Until "Candy Japan" which ship Japanese candy twice a month raises profit

byLeonard Chien

Even those who live in Japan and do not feel interesting are sometimes fun to look at from the eyes of people living overseas. One of them is candy (sweets). There is a certain venture using this Japanese candy, earning 36 thousand dollars (about 276 thousand yen) in half a year and net income by 6 thousand dollars (about 460 thousand yen). That entrepreneur speaks nakedly about why he started this service, how he made it big, and what the current situation is like.

Candy Japan
http://www.candyjapan.com/


"Candy Japan" is a service that ship Japanese candy twice a month, and it is operated at a price of $ 24 per month (about 1800 yen). Bemmu Sepponen from Finland who launched this service.

Shipping $ 36000 worth of Japanese candy - I make stuff
http://bemmu.posterous.com/first-year-of-candy-japan

Sepponen came up with this idea when I went to Thailand on vacation. Sepponen, who was inspired by the idea of ​​working on the net during the trip, was running a MySpace app at that time, earning money by spending several hours each day, afterwards enjoying the beach and the sun in the rest of the time I was living a life to do.

Sepponen says, "There was not much time to start a new thing," Sepponen brought out various ideas with a friend in half a fun way. It is a kind of purchase service that I thought about trying in that. Originally, traveling around the world and thought about writing a blog at the other side, but in order to cover the cost of living, the idea is to "deliver the souvenir you went to buyers" change. Mr. Sepponen settled in Japan, so I had a free time and decided to shape this idea.

The problem was "what something that I can continue shipping" what to do, I needed to be something like a bulky consumable for the purchaser. Sepponen thought about soft drinks and food, but since it was not able to actually send it, it settled down to the current "candy".

Sepponen asked several people by e-mail whether there are people who really pay for such services upon starting the service. Then the answer to pay some money came back so Sepponen immediately made a purchase button of PayPal and sent it to them. Several purchasers at the time of the initial shipping were a handful, but after confirming that the system is functioning properly, SepponenThe Hacker NewsI made a post about Japanese candy purchase service. This further increased the user, leading to the first increase in sales. In particular, it was effective that bloggers dealing with topics related to Japan knew about the service at The Hacker News and made an article.

In the six months of 2011, Sepponen sold over 6000 packs of candy. The sales were about 36,000 dollars (about 2.76 million yen) and the gross profit was about 6000 dollars (about 460,000 yen). It seems that it was the shipping fee that cost the most.

Sepponen's wife and his friends joined the group in order to help packing as the number of purchasers has expanded to hundreds of people, but even if it took delivery from morning to late night to prepare for shipping Thing.


However, every time we ship out the situation, the situation has improved and we introduced devices that automatically print labels. In addition, we found a way to shorten packing time in units of hours.

Regarding shipping, it was a way to deposit hundreds of luggage at a local post office that had little experience handling international mail for a long time, but because the post office's business was to be stuck, From the office side, he taught us the service to pick up the car directly to the house, and it seems that we can save the trouble of carrying the baggage to the post office.

Regarding the trouble of carrying the purchased candy box from the supermarket to the third floor of the apartment with no elevator, as the relationship with the store manager of this supermarket gradually deepened, from the manager's side, the candy's inside He told me that he can check the packaging work. Sapponen, who thought that it would be handy for this work at the supermarket, as they had to take time in packing, surely agreed to pay the packing fee on a monthly basis for each package. Thanks to that, the people in the shop gladly packed candy for Sapponen's.

However, the number of purchasers has reached 300 people at the maximum, then it has entered the descent line. Although Sapponen who got a large amount of "good quality access" in the initial move, this early users seems to leave Candy Japan in the movement of intense net, and will not come back.


Sapponen isReddit adsAlthough I tried paid advertisements such as paid advertisement, it took about 60 dollars (about 4,600 yen) to acquire one customer, and Candy Japan with a low profit margin could not get the effect.

For that reason, Mr. Sapponen is still trying various trial and error. The part of the process of sending candy is well done, so it seems that she wants to keep the service as long as possible.

By the way, the destination of candy handled by Candy Japan is OK anywhere in the world. What kind of candy is shipping is every timeReport on siteFor example, on January 14thYatai man gyozayaOn the 28thPutting ball (soda)WhenRaw lamuneWe are shipping.