#58Have you done any marketing towards otakus? Also, have you done about expanding it to other Japanese goods? like tea? dried fruit? cookies?
This was my thought exactly - Find out where the candy otakus and/or japanophiles hang out, and test buying advertisement there, in whatever form is available/can be negotiated. This might look like banner ads, blog sponsorship, etc. Test and measure what converts to subscriptions, and renew with the ones that work.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#59I 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.
Yes, if you have a local shop that is importing bulk amounts, you are probably better off buying from there if you're not after the surprise element.
Re: Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
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)
It seems that http://www.suomikauppa.fi/?language=en is executing well here.