11 ms·

Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy

297 points by bemmu 15y ago

rubyrescue 15y ago
maybe if you made it not just japanese candy but candy from all over the world, it just seems like a service that could work.
- bemmu 15y ago
  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.
  - loceng 15y ago
    ~300 subscribers without much labor from you anymore isn't working well? Edit: Checking out the website, from a sales funnel / marketing perspective, there are many things you could do to increase the sales just from the current traffic you're receiving - and would likely reduce the new customer acquisition cost from $60. Edit2: Other things can be done to reduce churn rate as well.
    - bemmu 15y ago
      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).
      - loceng 15y ago
        Well, there are plenty of things you can do if you understand nuances of marketing - just with the design, sales copy (text on the page), and other marketing pieces. You have a good start. And really I'm jealous of what you've accomplished so far. You could make this 10 times bigger with little effort, and time.
      - huxley 15y ago
        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.
        bemmu 15y ago
        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 http://duckduckgo.com/spread.html and reward the most helpful people (as judged by me or by voting) with free extra packages.
        tstegart 15y ago
        What kind of marketing are you doing to increase subscribers? Do you send out press releases to bloggers, magazines and news sites?
        bemmu 15y ago
        I should look into this and craft a nice email with useful media for them to use. What's been holding me back is that I don't really know exactly what to say in such an email to make it likely for them to feature it. It's true that one mention from Lifehacker for example could really change things completely.
        tstegart 15y ago
        Just go at it and see how well it works out. You can always send out one email a day to a news outlet or blogger and tweak it as you go along. As an example, it could be this: "Dear Blogger, Are your readers still looking for that unique Valentines day gift? Candy Japan has the answer. We sell candy subscriptions filled with fun and delicious Japanese candy. How does it work? Every two weeks, we select some surprise Japanese candy and mail it to you directly from Japan. Prices start at $23.95 per month for two candy deliveries each month, or you can buy a single delivery for $13.00. For more information, visit www.candyjapan.com If you would like any more information, you can email me directly at [email]. I can also provide further images optimized for blog posts an emails. Sincerely, [Name] Obviously, its directed at bloggers or websites who talk about gifts, gift giving or valentines day. You would tweak it depending on who you're trying to reach. After Valentines day, you would direct it to people looking to give fun gifts. With your prices, it would be best to concentrate on hip, urban websites or bloggers. I just wrote that quickly by the way, maybe other people here can improve on it.
  - draggnar 15y ago
    Also, the price is a bit high for candy... have you tried a one envelope a month subscription?
    - SoftwareMaven 15y ago
      This is a good idea. Another one would be a one-time purchase that is slightly more pricey but gives more. I don't want to commit to a monthly thing, but I'd pay $40 to get a single, larger package for my Japan-obsessed daughter's birthday and Christmas.
    - bemmu 15y ago
      I could try that, but am hesitating a bit to introduce more complexity to this, since then I would have multiple tiers of subscribers.
      - scottyallen 15y ago
        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...
        bemmu 15y ago
        No, I don't need to precommit. There is nothing really preventing me from doing this. I want to say yes to this experiment, but immediately come up with more stuff that this would require that holds me back from adding it right now. With tiers you will eventually have people who want to upgrade / downgrade between the tiers (of course I can just say you can't do that). I need to change my scripts that scan PayPal to support these tiers and still correctly figure out who to send to. Need a tier selection page and this will also complicate wording on the main page. Not missing out on those customers who only wanted one envelope a month seems it might make this worth doing, agreeing with you there and hoping to find the time to add this.
  - vidarh 15y ago
    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)
    - daeken 15y ago
      A friend of mine was visiting me in NYC from Norway and we were talking about Salmiakki Koskenkorva. It's the first thing that I've simply been completely unable to find here -- looked for it all over the city. Still need to get a bottle.
    - bemmu 15y ago
      It seems that http://www.suomikauppa.fi/?language=en http://www.suomikauppa.fi/?language=en is executing well here.
- loopdoend 15y ago
  I would appreciate a service that sent me the same thing over and over every two weeks, say Mini Dickmann's from Germany, they are the best. This way people could get their favorite thing, or a selection which is tailored to them.
dmerfield 15y ago
Why 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.
- bemmu 15y ago
  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%.
  - BadCookie 15y ago
    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.
    - bemmu 15y ago
      Then I would become the importer and would need to pay for customs clearance of my bulk package too. I would need to start cooperating with the manufacturers to get them to help me with the necessary paperwork. At the scale I am in, I doubt anyone wants to talk with me since I'm only buying $1000 worth of their product (I cycle through different candy so don't buy that much from single manufacturers) as it is. Also not all of my subscribers are in the US, I have many in Canada, Germany and all over the place.
      - BadCookie 15y ago
        Ah, I didn't realize that about needing customs clearance. I know that not all of your subscribers are in the US. I was just using the US as an example. In that case, how about partnering with people in each country who live in large enough cities that they can acquire Japanese candy themselves (at the Japanese mall or whatever), and then ship to the subscribers in that country? As I think a few people have pointed out, the real benefit to a subscriber is if they live in a rural place with no access to Japanese candy. Again, I have no idea if this would reduce your shipping costs in the end, but I'm curious if it would. I think that there are not a lot of people who both (a) don't have access to Japanese candy themselves, and (b) are willing to pay $24 a month for it (since high earners tend to live in larger cities).
doorty 15y ago
I love these stories on HN about travelers supporting themselves through entrepreneurial means. It gives me inspiration to do it myself.
- brador 15y ago
  Any links to other stories of travelers supporting themselves through entrepreneurial means?
iqster 15y ago
I 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've heard the people who did the Zico coconut water had to get rid of their entire first shipment because they weren't allowed to bring their goods into the US. Any suggestions on how to navigate these complex regulations?
- bemmu 15y ago
  Afaik if you send directly to someone abroad, you are not the one importing it, rather the recipient is. I did look into importing a bulk of product to US and then shipping from a hub there. I got as far as the FDA page where I was supposed to register my product. The FDA site requires you input the code of the factory the product is produced in. I tried asking the manufacturer for the factory code, but they weren't interested in helping me. At my scale it probably doesn't make sense yet, anyway. But since you asked, you at least need to get that factory code and fill some forms on the FDA site.
- vidarh 15y ago
  Have you tried Amazon? Amazon is the first place I go for non-perishable specialty food items.
AznHisoka 15y ago
Have you done any marketing towards otakus? Also, have you done about expanding it to other Japanese goods? like tea? dried fruit? cookies?
- scottyallen 15y ago
  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.
- fadys 15y ago
  This can definitely work with other Japanese goods. I tried a similar service (after seeing Bemmu's early success) with tea (http://teapeat.com http://teapeat.com). With only posting to HN, I had a decent amount of sign ups.
dotBen 15y ago
Candy, 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 http://member.ly already does this according the child comments - awesome!
- radagaisus 15y ago
  god, we programmers love to abstract things.
  - bemmu 15y ago
    Well, it could be like an Etsy of subscription services where anyone could easily start one.
  - ehthere 15y ago
    'Just one more layer of abstraction and I can rule the world!'
- bemmu 15y ago
  Yes, that could be useful and I could consider switching to such a service if it was available. I would worry though about giving total control over my subscribers to some outer service that might hike up their prices suddenly. It would be nice though if someone else dealt with all the different payment buttons, subscription management and just wired me a lump sum monthly and sent the PDF for address labels that I need to print out for shipping.
  - tstegart 15y ago
    Do you have any more options to reduce shipping costs? If its your largest expense, you can do more profit with less customers.
    - 15y ago
raerae7133 15y ago
I'm a subscriber to Candy Japan and I love it. Nice work Bemmu!
pixelcort 15y ago
Hi bemmu. We met at a meetup just before Startup School last year. I remember you telling me about your Japanese candy selling business. Glad to see you post an update about it. Best of luck!
- bemmu 15y ago
  Yeah, I recall you also have a Japanese wife. Startup School was a lot of fun, hoping to get a chance to visit SF again too.
jayunit 15y ago
Do you have to pay customs/duty?
- bemmu 15y ago
  Nope, since I am not the one importing them. Recipients do not need to pay either, since the envelopes are small and fall under the customs limits.
MrJagil 15y ago
That video on your site is so surreal. In that way it really fits with the Japan-theme.
- bemmu 15y ago
  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.
- draggnar 15y ago
  surreal indeed - i thought the jellyfish was going to kill you
shotinthedark 15y ago
I 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.
- bemmu 15y ago
  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.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
karl11 15y ago
You 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 15y ago
  I don't know how to navigate the regulations to get a bulk amount of edible product into the US. Any ideas?
  - literalusername 15y ago
    "Are you a small business with questions about your FDA-regulated product? Or, do you wonder if your product needs to be approved by the FDA? Contact us!" http://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/SmallBusinessAssistance/SmallBusinessRepresentatives/default.htm http://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/SmallBusinessAssistance/Small...
    - bemmu 15y ago
      I sent this question to the mentioned e-mail address industry@fda.gov last August, but never got a response. Retrying.
      - literalusername 15y ago
        Any luck this time around? If not I'd give them a telephone call.
        bemmu 15y ago
        I got a copypasta response from them, outlining the steps I already took on their website. Will read it carefully to see if contains any of the info I actually asked for. One thing is that they expect me to use their web interface to file "prior notice" for every single package I send. I see writing a scraping script in my future..
giberson 15y ago
Have 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.
- bemmu 15y ago
  I'd like to try this, but not sure how to proceed with FDA. If you know anyone who has done this with food, I'd love to learn.
sankalpk 15y ago
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.
- bemmu 15y ago
  Yes, I should seriously consider this. Again I probably couldn't send very big bulk amounts without getting the recipient in trouble with customs. Another reason I haven't done this yet is that I would need inventory control again. I was running an ecommerce store once and it does add a bit of extra work to make sure you have every item you claim to have and to be able to pick and pack them efficiently. Basically need barcodes and labeled shelves.
  - Natsu 15y ago
    I was wondering about this, too. We haven't been able to get Puccho Grape around here for months now.
justjimmy 15y ago
I grew up in SEA (South East Asia) and ever since I moved to Canada, one of first things I notice was the lack of high quality stationery and junk food - essential for any students. Naturally, Japan/Korea/Taiwan are the places to go for excellent craftsmanship. Perhaps you could try targeting a different audience. While through sites like HN is great, try going for a younger audience. I grew up in the 90s, it was always fun to share and showoff something new in school (but then again there was no iPhone, or iPad etc) But I'm not so sure about today's teen generation's mentality, and their willingness to subscribe something monthly. Very intrigued by this concept though.
ryanwaggoner 15y ago
On the traffic and subscribers front, I'd recommend reading everything that patio11 has written about Bingo Card Creator: http://www.kalzumeus.com/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/
- bemmu 15y ago
  I'm a big fan of patio11, read his posts and even went to see his talk in Osaka. The idea of scalable content creation was interesting and I have been thinking about how to apply it here. I'm starting by having individual pages for each candy, for example http://www.candyjapan.com/chelsea-butter-scotch http://www.candyjapan.com/chelsea-butter-scotch Not sure if that will really be applicable to this, though. I should go back and re-read his posts.
  - jeremyw 15y ago
    Great start. You probably have too little content -- consensus says 300 - 1,000 words.
  - swanson 15y ago
    I'd say a good goal would be to rank #1 for long tail searches like "where can I buy FOO_CANDY in the US?" for the top 50 best selling Japanese candies.
md1515 15y ago
You might try once a month. Do a poll and see how people would react. you have been so honest thus far, I think continuing to say that it will be very difficult to continue with the existing profit margin will allow subscribers to take a hit. Example: they pay $15 for one shipment per month. You will most likely keep most subscribers and potentially gain the cheaper ones who don't want to pay $24 for Japanese candy
v01 15y ago
If you are solely relying on the site to drive your subscriptions - it could use some work.. 1. High-res pics of candy and call to action above the fold. 2. Registration/Membership on-site not just paypal sub link. 3. Video is great, but it would help to have, sorry to be frank, less amateur shaky cam in favor of something a little more pro that gives me confidence in handing over money every month to a person out there. You should also consider reaching out to daily deals sites with a "discounted membership" deal that could really move the needle for you. I think this is pretty awesome, I'd love to see how this develops...
redslazer 15y ago
Have you considering putting a phamplet in each envelope that people can give to friends who can try it at half price for the first month or so? That way you could get access to new potential customers. You could also make it more enticing for people to give the phamplet to someone by rewarding people who have friends sign up.
- bemmu 15y ago
  Good idea, I should probably include something anyway to explain what the package contains. I could make a combined candy explanation + referral pamphlet and include that.
koichi 15y ago
To get more subscribers, I think you ought to be: - Writing about Japanese candy. - Making videos about Japanese candy. - etc. Doing this will attract people interested in Japanese candy, and will pull in potential and real subscribers. Over the long term I think this could be good. I also think the topic of "Japanese Candy" is big enough for you to write/video about it once or twice a week. As for the service itself - I think it lends well to word of mouth, or at least it could. People get their candy and share it with others, and those others ask where you got their candy. I was a subscriber for probably 4-5 months, and at least two of my friends signed up because of my word of mouth. Thing is, all three of us have unsubscribed - and for all three of us, it actually came down to the quality of the candy (or perhaps, it came down to our tastes in candy). I know originally (and maybe still) your thing was about sending people Japanese candy they can't get outside of Japan too easily. That's good and all, but in the end, after a while we all realized the candy itself in terms of quality / taste was hit or miss... and with subscription, you can't have too many misses before someone unsubscribes. I'd say I personally enjoyed the candy I got half the time, so I just unsubscribed because it wasn't worth it. I think finding candy that people will like rather than candy people find different or original is much more important. I think that's the difference between gaining more subscribers naturally through word of mouth and losing subscribers. At least, that's my opinion on it. I do hope you start revving sales up again, though. I loved the candy when I loved the candy, and I think it's a good idea, but between myself and friends we unsubscribed because we didn't always love the candy :(
- bemmu 15y ago
  This was interesting, thank you. I'm not sure how to only send the good ones, and that would depend on the recipient's tastes as well. Part of the idea is to try new things, so it seems unavoidable that as I go through all the varieties out there, people will not like some of them. Some people don't like gummy candy, some really do. Some people are really into "construction kit" type candy, some hate the effort involved and so on. Perhaps there could be a way to make the subscribers feel like they didn't lose out even if they got something they really hated, but not sure how that would work exactly.
  - 15y ago
bennesvig 15y ago
Did you get the email I sent back with ideas? I love what you're doing, but there has to be some community formed around it.
kpi 15y ago
Reminds me of Joel's post on streamlining a shipping process http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HowToShipAnything.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HowToShipAnything.htm...
- bemmu 15y ago
  Joel's post was useful. I managed to avoid buying that $1000+ label printer they use. Instead I have a script that makes a PDF of labels and then I go to the convenience store, discreetly replace the paper in the common expensive looking copy machine with labels and print with that. Prints 300 labels in under 5 minutes this way.
svalley 15y ago
This guy is going to eventually run afoul of the US Customs and the FDA. http://bit.ly/w2XSMA http://bit.ly/w2XSMA "Food that is sent to an individual in the U.S. for personal use (i.e. not for resale) by a business is subject to special requirements of the Food and Drug Administration. Businesses that send goods to the U.S. must file prior notice. Prior notice may be filed on-line if the goods are being sent through the postal service."
- bemmu 15y ago
  I'd love to work with FDA to make sure I follow all the rules, but so far they have ignored my emails. Perhaps I will try to reach them by phone some night.
stevewilhelm 15y ago
Try http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/ http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/
harryf 15y ago
What about advertising on manga forums? They still seem to be popular
dzhiurgis 15y ago
This gave me an idea of shipping dark rye - eastern european kind of bread. They do have rye bread in UK, but it is completely different from the real thing. I wasn't able to find any "lithuanian bread" online, maybe the nature of the product is difficult to ship. I think most breads shelf life is like 3 days, with some extremes of 10 days..
- bemmu 15y ago
  Issue with rye bread is that unless it is really fresh, it loses a lot of flavor.
whichdan 15y ago
Have you considered offering a second "chocolate"-focused subscription? Things like green tea pocky, sweet potato kit kats, or even those little pocky-style mushrooms. After reading your post I signed up for the $13 sample, but $24/mo is a little high for me when I'm not a huge fan of the sort of candy you're mailing out. It would also hit on koichi's issue where some people are more concerned about quality than novelty. For what it's worth, I'd pay $15/mo for one package or $30/mo for two packages - personally, the difference between $24 and $30 is negligible, given how much I'd already be paying. I currently pay ~$50/mo to have Steaz and/or other iced teas delivered (cheaper than going to Dunkin' Donuts once a day), so the issue isn't really price, rather it's the relative value compared to, say, $24/mo of drinks.
- bemmu 15y ago
  I tried sending chocolate before. It was an embarrassing disaster, the goods got delivered damaged. If I try that again I have to up my packaging first.
geon 15y ago
Would you deliver candy toy cooking sets? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr-qewC-4gY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr-qewC-4gY
- bemmu 15y ago
  This one would not fit in a normal envelope. What happens in the US when you get something that doesn't fit into your mail slot? I just know that in Finland, in such cases you have to go to the post office to get the package, so I've tried to avoid sending such things as part of the regular shipments. I might still add an option to order those separately.
sachingulaya 15y ago
This is a bit late but there seems to be a market for: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rihga.co.jp%2Fosaka%2Fleclat%2Fplanet.html http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&... kind of candy in the US. Consider importing it if only to raise your brand identity by getting it featured on novelty blogs.

297 points by bemmu 15y ago

maybe if you made it not just japanese candy but candy from all over the world, it just seems like a service that could work.

bemmu 15y ago
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.
- loceng 15y ago
  ~300 subscribers without much labor from you anymore isn't working well? Edit: Checking out the website, from a sales funnel / marketing perspective, there are many things you could do to increase the sales just from the current traffic you're receiving - and would likely reduce the new customer acquisition cost from $60. Edit2: Other things can be done to reduce churn rate as well.
  - bemmu 15y ago
    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).
    - loceng 15y ago
      Well, there are plenty of things you can do if you understand nuances of marketing - just with the design, sales copy (text on the page), and other marketing pieces. You have a good start. And really I'm jealous of what you've accomplished so far. You could make this 10 times bigger with little effort, and time.
    - huxley 15y ago
      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.
      - bemmu 15y ago
        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 http://duckduckgo.com/spread.html and reward the most helpful people (as judged by me or by voting) with free extra packages.
        tstegart 15y ago
        What kind of marketing are you doing to increase subscribers? Do you send out press releases to bloggers, magazines and news sites?
        bemmu 15y ago
        I should look into this and craft a nice email with useful media for them to use. What's been holding me back is that I don't really know exactly what to say in such an email to make it likely for them to feature it. It's true that one mention from Lifehacker for example could really change things completely.
        tstegart 15y ago
        Just go at it and see how well it works out. You can always send out one email a day to a news outlet or blogger and tweak it as you go along. As an example, it could be this: "Dear Blogger, Are your readers still looking for that unique Valentines day gift? Candy Japan has the answer. We sell candy subscriptions filled with fun and delicious Japanese candy. How does it work? Every two weeks, we select some surprise Japanese candy and mail it to you directly from Japan. Prices start at $23.95 per month for two candy deliveries each month, or you can buy a single delivery for $13.00. For more information, visit www.candyjapan.com If you would like any more information, you can email me directly at [email]. I can also provide further images optimized for blog posts an emails. Sincerely, [Name] Obviously, its directed at bloggers or websites who talk about gifts, gift giving or valentines day. You would tweak it depending on who you're trying to reach. After Valentines day, you would direct it to people looking to give fun gifts. With your prices, it would be best to concentrate on hip, urban websites or bloggers. I just wrote that quickly by the way, maybe other people here can improve on it.
- draggnar 15y ago
  Also, the price is a bit high for candy... have you tried a one envelope a month subscription?
  - SoftwareMaven 15y ago
    This is a good idea. Another one would be a one-time purchase that is slightly more pricey but gives more. I don't want to commit to a monthly thing, but I'd pay $40 to get a single, larger package for my Japan-obsessed daughter's birthday and Christmas.
  - bemmu 15y ago
    I could try that, but am hesitating a bit to introduce more complexity to this, since then I would have multiple tiers of subscribers.
    - scottyallen 15y ago
      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...
      - bemmu 15y ago
        No, I don't need to precommit. There is nothing really preventing me from doing this. I want to say yes to this experiment, but immediately come up with more stuff that this would require that holds me back from adding it right now. With tiers you will eventually have people who want to upgrade / downgrade between the tiers (of course I can just say you can't do that). I need to change my scripts that scan PayPal to support these tiers and still correctly figure out who to send to. Need a tier selection page and this will also complicate wording on the main page. Not missing out on those customers who only wanted one envelope a month seems it might make this worth doing, agreeing with you there and hoping to find the time to add this.
- vidarh 15y ago
  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)
  - daeken 15y ago
    A friend of mine was visiting me in NYC from Norway and we were talking about Salmiakki Koskenkorva. It's the first thing that I've simply been completely unable to find here -- looked for it all over the city. Still need to get a bottle.
  - bemmu 15y ago
    It seems that http://www.suomikauppa.fi/?language=en http://www.suomikauppa.fi/?language=en is executing well here.
loopdoend 15y ago
I would appreciate a service that sent me the same thing over and over every two weeks, say Mini Dickmann's from Germany, they are the best. This way people could get their favorite thing, or a selection which is tailored to them.

dmerfield 15y ago

Why 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.

bemmu 15y ago
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%.
- BadCookie 15y ago
  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.
  - bemmu 15y ago
    Then I would become the importer and would need to pay for customs clearance of my bulk package too. I would need to start cooperating with the manufacturers to get them to help me with the necessary paperwork. At the scale I am in, I doubt anyone wants to talk with me since I'm only buying $1000 worth of their product (I cycle through different candy so don't buy that much from single manufacturers) as it is. Also not all of my subscribers are in the US, I have many in Canada, Germany and all over the place.
    - BadCookie 15y ago
      Ah, I didn't realize that about needing customs clearance. I know that not all of your subscribers are in the US. I was just using the US as an example. In that case, how about partnering with people in each country who live in large enough cities that they can acquire Japanese candy themselves (at the Japanese mall or whatever), and then ship to the subscribers in that country? As I think a few people have pointed out, the real benefit to a subscriber is if they live in a rural place with no access to Japanese candy. Again, I have no idea if this would reduce your shipping costs in the end, but I'm curious if it would. I think that there are not a lot of people who both (a) don't have access to Japanese candy themselves, and (b) are willing to pay $24 a month for it (since high earners tend to live in larger cities).

doorty 15y ago

I love these stories on HN about travelers supporting themselves through entrepreneurial means. It gives me inspiration to do it myself.

brador 15y ago
Any links to other stories of travelers supporting themselves through entrepreneurial means?

iqster 15y ago

I 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've heard the people who did the Zico coconut water had to get rid of their entire first shipment because they weren't allowed to bring their goods into the US. Any suggestions on how to navigate these complex regulations?

bemmu 15y ago
Afaik if you send directly to someone abroad, you are not the one importing it, rather the recipient is. I did look into importing a bulk of product to US and then shipping from a hub there. I got as far as the FDA page where I was supposed to register my product. The FDA site requires you input the code of the factory the product is produced in. I tried asking the manufacturer for the factory code, but they weren't interested in helping me. At my scale it probably doesn't make sense yet, anyway. But since you asked, you at least need to get that factory code and fill some forms on the FDA site.
vidarh 15y ago
Have you tried Amazon? Amazon is the first place I go for non-perishable specialty food items.

AznHisoka 15y ago

Have you done any marketing towards otakus? Also, have you done about expanding it to other Japanese goods? like tea? dried fruit? cookies?

scottyallen 15y ago
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.
fadys 15y ago
This can definitely work with other Japanese goods. I tried a similar service (after seeing Bemmu's early success) with tea (http://teapeat.com http://teapeat.com). With only posting to HN, I had a decent amount of sign ups.

dotBen 15y ago

Candy, 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 http://member.ly already does this according the child comments - awesome!

radagaisus 15y ago
god, we programmers love to abstract things.
- bemmu 15y ago
  Well, it could be like an Etsy of subscription services where anyone could easily start one.
- ehthere 15y ago
  'Just one more layer of abstraction and I can rule the world!'
bemmu 15y ago
Yes, that could be useful and I could consider switching to such a service if it was available. I would worry though about giving total control over my subscribers to some outer service that might hike up their prices suddenly. It would be nice though if someone else dealt with all the different payment buttons, subscription management and just wired me a lump sum monthly and sent the PDF for address labels that I need to print out for shipping.
- tstegart 15y ago
  Do you have any more options to reduce shipping costs? If its your largest expense, you can do more profit with less customers.
  - 15y ago

raerae7133 15y ago

I'm a subscriber to Candy Japan and I love it. Nice work Bemmu!

pixelcort 15y ago

Hi bemmu. We met at a meetup just before Startup School last year. I remember you telling me about your Japanese candy selling business. Glad to see you post an update about it. Best of luck!

bemmu 15y ago
Yeah, I recall you also have a Japanese wife. Startup School was a lot of fun, hoping to get a chance to visit SF again too.

jayunit 15y ago

Do you have to pay customs/duty?

bemmu 15y ago
Nope, since I am not the one importing them. Recipients do not need to pay either, since the envelopes are small and fall under the customs limits.

MrJagil 15y ago

That video on your site is so surreal. In that way it really fits with the Japan-theme.

bemmu 15y ago
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.
draggnar 15y ago
surreal indeed - i thought the jellyfish was going to kill you

shotinthedark 15y ago

I 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.

bemmu 15y ago
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.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

karl11 15y ago

You 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 15y ago
I don't know how to navigate the regulations to get a bulk amount of edible product into the US. Any ideas?
- literalusername 15y ago
  "Are you a small business with questions about your FDA-regulated product? Or, do you wonder if your product needs to be approved by the FDA? Contact us!" http://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/SmallBusinessAssistance/SmallBusinessRepresentatives/default.htm http://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/SmallBusinessAssistance/Small...
  - bemmu 15y ago
    I sent this question to the mentioned e-mail address industry@fda.gov last August, but never got a response. Retrying.
    - literalusername 15y ago
      Any luck this time around? If not I'd give them a telephone call.
      - bemmu 15y ago
        I got a copypasta response from them, outlining the steps I already took on their website. Will read it carefully to see if contains any of the info I actually asked for. One thing is that they expect me to use their web interface to file "prior notice" for every single package I send. I see writing a scraping script in my future..

giberson 15y ago

Have 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.

bemmu 15y ago
I'd like to try this, but not sure how to proceed with FDA. If you know anyone who has done this with food, I'd love to learn.

sankalpk 15y ago

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.

bemmu 15y ago
Yes, I should seriously consider this. Again I probably couldn't send very big bulk amounts without getting the recipient in trouble with customs. Another reason I haven't done this yet is that I would need inventory control again. I was running an ecommerce store once and it does add a bit of extra work to make sure you have every item you claim to have and to be able to pick and pack them efficiently. Basically need barcodes and labeled shelves.
- Natsu 15y ago
  I was wondering about this, too. We haven't been able to get Puccho Grape around here for months now.

justjimmy 15y ago

I grew up in SEA (South East Asia) and ever since I moved to Canada, one of first things I notice was the lack of high quality stationery and junk food - essential for any students. Naturally, Japan/Korea/Taiwan are the places to go for excellent craftsmanship. Perhaps you could try targeting a different audience. While through sites like HN is great, try going for a younger audience. I grew up in the 90s, it was always fun to share and showoff something new in school (but then again there was no iPhone, or iPad etc) But I'm not so sure about today's teen generation's mentality, and their willingness to subscribe something monthly. Very intrigued by this concept though.

ryanwaggoner 15y ago

On the traffic and subscribers front, I'd recommend reading everything that patio11 has written about Bingo Card Creator: http://www.kalzumeus.com/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/

bemmu 15y ago
I'm a big fan of patio11, read his posts and even went to see his talk in Osaka. The idea of scalable content creation was interesting and I have been thinking about how to apply it here. I'm starting by having individual pages for each candy, for example http://www.candyjapan.com/chelsea-butter-scotch http://www.candyjapan.com/chelsea-butter-scotch Not sure if that will really be applicable to this, though. I should go back and re-read his posts.
- jeremyw 15y ago
  Great start. You probably have too little content -- consensus says 300 - 1,000 words.
- swanson 15y ago
  I'd say a good goal would be to rank #1 for long tail searches like "where can I buy FOO_CANDY in the US?" for the top 50 best selling Japanese candies.

md1515 15y ago

You might try once a month. Do a poll and see how people would react. you have been so honest thus far, I think continuing to say that it will be very difficult to continue with the existing profit margin will allow subscribers to take a hit. Example: they pay $15 for one shipment per month. You will most likely keep most subscribers and potentially gain the cheaper ones who don't want to pay $24 for Japanese candy

v01 15y ago

If you are solely relying on the site to drive your subscriptions - it could use some work.. 1. High-res pics of candy and call to action above the fold. 2. Registration/Membership on-site not just paypal sub link. 3. Video is great, but it would help to have, sorry to be frank, less amateur shaky cam in favor of something a little more pro that gives me confidence in handing over money every month to a person out there. You should also consider reaching out to daily deals sites with a "discounted membership" deal that could really move the needle for you. I think this is pretty awesome, I'd love to see how this develops...

redslazer 15y ago

Have you considering putting a phamplet in each envelope that people can give to friends who can try it at half price for the first month or so? That way you could get access to new potential customers. You could also make it more enticing for people to give the phamplet to someone by rewarding people who have friends sign up.

bemmu 15y ago
Good idea, I should probably include something anyway to explain what the package contains. I could make a combined candy explanation + referral pamphlet and include that.

koichi 15y ago

To get more subscribers, I think you ought to be: - Writing about Japanese candy. - Making videos about Japanese candy. - etc. Doing this will attract people interested in Japanese candy, and will pull in potential and real subscribers. Over the long term I think this could be good. I also think the topic of "Japanese Candy" is big enough for you to write/video about it once or twice a week. As for the service itself - I think it lends well to word of mouth, or at least it could. People get their candy and share it with others, and those others ask where you got their candy. I was a subscriber for probably 4-5 months, and at least two of my friends signed up because of my word of mouth. Thing is, all three of us have unsubscribed - and for all three of us, it actually came down to the quality of the candy (or perhaps, it came down to our tastes in candy). I know originally (and maybe still) your thing was about sending people Japanese candy they can't get outside of Japan too easily. That's good and all, but in the end, after a while we all realized the candy itself in terms of quality / taste was hit or miss... and with subscription, you can't have too many misses before someone unsubscribes. I'd say I personally enjoyed the candy I got half the time, so I just unsubscribed because it wasn't worth it. I think finding candy that people will like rather than candy people find different or original is much more important. I think that's the difference between gaining more subscribers naturally through word of mouth and losing subscribers. At least, that's my opinion on it. I do hope you start revving sales up again, though. I loved the candy when I loved the candy, and I think it's a good idea, but between myself and friends we unsubscribed because we didn't always love the candy :(

bemmu 15y ago
This was interesting, thank you. I'm not sure how to only send the good ones, and that would depend on the recipient's tastes as well. Part of the idea is to try new things, so it seems unavoidable that as I go through all the varieties out there, people will not like some of them. Some people don't like gummy candy, some really do. Some people are really into "construction kit" type candy, some hate the effort involved and so on. Perhaps there could be a way to make the subscribers feel like they didn't lose out even if they got something they really hated, but not sure how that would work exactly.
- 15y ago

bennesvig 15y ago

Did you get the email I sent back with ideas? I love what you're doing, but there has to be some community formed around it.

kpi 15y ago

Reminds me of Joel's post on streamlining a shipping process http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HowToShipAnything.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HowToShipAnything.htm...

bemmu 15y ago
Joel's post was useful. I managed to avoid buying that $1000+ label printer they use. Instead I have a script that makes a PDF of labels and then I go to the convenience store, discreetly replace the paper in the common expensive looking copy machine with labels and print with that. Prints 300 labels in under 5 minutes this way.

svalley 15y ago

This guy is going to eventually run afoul of the US Customs and the FDA. http://bit.ly/w2XSMA http://bit.ly/w2XSMA "Food that is sent to an individual in the U.S. for personal use (i.e. not for resale) by a business is subject to special requirements of the Food and Drug Administration. Businesses that send goods to the U.S. must file prior notice. Prior notice may be filed on-line if the goods are being sent through the postal service."

bemmu 15y ago
I'd love to work with FDA to make sure I follow all the rules, but so far they have ignored my emails. Perhaps I will try to reach them by phone some night.

stevewilhelm 15y ago

Try http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/ http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/

harryf 15y ago

What about advertising on manga forums? They still seem to be popular

dzhiurgis 15y ago

This gave me an idea of shipping dark rye - eastern european kind of bread. They do have rye bread in UK, but it is completely different from the real thing. I wasn't able to find any "lithuanian bread" online, maybe the nature of the product is difficult to ship. I think most breads shelf life is like 3 days, with some extremes of 10 days..

bemmu 15y ago
Issue with rye bread is that unless it is really fresh, it loses a lot of flavor.

whichdan 15y ago

Have you considered offering a second "chocolate"-focused subscription? Things like green tea pocky, sweet potato kit kats, or even those little pocky-style mushrooms. After reading your post I signed up for the $13 sample, but $24/mo is a little high for me when I'm not a huge fan of the sort of candy you're mailing out. It would also hit on koichi's issue where some people are more concerned about quality than novelty. For what it's worth, I'd pay $15/mo for one package or $30/mo for two packages - personally, the difference between $24 and $30 is negligible, given how much I'd already be paying. I currently pay ~$50/mo to have Steaz and/or other iced teas delivered (cheaper than going to Dunkin' Donuts once a day), so the issue isn't really price, rather it's the relative value compared to, say, $24/mo of drinks.

bemmu 15y ago
I tried sending chocolate before. It was an embarrassing disaster, the goods got delivered damaged. If I try that again I have to up my packaging first.

geon 15y ago

Would you deliver candy toy cooking sets? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr-qewC-4gY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr-qewC-4gY

bemmu 15y ago
This one would not fit in a normal envelope. What happens in the US when you get something that doesn't fit into your mail slot? I just know that in Finland, in such cases you have to go to the post office to get the package, so I've tried to avoid sending such things as part of the regular shipments. I might still add an option to order those separately.

sachingulaya 15y ago

This is a bit late but there seems to be a market for: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rihga.co.jp%2Fosaka%2Fleclat%2Fplanet.html http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&... kind of candy in the US. Consider importing it if only to raise your brand identity by getting it featured on novelty blogs.