THE BRIDGE

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Less is more: Sleek Japanese app simplifies your Amazon shopping

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Shopping for everyday items online is becoming a norm for many Japanese people. According to a survey conducted by a Japanese internet marketing company Ceres, roughly 84% of respondents have used online shopping services. Whether you’re a successful online shopper or not largely depends on your capability to search and find the product that you’re looking for. Is it the best among all similar products? For Japanese users, Searchist may some assurance if you’re uncertain. Searchist is a simple and sleek iOS search app, made exclusively for Amazon products, sorting them by sales ranking. The app focuses on Amazon’s books, games, videos, and music, but it also comes with a feature that lets you see the best-selling products in any category. The app only shows top 10 of any product category, which is probably more than enough for most people to choose from. According to the survey above, Amazon is popular among teenagers, whereas Rakuten is more popular among all other age groups. Similarly research by Gain found that 90% of seniors have used Rakuten, with Amazon ranking second at about 55%. With the Japan’s aging population, it would be neat to see a similar sort of product like Searchist…

searchist

Shopping for everyday items online is becoming a norm for many Japanese people. According to a survey conducted by a Japanese internet marketing company Ceres, roughly 84% of respondents have used online shopping services.

Whether you’re a successful online shopper or not largely depends on your capability to search and find the product that you’re looking for. Is it the best among all similar products? For Japanese users, Searchist may some assurance if you’re uncertain.

Searchist is a simple and sleek iOS search app, made exclusively for Amazon products, sorting them by sales ranking. The app focuses on Amazon’s books, games, videos, and music, but it also comes with a feature that lets you see the best-selling products in any category. The app only shows top 10 of any product category, which is probably more than enough for most people to choose from.

According to the survey above, Amazon is popular among teenagers, whereas Rakuten is more popular among all other age groups. Similarly research by Gain found that 90% of seniors have used Rakuten, with Amazon ranking second at about 55%.

With the Japan’s aging population, it would be neat to see a similar sort of product like Searchist that focuses on Rakuten. But for now, perhaps it’s the (mobile-savvy) younger generation’s affinity for Amazon that has resulted in demand for an app like this.

Searchist

Japanese e-commerce service Locondo partners with Spanish brand to strengthen its lineup

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Locondo is a shoes and fashion e-commerce service that allows consumers to ‘buy first and than choose.’ What that means is that consumers can try on items that they have bought and return things that don’t fit within 30 days, with a full money-back guarantee. The site opened back in Feburary of 2011 and has over 300,000 registered members. Locondo is backed by Rocket Internet, as well as Lead Capital Management and Itochu Technology Ventures. Locondo can be described as a sort of ultimate e-commerce, providing its customers with free shipping, 30-day returns, next-day delivery, and even concierge service. The latter is available by both email and telephone, answering questions not only about how the site functions but also questions like what kind of shoes would be recommended to wear for a wedding. According to online fashion portal Fashionsnap, the return rate for orders is not as high as expected at 25%. Of those who buy, 30% of userscomes back to the site to buy more. Five months after launch, Locondo added bags to its line up, and they currently account for roughly 15% to 20% of total sales. And now, the company has announced a partnership with Spanish brand…

Locondo-top

Locondo is a shoes and fashion e-commerce service that allows consumers to ‘buy first and than choose.’ What that means is that consumers can try on items that they have bought and return things that don’t fit within 30 days, with a full money-back guarantee. The site opened back in Feburary of 2011 and has over 300,000 registered members. Locondo is backed by Rocket Internet, as well as Lead Capital Management and Itochu Technology Ventures.

Locondo can be described as a sort of ultimate e-commerce, providing its customers with free shipping, 30-day returns, next-day delivery, and even concierge service. The latter is available by both email and telephone, answering questions not only about how the site functions but also questions like what kind of shoes would be recommended to wear for a wedding. According to online fashion portal Fashionsnap, the return rate for orders is not as high as expected at 25%. Of those who buy, 30% of userscomes back to the site to buy more.

Five months after launch, Locondo added bags to its line up, and they currently account for roughly 15% to 20% of total sales. And now, the company has announced a partnership with Spanish brand Desigual, as well as its expansion into a wider range of fashion items. Desigual is a popular fashion brand in trendy locations like Harajuku in Tokyo or Shinsaibashi in Osaka.

Locondo will also be working with Cross Company, which runs well-known brands such as earth music & ecology. The company plans to acquire over 100 brands by this summer, and 1,000 by the year 2016.

All these moves by Locondo are not only attemps to enhance the user experience, but also to compete against its biggest competitor Javari, which is operated by internet giant Amazon. On the comparison site called EC Navi, Locondo has a rating of 89 points out of 100, where Javari has a rating of only 66 points. Locondo has reflected on its user feedback, including feedback on its ‘Easy Search’ which allows users to easily find what they are looking for through images.

In general, women in Japan seem to be more open to online shopping. At least that’s probably the case for women who use feature phones, shopping on popular and cheap fashion sites such as Yumetenbo. But on sites like this, girls buy only because items are unbelievably cheap. Locondo is taking another approach to making online shopping more accessible and affordable for many users, and giving them a way out in case they are disappointed.

In Japan, internet companies make weddings more affordable

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It can be hard to make Japanese weddings unique or special, since so many of them are held in the same kind of reception rooms in hotels or typical wedding venues. It’s not uncommon for couples about to be married to flip through wedding magazines like Recruit’s Zexy agonizing over the details of their ceremony. But recently we’re seeing newcomers who challenge the conventional ways of organizing weddings. Amazon just opened up its own sort of wedding store, which can be helpful for couples who might have little time to prepare for a wedding. Rakukon operated by Best Bridal, where couples can pay only 200,000 yen for their wedding in advance (about $1,957) and then pay the rest with congratulatory gift money (Goshuugi). This way, couples do not have to pay out of their own pocket. Rakukon’s pricing is unconventional considering that on average couples spend over 3 million yen on a wedding (about $29,355). Making it affordable Perhaps the biggest game changer in the wedding industry is Minna no Wedding (roughly be translated as ‘Everyone’s Wedding’) which launched back in Feburary of 2008. The service was originally a DeNA offering, but it was split from that company in October of 2010….

minna-no-wedding
Minna no Wedding has made weddings affordable for many in Japan

It can be hard to make Japanese weddings unique or special, since so many of them are held in the same kind of reception rooms in hotels or typical wedding venues. It’s not uncommon for couples about to be married to flip through wedding magazines like Recruit’s Zexy agonizing over the details of their ceremony.

But recently we’re seeing newcomers who challenge the conventional ways of organizing weddings. Amazon just opened up its own sort of wedding store, which can be helpful for couples who might have little time to prepare for a wedding. Rakukon operated by Best Bridal, where couples can pay only 200,000 yen for their wedding in advance (about $1,957) and then pay the rest with congratulatory gift money (Goshuugi). This way, couples do not have to pay out of their own pocket. Rakukon’s pricing is unconventional considering that on average couples spend over 3 million yen on a wedding (about $29,355).

Making it affordable

Perhaps the biggest game changer in the wedding industry is Minna no Wedding (roughly be translated as ‘Everyone’s Wedding’) which launched back in Feburary of 2008. The service was originally a DeNA offering, but it was split from that company in October of 2010. The site has about one million unique users and 10 million page views per month. This count is very impressive considering that visitors to the site are limited to couples planning to marry.

Minna-no-Wedding-billMinna no Wedding’s killer content — and what differentiates it from competitors — are the wedding venue reviews posted by couples after they marry. Previously, all wedding-related information was pretty favorable when describing venues, since the venues were the ones paying to be published. People post reviews for many reasons, but many do so share the excitement (or disappointment in some cases) of their wedding. There is also an incentive system called Goshuugi points where posting three reviews can be rewarded with over 1,000 yen (about $10) worth of points.

By reading genuine opinions and reviews about venues, the likelihood of a successful wedding is obviously much higher. Reviews must be detailed, though, and are required to be more than 300 characters.

Another interesting feature of Minna no Wedding is the bill statement. Couples are sometimes surprised by the difference in the initial estimate and the final cost as venues try to recommend additional options in the preparatory process. Since the actual statements are online, it helps to remove some anxiety for couples.

According to Nikkei, the number of marriages in Japan was about 700,000 in 2010, which is 36% lower than back in 1972 when we experienced the second wave of baby boom. Among those who get married, only 300,000 to 350,000 couples celebrate by having a wedding ceremony. For the rest of the couples who opt to skip the ceremony, Minna no Wedding offers an attractive service that might change their minds.

To see how the website works, check out the video below.

Japanese reality show will ask contestants to live the Amazon life

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TV Tokyo is planning a new reality TV show where contestants will have to create a home life with items they purchase only from Amazon Japan. The show, to be titled Kaiteki! Amazon Seikatsu!, will be aired on March 4th at 1AM in the morning. Contestants stay in a one-room apartment, buying goods from Amazon Japan such as food, goods to help them pass the time, or even furniture. The goal will be to create a home that people would want to visit. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is already doing respectably well in the Japanese market, as its sales for 2012 grew 19% over the previous year to 7.8 billion yen (or about $84 million). That’s good enough to make the country Amazon’s second largest foreign market, just behind Germany. The company is also set to release its Kindle Fire HD 8.9 in Japan on March 12, priced at 24,800 yen for the 16GB model ($268), and 29,800 yen ($322) for the 32 GB model. TV Tokyo via Asiajin, Marketzine.jp

amazon-life

TV Tokyo is planning a new reality TV show where contestants will have to create a home life with items they purchase only from Amazon Japan.

The show, to be titled Kaiteki! Amazon Seikatsu!, will be aired on March 4th at 1AM in the morning. Contestants stay in a one-room apartment, buying goods from Amazon Japan such as food, goods to help them pass the time, or even furniture. The goal will be to create a home that people would want to visit.

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is already doing respectably well in the Japanese market, as its sales for 2012 grew 19% over the previous year to 7.8 billion yen (or about $84 million). That’s good enough to make the country Amazon’s second largest foreign market, just behind Germany.

The company is also set to release its Kindle Fire HD 8.9 in Japan on March 12, priced at 24,800 yen for the 16GB model ($268), and 29,800 yen ($322) for the 32 GB model.

TV Tokyo via Asiajin, Marketzine.jp