Podcast transcript
Introduction
Hi, and welcome to another live episode of Marketplace Masters. Brought to you by MerchantSpring, the leading marketplace analytics platform for Amazon agencies and Amazon vendors. Marketplace Masters strives to really go deeper into the challenges that agencies face to lift e-commerce and marketplace performance for their clients by really practical actions and insights, and actually, that includes marketplace expansion to other countries, which we'll get onto shortly.
Paul Sonneveld
I'm your host, Paul Sonneveld, and today we're going to explore the very lucrative potential of Amazon Japan in the marketplace for veteran Amazon brands. Now I have invited, Dano Falk from DefDevice to really share his valuable expertise and perspectives on how to achieve this.
Dano is the Founder and Director of DefDevice, a digital marketing agency. With over 20 years of experience, he specializes in crafting really customized marketing strategies that cater to your business unique needs, and propel future growth. Now Data's journey actually began in 1996 as an intern at one of Munich's pioneering online agency called Media Lab. And since then, he's worked as a freelance graphics designer, a web designer, and established his first agency, DefDesign in 2000.
Over the years, he served multinational companies, e-commerce businesses, SMEs, and really providing topnotch online marketing services. Now alongside his entrepreneurial pursuits, Dano explored stock trading, DJing and selling on Amazon. And it was actually after selling his Amazon business in 2019 that he shifted his focus to assisting other businesses in their online growth through DefDevice. And it goes without saying specifically around Amazon Japan. So Dano, thank you so much for, being on the show today.
Dano Falk
Wow, man, that was an amazing introduction. I have to write that down. I have to put that on my about page. Thanks for having me, Paul.
Paul Sonneveld
Can I just say you certainly are I mean, I love all the guests that I invited my show, but in terms of diversity of background, you are receiving the top rise today. DJing.
Dano Falk
Thanks. Thanks.
Paul Sonneveld
The Amazon experience is the boring bit, right? It's the, and I know you and I were talking beforehand, you're very involved in your community in KL where you live.
Dano Falk
Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Lots of things going on in your life, that's for sure.
Dano Falk
A lot of things are going on. Yes. Yeah. So we just had our first KL entrepreneurs kickoff meeting here in MY, in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, which was quite exciting. And that's one of the ways I love to connect with people. I'm also running a podcast. So, yeah, I love to meet people, I love to help businesses to grow, that's my passion.
Paul Sonneveld
Excellent. Well, when it comes to growing, we're going to talk about Amazon Japan today. Go through some of the statistics, but maybe let's just start with, Japan, right? I think
Dano Falk
Yes.
Paul Sonneveld
A lot of West sellers based in the US or Europe are a little bit hesitant around the Japan market, because I guess because of some of the cultural differences, languages, and all of that. So maybe let's just start there, Can you give us a quick kind of cultural lesson here in terms of, from an e-commerce point of view, what really matters and what do you need to know about Japan as a culture and as a country?
Dano Falk
Yeah. I have prepared a presentation for that, but to summarize, I think the language is one big thing and it's just a completely different kind of piece because it's not one language. It has three different scripts in it. Plus the Latin or English script. So, you know, you can say things in so many ways, which is for us Western is something completely unfamiliar. So to us, you know, drumstick is a drumstick or Tokyo is Tokyo. But for them, they can write it in so many ways in different scripts.
It's, you know, as it's as if I would like mix like English and French and Italian together and, you know, and write things. So that is one big thing. And then of course, they have this vibrant culture of on one side they have this Zen, you know, this minimalistic stuff where everything is about like the style and minimalistic routine, which just goes back centuries into the history. On the other side, they have this anime and this bright and really chaotic, I mean in our perception kind of visual things going on which I mean it's a bit like a different planet, honestly. So it's understandable that people are hesitant to enter, but there is a way, you know to get through this and, and to navigate through these, the challenges and the, and the opportunity is huge. Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
I think I saw some of the holidays that you put together as well around, Japan actually.
Dano Falk
Mm-hmm.
Paul Sonneveld
I'm gonna, the slides up here, 'cause I know you've got a little preparation. It might be good just to have a look at some of that.
Dano Falk
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Let's, let's go to the slides. So, the four topics I would like to count today is number one, the culture, because we need to understand a few basics about Japan before we can start kind of understanding and also assessing the opportunity. Then I will go through the opportunity itself, you know, put some numbers behind it. And then I will list down the challenges, the things we need to be aware of here we need to tackle and we might need to find a solution for. And then, I also mapped out the little roadmap where we can just go like step by step like, what do I need to do to get started? Okay?
Paul Sonneveld
Excellent. Yeah.
Dano Falk
So let's start with the culture. So, Japanese culture is a blend of ancient traditions and modern innovations and it's very different from Western culture in many ways. Like one thing is like, it places a strong emphasis on politeness, respect, and hierarchy. Like Boeing, like bowing is a common gesture of respect. Proper etiquette governs various aspects of daily life such as gift-giving, dining and social interactions. Then we have the Japanese society values. So the group harmony is very important for them. This is reflected in this decision-making process and the focus on consensus building, which can contrast with the individualistic nature of many Western cultures.
Japan has a rich heritage of traditional arts, such as tea ceremonies, flower arranging calligraphy, and theater. These artistic pursuits embody the principle of Zen philosophy and have deep cultural significance setting them apart from the traditional arts of many Western countries. The concept of saving face is an interesting one. Avoiding embarrassment, confrontation, and causing discomfort to others is highly valued. So people will typically, not tell you in the face that, you know, this is something they don't like. They're like less, less blunt than people in the West normally. One would hope that this would result in no one-star reviews given on Amazon, but unfortunately, that is not the case. So we still can get one-star reviews.
*both laughs*
Paul Sonneveld
No, yeah, no free points.
Dano Falk
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they're not that polite that they would not give you a one story, you don't like your product. So the appreciation of nature and seasonal changes is a deeply ingrained in the Japanese culture. So events and traditions are often tied to the seasons and the beauty of cherry blossom during spring and autumn foliage, celebrated nationwide.
Anime is another big thing. So it's derived from the English word animation, and it's a distinct form of animated entertainment that holds immense cultural significance in Japan. Originating in the early 20th century, enemy was evolved into a diverse and influential art from characterized, by cultural artwork, fantastic storytelling and vibrant characters.
Last, but not least, the language. I mean, that's a very different, thing altogether. So the Japanese language has been heavily influenced by Chinese over the centuries, especially in the areas of vocabulary and writing system. So, the writing system in particular includes kanji, borrowed characters from Chinese hiragana, a native phonetic script, and katakana primarily used for foreign land lean words.
And then we also have the Latin alphabet mixed into it. So we basically have like four scripts. And just to give you an idea, you know, like, the word Tokyo, which can be written like in three different ways, which to us Westerners is something like, very unfamiliar. So if I write the word Munich in Germany, there's only one way to write Munich, but here we can write it in Kanji, we can write it in Hiragana and Katakana and it will all look like for a foreigner, it will look completely different but for a Japanese person, this is exactly the same thing.
Another thing to consider public holidays. So I remember when we were managing an Amazon Japan account for the first time. We came towards Christmas time and I thought, yay, let's do some Christmas promotion. And like, nothing happened and I was wondering what's going on? Then I realized, you know what, in Japan, Christmas is not a thing. They don't celebrate Christmas. So I made the effort to kind of list down by relevance.
So, The Japanese holidays here. So, you can see like on in the Japan column, what are the most relevant Japanese holidays? Like, Christmas is not on the list, and just as a comparison, like the US ones, which came up in my research. But, but yeah, Japan has a completely different set of holidays and if we want to run like holiday promos, we need to be aware of that. And, But it's good to know to be aware of these special holidays in Japan. So let's run to some numbers here. Just, you know, to some numbers at this point.
Paul Sonneveld
Then I think we just go, gee, it's such a different place.
Dano Falk
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
We just, there'll be a great cultural holiday. Right. Let's leave it there. Let's finish this house now, you know, like, it's interesting, but, you know, I'm thinking like keyword optimization as you're talking about those four different scripts.
Dano Falk
Yeah. Yeah, it is different. But what is, I mean, it doesn't diminish the opportunity, but we just have to know it. You know? We just have to be aware and there are ways to do this. I mean, people are selling in Japan successfully, so it's not like it's a deal breaker. It is just something you need to know, you know?
Paul Sonneveld
Absolutely and here's some.
Dano Falk
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, let's take it to the numbers, which is, quite straightforward, right? So, Japan is like the 12 biggest population on the planet. They have 123 million citizens. They have a certain, disposable income. GDP per capita is number 28. One very important thing to know is that, less than 30% of Japanese people speak English. So that's why we cannot simply like copy paste our US or UK listings to Japan, we have to translate them.
Ethnic groups. One fun fact, actually, 91% of Americans speak English. That was quite an interesting number to me. I thought it was closer to a hundred, but no. Ethnic groups Japanese, 98%. In US, surprisingly enough, the biggest ethnic group are the Germans. I'm one of them, hello. 13% followed by American, like African Americans and Mexicans and in Irish. So it's not as diverse, you know, as the United States, it's 98. Yes. It's all Japanese, which is good to know.
Average age, 49 years, largest city double the size of New York City, by the way, 37 million and Amazon users number four on the planet. So, of course, the US is number one, but we have a hundred million Amazon, users in Japan and that number alone, you know, should give us food for thought, like maybe this is something to consider, right?
Paul Sonneveld
It's remarkable cause I'm just looking at the ratio of population to Amazon users and it sounds like just, you know, first principles, quick, quick division. The penetration of Amazon in Japan is even higher than
Dano Falk
Oh, yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
It is in the US.
Dano Falk
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is also like on the next slide, I checked all the e-com marketplaces in Japan by size, and the biggest one is Amazon. Yeah. So Amazon did definitely a good job, and they overtook Rakuten, which is a traditional one. And, I would say like the elderly population will still tend towards Rakuten, but, like, you know, younger people, they love Amazon. So it is bigger than Rakuten right now. And then we have the Yahoos and then the Mercari and DMM. But yeah, just as a comparison, like what is the hierarchy of marketplaces in Japan towards the US which we are kind of familiar with already. Okay.
So yeah, that's, that was kind of the little insight into what's happening in Japan and what are the things we need to be aware of before we get going. And, next I would like to just, look at the opportunities we have here. So the number one, which I already mentioned, the size of the marketplace is huge. The fourth biggest on the planet, so, yeah. Enough said about that. We have high GDP per capita, strong economy, disposable income, so people are able and willing to buy stuff. They have the disposable income. They like luxury goods. They have a lot, they have a very good sense of style and so they are willing to spend on great products. There's a cultural affinity for online shopping, so you know, you don't have to teach them how to use their phones and how to shop online, they know that.
There's an appreciation for western goods, culture and brands. So, a lot of people in Japan actually appreciate Western. Start to position your brand as a Western Bradley. Provide some kind of, you know, attraction. Because like for some people, the external, the western stuff is better than the local stuff. So, Proximity to China. Boy, I mean, if you were sourcing from China, that is a big one because you can send a container of stuff over to Japan in two days.
So that is a very different game compared to, you know, sending it over to LA or, yeah. So the shipping, the deceive, sea shipping time from China to Japan is today. So it, and of course it also reflects the cost of shipping. Yeah. So, I mean, of course if your manufacturer is in Mexico, it doesn't matter so much. But, yeah, I guess quite a few people do source from China and from those, this shipping time and shipping cost can make quite a big impact on their bottom line and also on how quickly they can replenish inventory.
And then, last part, not least, It would be worthwhile to check we all have competitors in whatever marketplace we sell. Let's say you're selling in Europe or in the US and you are having like some established brands, which you're competing with. These brands might not be present in Japan right now, so that would make it an even better idea for you to enter Japan and be like the first in this marketplace and to take this time to establish your brand and to get the reviews. So, you know, if your competitors are not active on Amazon Japan right now, I think that's another hint to maybe to get started right now.
Paul Sonneveld
Do you have a sense, Dano of the proportion of on Amazon, specifically a portion of international or global sellers as proportion of the total sellers, you know, some of the marketplace.
Dano Falk
Yeah, yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
I was actually talking with Amazon yesterday here in Australia, and the share of global sellers here in Australia is very, very high.
Dano Falk
Um mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Paul Sonneveld
Do you have a view of what it looks like for Japan?
Dano Falk
I don't have the numbers for that, but my gut feeling would be that, it's not as high as maybe other like Australia as you mentioned just now, because of all these challenges I mentioned earlier but of course there are, like all the big brands are there. I mean, if you're looking for Nike and the global brands, they're all selling, in Japan. And of course, you have local brands, which you probably haven't heard of, if you have never shopped in Japan. But, I think there's quite a good number of international brands active in Amazon Japan.
Paul Sonneveld
Yep. Yep.
Dano Falk
But I can do some research. I can check out like how many exactly. Maybe this would be an interesting number to know. Yes.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah.
Dano Falk
Yes. So we have covered the opportunities. Now let's look at the challenges. So, if you look at this picture, this is like a summary of Japanese magazine covers, and it kind of gives us a hint like, not just the language is different, but also the whole visual world looks rather different.
Paul Sonneveld
Mm-hmm.
Dano Falk
from what we are familiar with. And there's a peculiar conflict between the zen minimalism aspect of Japanese culture and the extremely cluttered design in print and online media. So they have these both extremes. You know, they have these tea ceremonies and, and the stuff where it's like everything is minimalistic and pure and clean. But then if you look at some of the media, it's the complete opposite. So, which brings us to the listing creation process. So, we have to take care of all this. Yeah. So we have to understand Japanese language, not just in terms of Google Translate, but you know, with all the differences.
Our keyword research is a bit more complex. And of course, we recommend to work with native speakers and people who really understand the language. Then the listing copywriting part, of course, is also something that we cannot automate. It takes skill and experience and a native speaker, but again, it can be done. Images, infographics, not just have we do, we have to take care of the copy, but also of the style. So as I showed you in this earlier image, you know, the style can be a bit more wild, a bit more cluttery, and this seems to resonate with the Japanese audience more than what we would typically put in an infographic, but, this is just something we just have to take note and maybe implement.
Paul Sonneveld
And can I just ask, you know, just on those listings,
Dano Falk
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Just the basics, so translation into the local language is a must can't get away with English, right? Yeah. In terms of the script, does Amazon force you to use one of those three’s? A Kanji or
Dano Falk
No, no, no, no, no, no.
*both laughs*
Dano Falk
Amazon won't force you to do anything. I mean, you can even post your listing completely in English and Amazon and, you know, Seller Central, we're not going to say anything. So you can do whatever you want. But if you do keyword research and you have experts doing that, you will realize that the same thing Can be written in many different, scripts.
Paul Sonneveld
Yep.
Dano Falk
And you just have to kind of take note of how many people are using this script. Like in terms of search volume, that is very relevant information to have, right? So, if you are selling, gloves, you know, you should know how people write gloves. And then you should check, what is the volume of all these different ways of writing it? And then obviously, we have to implement them in our title, bullet points, description and all this stuff. So we just have to take note of all this. But it's all doable. So we just have to be aware, that's all I'm saying.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Yeah.
Dano Falk
It's not, none of this is a deal breaker. These are all just things we just need to understand and when we understand, we do have a competitive advantage over those who don't.
Paul Sonneveld
And so does Amazon have a different like I'm talking about compliance framework in terms of how you use images and writing on given the cultural difference around things being a lot more clotted, is there a different,
Dano Falk
Same thing as the US, the first image, white background. No fast, no nothing. Just the product. The rest of the images, you do whatever you want. So, yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, yeah.
Dano Falk
I mean the compliance, the regulation, of course, we are not supposed to use what other brands and all that. But, but yeah, all the rules for creating images are very similar. I would say the same as in other marketplaces. As soon as we leave the first image, we just have to take note of you know, how we entertain Japanese people and how we make this enticing for them to engage and convert.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. And Sorry, can I just, maybe you're getting onto this, Dano, but you know, For those of them who realized you are not a native, Japanese speaker clearly.
Dano Falk
How did you know?
*Both laughing*
Paul Sonneveld
You have a German heritage. So when it comes to actually doing this, doing the detail, doing the research, doing the writing, like as an agency, how have you solved that problem?
Dano Falk
We have native speakers on our team. As simple as that.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dano Falk
So, we have people in our team who are native speakers who understand Amazon and they take care of, of all this implementation. I mean, we can do like a quick run, we can do some kind of drafts, you know, with our internal, with, you know, with our tools. And, of course there are translation tools which can give you like, at least like an idea of what this should look like. But then of course, the proofreading and the finalization of the listings is all done by our native speakers on our team.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Great. Okay.
Dano Falk
All right, so let's move on to challenge number two, Import Regulations. Yeah, so Japan can be a bit picky, you know, with which products they allow into the country, which, where they don't. So we just have to be aware of these approvals that we need to get for food related products, for cutlery. Cutlery is a bit of an Oddball here, but yeah, apparently you have to approve your cutlery. I don't know. Your chopsticks might be too pointy or whatever. Health products, I mean, health is, that's the obvious one.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah.
Dano Falk
Supplements and all that stuff. So it goes without saying that we need approval for those electronics, toys, and beauty. So all these, if you are selling in one of these categories, you might need to go to approval process, but, that too is doable. And
Paul Sonneveld
This is Amazon approval or Regulatory?
Dano Falk
No, these are the official bodies. Yeah, so it's not Amazon. We have to approve this. I will mention later, like before we bring something into Amazon, we also need this import of records. So there's a kind of a barrier before we can bring something in. We need the documentation and we need approval for specific products to be able to do that. Yeah.
And then the third one, which I would say is to me, one of the most significant challenges is driving external traffic. So, as we know, PPC is great, but Amazon does appreciate external traffic. And it helps us with many things. I'm not going to go into the details here, but if you are planning to drive external traffic and you are like a typical US seller, you will have your brand website, you have your Shopify store, whatever, you have, your social media presence. So it's not going to be very hard maybe to send, some links or some paid or organic traffic to your listing.
In Japan, it could be a bit more difficult than that because Japanese people don't read English, really. So you would have to translate your website, your existing brand website into Japanese. You would need a Japanese version of it. Your social media presence also needs to have a Japanese version, driving traffic, running Facebook Ads, Google Ads, whatever is also, you know, it comes with this little thing called Japanese, which we also need to master when we do that.
And also like finding influencers and like doing this normal stuff that we would do outside of Amazon to get traffic to our listing. All these things also are a bit more challenging than in the US because yeah, because it's Japan, because all this stuff needs to be in Japanese. Simple as that. But then again, yeah, it's all doable.
Yeah, just to list down a few other things. We also need trademark approval to get our brand registry. So this is one of the first things we should also look into, which is, part of my roadmap. We have to, we need is mandatory to have a importer of record. So we have to cooperate with a company, which will be our like official importer of record and they will kind of do the paperwork and they will kind of put the chop on our stuff that, that says, yeah, these products are fit to be imported into Japan.
And yeah. And then we also have to consider, as a last thing on my list here, the packaging and inserts and manuals, whatever is within our product and the packaging of the product. I mean, I see people selling the same products. They're sell in US just as is, to Japan. That is possible. But of course it does make sense to localize, you know, your manuals, your inserts, and maybe even your product packaging. It would resonate better. I mean, this is all what happens after the purchase when people receive the product. So, it only kind of will affect maybe your review ratings and your recurring customers. But it's also something to consider to maybe have a Japanese manual insert in your listing. Right?
Paul Sonneveld
Yep. Yep.
Dano Falk
These are the challenges. Yeah, you
Paul Sonneveld
You mentioned this roadmap, which
Dano Falk
Yeah, that's the next one.
Paul Sonneveld
You've been doing this for a long time, and I'm sure there's a lot of other agencies that have mentioned into that. You know, I've got big businesses in the US, in Europe, even, you know, here in Australia. Yeah, I'd love to, I'm sure they'd be very interested in hearing, you know, what does a reasonable approach, a pragmatic approach look like in terms of entering Japan and Amazon?
Dano Falk
Exactly, yeah. This is what I came up with here with my roadmap. So this is would be the step-by-step approach I would recommend for you to take. So first is obvious, The, the Market Research. I mean, of course we need to understand first what is happening, with our brand or with our competitors, with our niche in Japan. So we need to do the, we need to do the keyword research. We have to check out the products, the competitors, the sales volume. All this would be the first step before I make a decision to actually enter this marketplace.
Then I would also have a look at the Import Regulations. So do you know, do I need approval to bring my products to Japan? Then I would check, if my trademark is available on the Japanese USPTO, which has a quite funny name. It's called, Plat Pot. Yeah. So if you go through this url, it's, j-platpat. Yeah, you can see it on the screen. So that is kind of the Japanese official body which will have all the trademark registration and it will tell you whether your trademark is available or not. And this would be the first step to kind of check, you know, can I register my trademark? Which does make a big difference, of course, to have registered trademark and a brand registry approval.
Yeah, and if these three first three things are checked, you can go then to point number four, which would be just find an import of record. It's not a big deal, you know, that companies are doing that. Then as an option, I would, also recommend to have a 3PL partner, like somebody who can receive your goods and store them for you. And like our 3PL partner is next door with the Amazon warehouse. Like literally their warehouse is like, next to you. So they can kind of put, they can carry, our products across to the Amazon warehouse if they wanted to.
So, this is a good option to have to have a fast response to your inventory needs. Of course, then the next logical step is listing creation. This will, depending how you do this and who you work with to do that. It can be a very, straightforward process, especially when you have English listing. So normally it's not a big deal to kind of translate them and to kind of bridge the gap to make them suitable for the Japanese audience.
Then you are ready to send your inventory, do your, you know, and, set up your PPC campaigns. This is, again, something where we need local expertise, where we need the people who understand the language, which to understand also which of these keywords would show up in Helium 10, or whatever you use. Which of them actually make sense, which of them are appropriate and which of them we want to use for our campaigns. And that's it. And then we are actually ready to run. And then the next step, of course is to start to working on our off Amazon presence, which we can do in many, many ways. But this would be like my nine-step roadmap to get going on Amazon Japan, and I think it's pretty much doable.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, a couple of clarifying questions for me then. So in terms of doing market research, and even like PPC campaigns, obviously in Europe, in US, very used to using a variety of tools. You mentioned Helium 10, JungleScout, SmartScout, and all the advertising platforms.
Dano Falk
Yeah, good point.
Paul Sonneveld
How well do these platforms operate on Japan?
Dano Falk
Yeah, I was hitting quite a few brick walls when we got started and, you know, I was using, I'm not sure which one I'm, right now, we are happy with Helium 10, to be honest. So Helium 10 performs very well in Japan. Yeah, we still have to, I mean, when you use your Cerebro and you do your like your reverse ASIN stuff and then you come up with this list of keywords, you still have to translate them.
So they don't give you the English version of it, but they do perform quite well in Japan. So this is our first choice of tools right now. But there's a variety of other tools which are also compatible with Amazon Japan. Of course, you have to check first. Sometimes we just have to, you know, ask us, you know, ask support. But, it's surprising amount of online tools which are compatible with Amazon Japan.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Great. And then on points two and three, import regulations, you know, trademark all of the regulatory process, Is there a need like are you able to do that as an English speaking person or would you recommend actually to find an expert on the ground to really help you through that? Like, do you need a specialist? A native speaker to help you with that.
Dano Falk
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I would recommend to work with someone on the ground. Yeah. I think, I mean, of course, you can figure out almost everything by yourself. If you have the time and the energy to spend on it. It's possible. And then you can always translate back and forth and you can figure out almost everything.
But, If you want to move fast and if you want to be effective, I would definitely work with an expert. And then we have our network partners who would do, you know, who specialize on exactly these things and who can give very precise and fast answers to these questions. And who can also initiate the process of, you know, of this, approval if needed.
Paul Sonneveld
Yep. Excellent. Now I'm looking at the clock and we've used more than,
Dano Falk
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
A share of time, but I do always,
Dano Falk
Oh my God.
Paul Sonneveld
Finish. And we have a question as well, but I do want to just ask what are some of the biggest mistakes you've made or you've seen others make as they try and expand to Amazon Japan. You know, what are the top three? I call them like the top three banana skins or pitfalls that people should really avoid at all costs, because if not, you just fall into it.
Dano Falk
Yeah, I mean, I think the one and the elephant in the room is just, not enough awareness of the Japanese culture and of this variety of the Japanese language and how it works. I think that that is the one biggest mistake people make. And then they wonder why things is not working out, and why conversion rates are low. It's because they're still thinking American in a way. So, this is the biggest mistake, I think.
The second mistake I see is that people are not aware of this import regulation stuff and the importer of record things. So, to be aware of. And then, you know, how PPC works in Japan. It's, yeah, it, it takes, a very, specific skill set to master PPC in Japan. And it's not, it's not the same thing as in US. So this is something also we need to, we need to be aware of. Definitely. Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Very interesting. I would almost summarize everything you've said around Amazon Japan is one of the largest markets. The population really lends themselves to online shopping. It could be a wonderful opportunity, but there needs to be a strong focus on the local approach and a local partner and you know really make it happen.
Dano Falk
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Japanese don't like it if you ignore their culture, you know, it's like many other countries on the planet, you know? They want to be respected. Yeah. And if you're selling to them in their country and you come across as like, you know, some guy who just doesn't give a f, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't go well. So we have to kind of make the effort and go the extra mile to understand and to show them like, look, you know, we are from the West, but we understand you guys and we, we, you know, we present ourselves in a way that is appropriate.
Paul Sonneveld
Yep. Makes sense. Okay, now before we finish up, I do have one question from Jason. He's posted it a while ago. So apologies, Jason. Thanks for hanging in there. Let's get to that and then we'll wrap up. So I'm just going to put that on the screen. Hope you can see that. Dano.
Dano Falk
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Jason actually is talking about, when we're talking about the listing and creating the PDPs and the pages.
Dano Falk
Mmmm – mmm.
Pau Sonneveld
Now are the fundamentals of the PDP rules, character count, number of images, et cetera. Right? Yeah. Same as the US platform.
Dano Falk
Same, same. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
The title.
Dano Falk
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The title 250 characters and the title, all the bullet points, all these metrics, the amount of images, everything. I would say all the metrics on Seller Central are the same. There's no change to it. No. It's just how we use them. Of course, it will count differently when we use Chinese characters, it shows up a bit differently. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then there
Paul Sonneveld
A plus content same same?
Dano Falk
Pardon?
Paul Sonneveld
A plus content?
Dano Falk
A plus content also. Yeah. It has the same interface. We have the same templates available. Yeah. It's, we can do the same stuff with A plus content. Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
It's excellent. Yeah. Great. Thank you for clarifying and thank you Jason for posting your question. Okay. Well, before we, wrap up, Dano, obviously this is a very exciting, but also, you know, nuanced topic. So I'm sure there are people, we've got one more question from Matt Bauer. I'm just going to throw it in. I like interactivity, so
Dano Falk
Throw it in. Bring it on, Man.
Paul Sonneveld
That's it. Okay. As a follow-up. Thank you, Matt. I appreciate it. Are the legal requirements the same as well, so EPA registrations on order control claims, et cetera, et cetera?
Dano Falk
Well, I'm not a legal expert, so I cannot really tell you, whether all these regulations are the same. So this is a question I would have to pass to our legal partners. So I cannot really answer this one, but, I would, from my gut feeling, I would say it's very similar from, but of course, before we can get the definite answer, we really have to talk to an expert who is specialized in that field.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Understand. Thanks for your question, Matt. Alright, well we really need to wrap up. So as we do that, my question always is Dano, how do, maybe other agencies or brands who are really looking at Amazon Japan seriously and maybe they want to exchange ideas with you, partner with you.
Dano Falk
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Pick your brain. How do they get ahold of you? What's the best one?
Dano Falk
I would love to, yeah, I would love to have a chat. I mean, I have all my details on the slide. If you maybe can just bring it on quickly.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, bring it back in. Let's see.
Dano Falk
Yeah, bring it on. Bring back in the slides.
Paul Sonneveld
No, no. You, even have a QR code?
Dano Falk
I have a QR code. Yeah. This one has unveils the secrets of my name card. So, you will have all of my data in that qr. It's just my name card. Yeah. But of course, the easiest way to reach out to us is just go to defdevice.com/japan. So that's our landing page for our Japanese service, which has a form where you can submit your details and then we get in touch with you.
You can send me an email directly to dano@defdevice.com and that will show up in my inbox and I will respond within 24 hours. Yeah. And of course, I love talking to people. I love to answer questions and I love to communicate and grow my network. Yeah, that's what I love to do and this is one of the reasons I'm here with you today, Paul. Thanks again for having me here. Thank
Paul Sonneveld
I feel like it's really been a great almost a course in how do you think about Amazon Japan? What are the considerations? I love the fact you started with the cultural elements because you brought it back to like, that's actually, you know, one of the most critical things.
Dano Falk
Yeah, yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
Success. So thank you so much for it. I'm sure that you've sort of synthesized your learnings over the years. I'm sure there's been some blood, sweat, and tears in order to get to that level of understanding.
Dano Falk
Oh yeah. It doesn't come easy.
*both laughs*
Paul Sonneveld
Thank you so much, Dano for being generous with your expertise, with your time, and thank you for being on the show today.
Dano Falk
You're most welcome. It was a pleasure, Paul. Thanks for having me.
Paul Sonneveld
Take care. All right. And that is it for today's episode on how to really take advantage of other Amazon markets like Amazon Japan. I hope you got a lot out of this session, and I look forward to seeing you at our next Marketplace Masters, next week where I'll be talking to Jason Landro about, as an Amazon vendor, how do you strategically manage your product portfolio for profitability, but also for channel strategy and avoiding channel conflict. So look forward to that one. Until then, take care.
