#334 – How To Hit The Ground Running In Amazon Japan With Gary Huang
In episode 334 of the AM/PM Podcast, Kevin and Gary discuss:
- 01:55 – Visiting Japan, Sushi, And The Real Kobe Beef
- 05:30 – How To Know If Your Kobe Beef Is Legit
- 06:30 – Gary’s Backstory And How He Got Started In Ecommerce
- 07:45 – Moving To China After The 2008 Global Financial Crisis
- 10:30 – How The 7-Figure Seller Summit Got Started
- 15:00 – Gary’s First In-Person Mastermind Event In Japan
- 16:45 – Why Did Gary Choose Japan For His Event?
- 17:30 – Do Western Sellers Struggle To Understand Japanese Culture?
- 19:45 – You Need To Understand The Differences In Order To Succeed
- 20:30 – “A Good Entrepreneur Finds A Way To Break Barriers And Turns It Into A Moat”
- 21:30 – Japanese Product Standards And A Toilet Story From Kevin King
- 23:20 – Gary’s Top Tips On How To Increase Success In Amazon Japan
- 27:30 – Compliance And Testing Requirements For Your Products
- 31:45 – How To Get Instant Social Proof In Amazon Japan
- 33:50 – How Does Amazon Japan Compare To Rakuten?
- 36:20 – Japan Is Actually The Third Largest Economy In The World
- 38:10 – “You Need To Go To Japan And Experience It First-Hand”
- 38:40 – What To Expect At The 7-Figure Seller Japan Mastermind Event?
- 43:00 – Who Are The Speakers To Look Out For
- 44:20 – How To Get Your Tickets For This Event
- 46:00 – Where Does Gary See Amazon Japan Headed To?
- 48:00 – Why You Should Visit Japan
- 52:00 – Advantages Of Products That Are Made In Japan
- 53:10 – How To Contact Gary Huang
- 53:50 – This Week’s Golden Words Of Advice From Kevin King
Transcript
Kevin King:
Welcome to episode 334 of the AM/PModcast. This week we’re talking about Japan. You know, Japan’s the fourth largest market out there, but hardly anybody is selling in it. So my buddy Gary Huang, is on the program this week, and we are talking about what you need to know and everything about Japan. I think you’re gonna find this a little bit fascinating. We’ve got some good stories to tell, and it’s a great opportunity for those willing to take the chance. Coming to us all the way from Japan right now. Gary Huang. How are you doing, man?
Gary:
Excellent, and konichiwa. Greetings from Tokyo. Great to be with you, Kevin. Super excited.
Kevin King:
You know, Japan, I know you just moved, I think you were in Japan and then you moved somewhere else, and then you moved back to Japan. Is that correct?
Gary:
Yes. My family and I ever since Covid, I mean, we’ve been all over the place. We used to live in Shanghai I lived and worked there for 11 years. I met my wife there, started selling on Amazon while I was there, but Covid hit and we moved to Okinawa, Japan, and then lived there for two and a half years, and they finally they kicked us out. We had to go to Thailand for three months, but then we found a way back into Japan you know, on a business manager’s visa. So, I’m glad to be back. And yeah, Japan’s a very exciting place, especially for Amazon selling.
Kevin King:
Yeah. And we’ll talk about that. But Japan is actually one of my favorite countries to business. I’ve been there four or five times you know, everywhere from Tokyo to Kyoto, not to Okinawa but down to Hiroshima and pretty much everything in between. And it’s one of my favorite places to eat. And it’s not because of sushi. I do not eat sushi. I don’t eat anything raw. So you would think, well, Kevin, how do you get by in Japan? That’s like, everything is that way. I’m like, no, they have Kobe beef. And Kobe beef is, the first time I had it, I was about 2005 or something. I was in Japan visiting with my brother, and I’d heard about this Kobe beef supposed to be like the best steak in the world.
Kevin King:
And you see it around other places. You see it in the US you see it in the western world, where it’ll be on the menu, a Kobe beef hamburger or Kobe beef at the local steakhouse. Most of that is. It’s not Kobe beef. Kobe beef has to come from a special place in Japan, and it has to be certified the cows in a certain way. But they, what they do is they breed some of those cows and they’ve brought ’em over to the west, and it’s wagu beef, but it’s not the same. It’s like saying Coca-Cola is the same as your local supermarkets non-branded soda. You know, they don’t taste the same.
Gary:
That’s right. It’s kinda like champagne, right? I mean, I’m not like a wine connoisseur, but I know champagne has to legitimately come from that region brands, everything else, like sparkling wine, you can’t call it champagne. Exactly. It’s the same with Kobe beef. It has to come from Covid. Otherwise there’s like cross breeds and it’s definitely not the same. But yeah, it’s just like, it melts in your mouth, man. I mean, it’s like prime, like prime on a whole level. It’s, and actually, like, it’s Japan, you, the supermarket can buy us beef, and it’s actually like the, I don’t wanna say the cheap stuff, but it’s like middle marketing, below like all and did have like seven different grades of the beef. So when you come we’ll feed you well over here man.
Kevin King:
Yeah. But when I went well with my brother for the first time back in 2005, that I had heard about it, so I was like, we gotta try this. So we go to a restaurant, like on the 70th floor of some building, and one of the big districts in the middle of Tokyo, and I go in and they’re like, okay, gimme one, give him one. And they’re like, okay you realize you know, give him a like eight ounces or something. They’re like, you realize this is, I forgot what it was in yen, but it’s equivalent of about 250, 300 bucks each about $30 an ounce roughly, or something like that. And back then rate of the dollar to the yen was the yen was much stronger than it is right now. And now it’s actually a perfect time to go to Japan.
Kevin King:
It’s weak against the dollar. But we ordered that. I was like, this is so good, gimme seconds. And they were getting it out like a safe or something in the back, like the manager have to come out and get this. And I was like, that’s the best thing ever. And so ever since then every chance I get to go to Japan, I eat Kobe beef. And I actually, one time was in Australia, and I deliberately routed my flight back. I could have flown black from Australia, up from Sydney straight to la, but I deliberately routed the flight to have a stop in Tokyo, just for the night. I arrived in Tokyo, I don’t know, eight 30 at night, took the train in, or took the train into the hotel, got there like, at, I dunno, 10 o’clock or something like that.
Kevin King:
It was late and headed straight, just dropped my bags and headed straight to the restaurant. Ate Kobe beef flew out the next morning at 6:00 AM just, and then I did just to eat the Kobe beef. And one little trick for you, if you see it in the west, and there’s a few, there’s like, there used to be only eight restaurants in the US that actually had the real thing. They were flying it in. Now there’s a few more, but if you’re ever somewhere and you’re like, you wanna know, is this the real thing? Ask ’em for the birth certificate of the cow. If they say, if there’s Kobe beef on the menu and it’s some crazy price, make ’em prove it. So everywhere I go now, I make them prove it. I’ve done this in Vegas at like, the Prosper Show. Took a bunch of people to one of the restaurants there and said, look, I’m gonna show you this is the real thing.
Kevin King:
And I tell the manager, please bring me the, the birth certificate of the account. It has like a nose print. It shows when it was born, everything. And that’s that it comes with every order of the stuff. And so that way they can’t produce that. It’s not real Kobe. So, yeah, I have fond memories of Japan and Japan. It’s so clean. It’s so clean. You can eat off, you drop something on the ground, just pick it up and eat it. I mean, it’s so modern and clean. It’s, it’s an amazing place. And we’ll talk about a way that you can bundle a trip to Japan to experience it for yourself, along with some Amazon stuff. And it’s one of the biggest opportunities out there, in fact. But we’ll talk about that in just a moment. But, so you started selling in Shanghai. Were you selling on the US marketplace?
Gary:
Yes. Well, I mean, selling on Amazon, it was my second foray into e-commerce. Kevin I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but back when I was still living in la my hometown, I first got started selling online on eBay. This was in 2005. So I first got started selling women’s shoes. They weren’t fancy shoes. They were basically these kind of Mary Jane, like very affordable shoes. But they were kinda niche, like with like polka dot prints, cherry prints. Have you’ve ever heard of like rockabilly and like swing that kind of like subculture. That was my first foray into eCommerce. But anyways, that was how I first got started.
Kevin King:
How was the return rate on shoes? Anything with sizing?
Gary:
It’s horrible. It was horrible, dude, that was the biggest headache. I mean, profit margin was amazing, but just like, if it was half a size off, then they’ll come back and then I’m reaching returns and some people order two pairs, they’ll ship one back, and that is the big headache. Anybody that sells shoes, clothing, they know. It’s like the sizing issue.
Kevin King:
So you did that for a while, then what was next after you said enough of these shoes?
Gary:
Yeah, so I did that from 2005 to 2008. And then the financial crisis, the global financial crisis here as people probably remember. And then I made a move to China because I’ve always been fascinated with China. I did study abroad. You know, my family is originally from mainland China. I was born in the us We spoke Chinese at home, and we were like the only people in our neighborhood, who speak Chinese. We were kinda like the Weirdos. But you know, China was like on the rise. There was the Beijing Olympics. Everybody was talking about China. You saw all over the news. I’m like, I wanna make a move to Shanghai. Shanghai is like super cosmopolitan city. It’s kinda like New York City. So long story short, I found a job in Shanghai with a consulting company doing sourcing. So I was their point person over time. I visited hundreds of factories all over China from like the high end, like batteries, electronics, to like the really low end with like health code violations, like everywhere in the factory, I mean it’s sad, it’s conditions, work in, in. But I basically, you know you know, got my feet wet and learned all the good bad, the ugly side of sourcing in China. So I was doing that for about a long time, like seven, eight years, Kevin. And then I saw the Amazon opportunity 16. We were, listen a lot of our favorite old school podcast, like the Amazing Seller know Scott Walker and a lot of those OGs.
Kevin King:
Kevin Riser. Even the AM/PM Oodcast was started about that time with Manny.
Gary:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, I, yeah, around that time, even before that time, right? So that’s how I got back. And I put two and two together. I mean, it doesn’t take a rocket science scientist to figure it out. I’m on China, I’m in China, I’m on the ground I can take a train to Yiwu, I can fly to Shenzhen, visit factories very quickly. I speak the language, and that’s
Kevin King:
Why I, and you know, Western culture as well. You have an advantage in the Western culture.
Gary:
Yes, yes. I know Western culture. And then one of my first brands in the Amazon space was in the Apple Watch category. I don’t have my watch. We did Apple Watch bands, so we did like unique bands, like different designs, different materials when watch first launched. So my partner at the time, and I, we built 6 figuure business outta, we were featured on one of those Mac websites. We were really, really excited. And then we sold out during Chinese New Year and with all of the sourcing issues. But, but yeah, that’s, long story short, that’s my e-commerce story.
Kevin King:
Are you still selling e-commerce now, or are you doing?
Gary:
I’m still selling now. I mean, one of the reasons I pivoted to creating conferences and online events, Kevin, is the next chapter, I quit my job. I went all into selling. I also created an online site called 80-20 Sourcing, where I would write articles about China sourcing best practices, how to save time and money some of the dirty tricks that suppliers may play on you. I mean, at sort, at that time, there wasn’t a lot of content online. So it’s kinda like a black box. So the website’s still up. There’s still a lot of useful content evergreen there. But my wife and I got pregnant with our son in 2018. And I used to fly out to conferences in Hong Kong, and my wife was expecting any day, so I was grounded. I didn’t wanna be left behind. So that’s when I had the idea, why not invite these seven figure sellers to teach me what they’re doing and to teach everyone else online. So that was the genesis behind Seven Figure Sellers Summit. We created it in 2018 in August designed to really help sellers you know, that couldn’t travel for one reason or not to learn how to scale, how to you know, build scale and exit their businesses. So that was the next chapter.
Kevin King:
They were using like 80-20 sourcing at having people sign up for an email list or something, or how did you launch that? Did you just partner with affiliates? Or how did you actually get the audience that it takes to actually put on an online conference?
Gary:
That’s a really good question. I had the audience from 80 20 sourcing. I just asked the speakers to promote like, Hey I wish I got you on earlier. And I mean, you would’ve been awesome to, to be on. We’ll get you on the next one, Kevin. But yeah, asking the speakers to promote, there’s affiliates. We didn’t do too much paid advertising. I’ve never had ton of success paid advertising. But I mean, that’s the main thing. I mean, just getting the, the speakers to promote it. Because if they’re presenting, if you know, Kevin, you’re talking some more, your, your fans probably wanna hear you speak, right? So it’s like national incentive, wanna promote event that you’re speaking to add value first. I mean, we were voted Amazon Conference years in a row in seller our audience. So we’re very grateful. Cause I always try to lead with value first. I wanna make sure we’re offering the latest strategies and value first, and we also have like a pre ticket option. So even if some sellers, they’re not at that level to, for paid ticket, you can still watch for a limited time, right? So I think that’s the ethos that we have event.
Kevin King:
So your conference is like, I think I’ve been to several of ’em. It’s like over four or five days, and there’s like three or four speakers a day, and you can come for free. It’s it’s called the Seven Figure Summit, right?
Gary:
Figure Summit Summit,
Kevin King:
Seven Figure Seller Summit. And so there’s like three or four speakers per day. And if you can show up to when those, when their times are, you can watch it for free, or if you can’t make it or you want to see a replay, it’s a small charge to get the whole replays of everything, correct.
Gary:
Yeah. So we have a 24 hour free viewing period. So once you register every day day one is all about fundamental, it’s mindset, product selection, sourcing, and you can catch the sessions you want for free. That’s great, right? But afterwards, they’re locked and available for purchase, we had to have an all access pass, and you get more bonuses from speakers you know, discount offers, et cetera. So yeah, you can watch for free. I mean, that’s totally fine.
Kevin King:
So that’s a lot of work. I mean, I’ve seen you have like 30, sometime, I don’t know, 30 some odd speakers, and you know, I know like a Augustus does these type of events too, and a few other people. But going in and just coordinating that and actually getting the people and recording everything in advance, prepping everything, it’s a tremendous amount of work.
Gary:
Yeah. I’m very thankful. We do have a small team. My assistant and we do have video editors and web developers. So obviously it’s not a one man show. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes aren’t. So I’m just thankful for our team. But yeah, you’re right. I mean, during that season, I’m just insane. And hey Kevin, you put on these events/
Kevin King:
Exactly. Yeah, I know how it is. I know how it is. Chasing speakers and everything, making sure they show up when you’re doing a live Q&A and all that. Yep, exactly.
Gary:
Yeah, exactly.
Kevin King:
So, so how you do one of these a year or two a year? How often does it come around?
Gary:
So we’ve run seven events already. We started one a year. We did two a year this year, because I’m pivoting to in-person event in Japan. So this year we’re going to have one in-person event in Japan called the Seven Figure Seller Japan Mastermind. It’s all about selling in Japan. This will be in Tokyo in April 4th to 5th. And then we’re gonna have the online seven figure seller summit later this year.
Kevin King:
Cool. So how are you finding it now with these conferences, whether it be an online event, the virtual event like you do, or now you’re taking your first step into in-person events? What I’m seeing out there, is it’s a very saturated market, and what was once easy to get people in, whether it’s free or, or not free or expensive, like my event’s a Billion Dollar Seller Summit. The market is changing and it’s like a turnover right now. Are you seeing that as well?
Gary:
Yes. During the pandemic, it was like e-commerce got like a shot of growth serum in the arm, right? And it was just like a beast. It was just running wild, right? There were so many people, because everybody was confined at home and they had nowhere to go, and everyone was coming online right? Afterwards, I think there was fatigue, right? Because people were sick of being stuck in front of their computers. They wanted to meet up in person. But at the same time, there’s other factors, right? Like plane tickets are high right now, gas prices are high you know, just flights, there’s fewer flights now. I mean, even if you do wanna come to Japan, there’s fewer flights available. So it’s simple supply and demand, right? So the costs are higher. So I do think that ultimately, we have to have some point of differentiation, Kevin. I mean, we can’t just have like the same event we had before. So that’s why I’m pivoting to Japan. I feel that for example, Japan is almost like an untapped marketplace. I mean, it’s the fourth biggest marketplace for Amazon. And almost, I mean, how many people have you had talking about Japan versus like Europe? Right?
Kevin King:
I think Nick Katz has come on the Helium 10 elites, and I think Nick Katz has come on the Helium 10 Elites. And I think I think Denny McMillan did something one time on Helium 10 Elite to, I think he was dabbling with one of his product lights Yes. Or something in Japan. I don’t think he’s doing it anymore, but he, he presented something there. Yeah. But yeah, it’s kind of odd that it’s the fourth biggest market, like he said. And so many people just shy away from it. They go to u to, I mean, it makes sense to go to Canada first for American seller, but then they, they go to Europe and they just skip over Japan, which maybe it’s a language issue, maybe it’s an, a misunderstanding or a cultural issue with a lot of people.
Kevin King:
But there’s so many reasons that you should be looking at Japan. And I think though, but one of the hardest things, just like the Chinese sellers based in Shanghai or Shez or whatever, say it’s, we don’t understand the, the Western culture, what they want we sometimes we’re guessing, I think for, as a western person, it’s similar. You can pretty much know what the Germans or British it’s like variations, but they’re pretty similar in culture. I mean, cuz American culture originated from there. And there’s a mix of that in, in the US it’s kind of a melting pot. But when you go to Japan, it’s a totally different thing. I mean, the way they live is completely different. And their houses are smaller, they’re much more efficient. The appliances are smaller. The thing is just a total different mindset. And I think that’s hard for a lot of westerners to understand. Do you agree with that?
Gary:
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the biggest challenges is not just a language issue, but cultural like what you said, like for example just this wild example just popped in my head. In Japan, we have to separate our trash into like, not just like recyclables, but if you have any boxes, like the Amazon boxes, you can’t just dump them in the trash. You would have to like tear them down, and then you would have to bundle them with like string and then put it in the trash. If you don’t do that properly, like your neighbors will complain and they’re gonna like peer pressure you. And if you don’t clean up your front yard, like literally, like, I didn’t know this when we were leaving Okinawa, like, the neighbors will literally complain because you’re making like, the neighborhood look ugly, right? It’s just like this social pressure. There’s like a lot of these reading between the lines cultural things,
Kevin King:
Like the laundry machine is in the kitchen to do your laundry, it’s like a small little thing like next to the sink. Or something like this. It’s so different. So if you’re selling an appliance in the US and you just try to take that same appliance over to Japan, it’s not gonna work.
Gary:
Yeah. The kitchens are a lot smaller, a lot more compact. I mean, you, and you know, some people, if they’re selling like patio furniture, I mean, if you live in Tokyo, forget about that. I mean, it’s a very different environment. But I’m not saying that you shouldn’t sell in Japan. I mean, there’s ways that you can do product market fit analysis. There’s tools out there like Helium 10 where you can do keyword research, you can look at the competition, and there’s other ways as well, if you wanna into that. But I look at it this way, Kevin. I mean, it’s like there’s all of these barriers that you have to go over, right? So a successful entrepreneur is gonna find a way to go over them, right? So once you go over these barriers, what used to be barriers are now a mote, it’s like a mote against your competition. So everyone else that didn’t wanna go through with those barriers, they’re out and you’re on the inside so you can have the market. So it’s kinda like a blue ocean opportunity. There’s a lot fewer sellers in Japan, maybe because of these reasons.
Kevin King:
And for example, like one of those barriers I think scares a lot of people is importing, you can’t just hire a like a 3PL or just an importer like you can in the US or in Europe. You actually have to have someone that basically signs on your behalf and takes all responsibility or something to that effect. And that’s a barrier for a lot of people. Yeah. And you have to find that person. You gotta trust them. They gotta trust you. That can be a barrier. And then Japanese standards for products are way higher than most places in the world, even probably higher than the us. There’s a lot of high tech involved in almost everything that’s sold there. I mean, you go into sh Shingo or some of the electronic stores or something over in, there’s just amazing stuff.
Kevin King:
You know, that’s actually after I went to Japan yeah, it’s the first time I’ve experienced the, the toilets, the little bidet toilets that they’re everywhere. You don’t need to use toilet paper. And ever since then, I don’t use toilet paper. That’s right. Kevin King does not use toilet paper. When everybody during the pandemic is rushing to get toilet paper. I’m like smiling. I’m good as long as long as I’m in my house. And I hate it now when I’m, when I’m not in my house and I’m traveling and I have to use toilet paper, I’m like, ah, man, because all my toilets in my house here in Austin have those electronic remote controlled bidet. And it’s just the cleanest feeling. It’s just the way to do it, man.
Gary:
Yeah. There you go. There you go.
Kevin King:
I remember I had, I did a party well, I put these in and about 10 years ago or so, and I did like a, I think it was a Christmas party and I had a lot of people over, and there was a line outs. I had a two-story house at the time, and there was a line outside one of the bathrooms, and I’m like, everybody, there’s another bathroom upstairs you don’t have to wait here. You know, six deep in line’s women six deep in line. Yeah. they’re like, no, no, we’re gonna stay right here. I’m like, okay. And I didn’t quite get it. I’m like, all right, your your choice. And then afterwards I found out one of the women came out and they’re like, that is the best toilet I’ve ever had. It’s like, it was warm when I, this was December.
Kevin King:
It was warm when I sat down on it. Yeah. So everybody was waiting in line to try the toilet. But that’s Japan. And you gotta understand some of those idiosyncrasies on how they think and how clean they are. And that that’s a, a problem for some people. So what are some tips? I mean, if you, if you were gonna recommend someone go to Japan, they had some hesitations, what are some things that you would recommend they watch out for, or they, they do to actually increase their chances of success in that market?
Gary:
Definitely. I would say number one I mean, going back to the product market fit analysis definitely use tools like Helium 10, Brand Analytics, or even just searching on Amazon itself.
Kevin King:
So wait, what if I’m using Helium 10 to actually check, am I having to search in Japanese characters or can I search in English and it translates? Or how does that work?
Gary:
The beauty of Amazon Japan is you can search in English. So if you go to Amazon.co.jp, go into the Japanese website, there’s a language toggle, go select English, and then you can type in, let’s say apple watch strap or watch bands, and you’ll get the search results. So they’re gonna be automatically translated into English, right? Then you can grab the ASIN, do a reverse ace search in Helium 10, and then you can get all the keyword research right. And then you can plug in some of those Japanese terms to, to further deep dive. As you know, Kevin, as you know, you’re like the expert on this, right? So that’s the first step, right? Does that make sense?
Kevin King:
Yeah, that makes sense.
Gary:
Yeah. And then all, you can always use I have Google Translate on a side window, so any word you’re not sure about you can Google translate that. You can do Google Sheets. There’s like a little formula hack that you can just like copy and paste all those English and or copy and paste all those Japanese terms in one column, the Google translate formula on the next column, and then just drag them down.
Kevin King:
Yeah. Look for everything that says jp, it’ll translate everything. Yeah.
Gary:
Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So you can get, kind of, get smart. I don’t think we have time to deep dive into like a masterclass on like how to use Helium 10, but use Helium 10 to get started. Ok. I think a lot of people know what we’re talking about. Also one good tip also coming from Nick Katz is you can go to Google image search or YouTube image search and see how people use your product in Japanese. I mean, basically can you find someone like a Japanese person using this product? If you can’t, that’s a good sign. If you can’t, maybe that’s not the right fit. Okay. So that I would say is the first step. How they start selling on Japan, the market fit. After that, then you wanna look at the importing, because Japan can be a lot stricter than Europe when it comes to only certain category of products.
Gary:
Ok. Basically, the four key categories that Japan their regulations are very sensitive about is, number one is supplements. Number two is cosmetics. Number three is medical devices. And number four, this is something different. Okay. Is any plastic product that touches food or drinks, okay. Like, let’s say if you have this cup, like this plastic cup I have in my hand. I know everyone’s listening, but you can’t see it. But imagine plastic cup most times you don’t need to get a compliance tested, let’s say in the states or in Europe. In Japan, any plastic product that comes into contact with, even if it’s like a storage maybe like a storage, liquid storage or like pill, storage box, et cetera. You need that to be compliance tested. Okay. If it’s not one of those four categories, you may be okay, but definitely talk to an importer, a Japanese import of record. You need a Japanese registered company. You cannot just import using US LLC into Japan. You cannot use your foreign entity. Cause the Japanese government wants to have a registered company in Japan or register person in Japan. So for accountability, if something happens, they need able to reach someone. You can’t use a Japanese IOR import of record for them. So those are a couple of quick tips.
Kevin King:
That sounds good. What, what else? Beside, so do your helium 10 research on the keywords, then set up your importing, find your importer that’s local there in Japan. And then what are some other things that you need to look out for or be aware of?
Gary:
Yeah. when it comes to the compliance and testing, be careful about the, the costs. Because in Japan it’s a little bit different because the cost and the requirement of the testing, it depends not only on the size of the product, but also how many different parts there are. So if it’s just a plastic water bottle, it’s this one piece of injected multi plastic, that would be cheaper than if there’s like a separate seal and then there’s a separate lid and a separate additional tab and whatnot, you’ll have to test. Cause each one of those needs to be tested. So that could be a pain in the butt.
Kevin King:
So would the testing has to be by a Japanese testing company, or that could have this tested in China, but someone that they recognize, or how does that work?
Gary:
They have their own accredited testing agencies. So you cannot just use this is something that I didn’t know at first. Cause I thought, okay, I had my kitchen product tested by my laboratory in China. But I checked with an IOR they said, no, it has to be this specific laboratory or this list of laboratories only. They will not just accept any laboratory. It has to be that specific laboratory. So that’s one common misconception. Another common mistake that some sellers make is if you see another seller selling the same product, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to test it, because for Japan, the actual testing requirement is per seller. So even if someone else is selling this exact same product in Japan, it doesn’t matter. You gotta have the license to import it. I mean, you have to have your own product tested.
Kevin King:
So basically, before I ship my thousand water bottles, plastic water bottles in Japan, I’ve gotta take a couple samples, or one of the requirement is send those to the, the Japanese authorized laboratory, let them do their testing. Yes. How long does that usually take? Does that delay everything? Like a, a few days. And do I have to do that for every shipment or just the first shipment?
Gary:
No, you just have to do it for the first the first shipment. You have to get it done. You have to have that test done. It takes time. I mean, it depends on the complexity of the product. I mean, I can’t just give you a ballpark, but I mean, talk to your importer of record. I mean, they’ll be familiar with the different compliance test required they could give you. But you know, once you clear that you’ll be okay to import it.
Kevin King:
Well, I would think you could, the factory in China could make a, a sample that would pass with flying colors and then make some changes to the product on the big shipments so that they, do they come back and spot check from time to time when your shipments come in? Or are they that strict on it? Or that could get, even if you’re not trying to do that, you don’t, you’re not aware with. You’re the, the seller and you do everything right in the beginning and then your factory says, Hey he doesn’t have to know we can change this plastic over here. I’ll never know the difference. And then they ship it in and then you and your importer are record, are on the hook, right?
Gary:
Yeah. Well, I mean, I cannot say you know, how frequent they do check. I mean, I know if we use the US as an example they do sometimes do random spot checks, right? So I would encourage you guys to work with your suppliers to try to keep things honest and not try to like let these things slide. Cause you’ll be reliable if that is the case.
Kevin King:
All right. So it, now as far as selling in Japan, there’s a lot, the PPC costs are a fraction of what they are like in the US just cuz there’s not so many competitors, right?
Gary:
And yeah, PPC costs will be lower. So that’s one big advantage. There’s also lower levels of competition. I believe there were only about 170,000 sellers in Japan. I mean, compared to Europe, there’s, I mean UK, Germany, there’s like 300,000, 400,000 us. There’s over 1.2 million.
Kevin King:
Yeah. They’re active. There’s like three or 4 million registered that have actually sold something in the last year.
Gary:
Yeah. Yeah. So I mean the competition also will be weaker because many of them are Chinese sellers. And I don’t mean to stereotype anyone, but many of those listings are not very well made. So we can talk about about that as well. But the level competition would be lower. And one of the cool parts is if you’re already selling in the US or already selling in Europe, and let’s say your product has 500-1000 reviews, you can move those reviews into Japan. You can instantly you can move all of them. So even from day one with zero sales history, you can get off to like a headstart with like 500 reviews. Right? And that will lower your PPC costs. Cause you have social proof, right? You already have 500 reviews. Cause I find that in Japan, the people that buy on, the shoppers, they’re more sensitive to the number of reviews, not just the review score, right? So if you have a lot of reviews, and also the review threshold in Japan is a lot lower than the US than in Europe. So if you bring those over into Japan, you could be the seller with like more reviews than the top 10 competitors combined, right? I mean, mean depending on how successful you are,
Kevin King:
How gracious are the Japanese, and actually even reviews like Germans, they’ll leave a review if the product sucks. But to get ’em to leave a positive review is fairly difficult, just culturally. What about in Japan? Are they like very willing to leave reviews and help other people out? Or is it kinda like pulling teeth to get them to leave a review?
Gary:
In my experience, I did get reviews for my new product that I launched a year ago. Back then we had the Vine program. So we use Vine to get the initial reviews. But in general, I mean, they, they will leave reviews and can also have the follow up, like the reminder that that option. I believe Helium offers that as well. So you’ll get reviews. There are other marketing strategies as well. There is a like the number one app in Japan is an app called Line. So we do have you know, there’s ways you can use Line for like part inserts to get more reviewed as well. But obviously in white hats I’m not advocating incentivized reviews. You can do like coupons you know, build an audience, build a list.
Kevin King:
Oh, Rakuten is one of the big platforms. I mean, they’re, they’re small player in the us but in Japan they’re huge. How does Amazon compare to Rakuten?
Gary:
So historically, Rakuten was the biggest e-commerce market, but Amazon overtook them recently. So they’re about neck and neck. And Amazon is a little bit further ahead right now. Rakuten, I believe it’s more strong electronics and their interface is very Japanese. It’s like, there’s details and numbers and you images everywhere. It’s very different. But from my perspective in Japan, I’ve seen Amazon’s a lot more prevalent. We’ll see like the Amazon delivery boxes, there’s like those lockers and you know, they put them in front of like Japanese pharmacies, like to Metro station, convenience stores like 7-Elevens family March, there’s like the you know, the Amazon, the drop off area. So it’s, it’s very prevalent. And even in Tokyo here we have same day delivery. You know, I can order in the morning, I’ll get my stuff shipped in the evening there it’s very prevalent.
Gary:
So yeah, I mean I was buying a, a new tv you know, when I moved into my apartment a couple weeks ago, right? So I went to the, the biggest electronic shop big camera. And then they were sold out of the model that I wanted. I’m like so I just pulled up my phone. I found it on Amazon, I showed the sales guy and then he kind of just said if you were me, if I were you, I would just order it off of Amazon. And this is coming from the competitor, right? So, cuz Amazon, I mean, it’s just their whole logistics and you know, the delivery, the warehousing, I believe they have a couple dozen warehouses across Japan. I mean Japan geographically obviously is not as big as the States, right? Think I think it’s about the same size of UK. But the population is a lot more concentrated than UK. So they’re able to have very fast deliveries in Japan.
Kevin King:
Tokyo is, I think the biggest city in the world. 30 some odd million people, I think in the metro area.
Gary:
Yeah. But Tokyo has like, I think 40 different prefectures. So I think of different districts and you know, I I commute like 30 minutes downtown, so, but yeah, I mean the reach is everywhere. I mean, Amazon, they deliver all the way to the southern islands to Okinawa I could order like a projector and like a big TV screen for movie night when I live down Okinawa can get everything on Amazon.
Kevin King:
And then Japan, there’s about, what about a hundred? It’s like twice the size of the UK. I think the UK is somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 million and Japan’s what about 120,
Gary:
I believe 126 million ish. And it’s the third biggest economy in the world. A lot of people forget that. I mean there’s, it’s huge.
Kevin King:
Yeah. It’s definitely huge and crowded, but it’s super efficient. I mean, just super, super efficient to get anywhere and to do anything.
Gary:
All the trains run like really like minutes. Like everything’s on the minute, right? And
Kevin King:
People are, and they’re on time. I mean, there, there’s a guy conductor there, like blowing his whistle or whatever, like get on, get on, like get this train moving. You we’re leaving in 10 seconds or whatever. And there’s like a countdown, like, get your butt on. And there’s like vending machines like everywhere. I mean, you can get a hot soup out of a vending machine that actually tastes good. And it’s a different world that, that’s for sure. But a very modern place. But also a lot of old traditions, a lot of old school traditions and everything. And always, when I was in Japan, I’d see people on the subway texting and I’m like, how, how the heck are they it’s two, whatever the number is, 2000 characters or whatever it is in Japanese language.
Kevin King:
Like, how the heck are they like pulling from a database of 200,000 characters. And it would amaze me like the safety there. You know, people would fall asleep on the train, on the subways with their phone on their lap. Yeah. You know, and not worry about it. If you did that in New York City, that phone would be gone in a New York minute as they say. I mean, so understanding these kinds of things is part of, it’s important. With that in mind if you’re gonna try to sell in Japan, I would not just do it from afar. I would get your butt on a plane and actually get to Japan and experience it firsthand for yourself, cuz it’s just gonna open your eyes to so many things. And a great way to do that is what you’re creating right now is the, the Japanese in-person summit in Tokyo. So walk me through what that’s gonna be like. I know you got some Western people coming over to do some talks. You got Amazon participating, you got Jeff Cohen from Amazon’s flying over from Seattle. You know that there’s some big wigs coming to your, your event. Yeah. So what are you guys gonna be doing at this event? Can you kind of paint the picture for me of how the event’s gonna unfold?
Gary:
Definitely, yeah, definitely. So this is going to be the first ever Amazon conference held in Japan. I mean, ever, even in there hasn’t been a Japanese language one either. So this is really the first time ever we’re gonna have an event in Japan. It’s gonna be a two day conference for Amazon sellers. Let’s say you’re already selling US or EU if you wanna enter the marketplace. You know, we’ve some case sellers selling up to about one year time, like a US brand entering Japan. So that’s our main goal in this two day event. It’s gonna be filled with Masterclass masterminds. Amazon is speaking at the event. We talked with Amazon. They’re interested in pushing Japan as an important marketplace this year. So that’s why we’re super fortunate that they’re, they’re coming, they’ll be speaking to you guys. We also have a number of eight figure Amazon Japan sellers, seven figure Amazon Japan sellers sharing what’s working right now, their strategies.
Gary:
It’s very different for Japan culturally and also strategically, right? And also have a number of service providers. So I’m not meeting like service providers that are gonna try to be like spammy and sell and sell you stuff because I’ve handpicked based on my own experience all the different pieces of the puzzles you need to sell in Japan. So we’ll have, if you have a question about the import of record talk to that guy over there. Maybe you have a question about compliance testing. You know, talk to that lady right here. If you have a question about Japan PPC you know, talk to talk to Ritu. You know, Ritus gonna be here, right? So basically in this two day event, you’re gonna be able to accelerate into jumpstart your Japan sales that that’s the main goal for the event.
Gary:
And then beyond that cultural things like Kevin loves Kove beef, right? I wish Kevin could make it this year. That would’ve been awesome. Hopefully you’ll join us next time. We’re gonna have a social Japanese bar restaurant or we, I’ll get a flavor very hip neighborhood in like the center of Tokyo. So be in the middle of all the action getting a flavor of that. The pre-event reception, the first night after the full day conference, the mastermind, it’s gonna be cherry blossom season. So to be honest, the plane tickets are a little bit pricey. One of the reasons why is cause everybody wants to come to visit Japan right now in April, because that’s when the cherry blossoms will be in full bloom. So we’re going to deliver an experience, a cherry blossom networking social, like out in a Tokyo Park in the evening, we’re gonna lay down spreads with Japanese sakes, whiskeys, good food, good company talking to the other sellers, talking to the speakers. I mean, you can’t get this experience anywhere else in the world besides Japan. And you’re gonna learn and build connections. And then the last night after day two conference, we’re gonna have karaoke. You can’t leave Japan without doing karaoke. Right? That’s true. The Japanese invented karaoke. So you can channel your like Bill Murry Scarlet Johansen translation moment. This on a high no. And yeah, that’s the Japan mastermind that we’re doing this time figure seller or Japan Mastermind in Tokyo.
Kevin King:
And it’s not expensive either to come. I mean, pretty fair price. You got a good hotel, I think that’s really close to where you’re holding the event. So it, if someone was interested, I know it’s last minute for a lot of people, but if you have some miles to burn or you’re close, maybe you’re listening to this and you’re close by or, or even if you’re not close by it, maybe it’s probably worth a flight over to actually check this event out. Because like he said, it’s the first of any type of this kind of. Do you have Japanese speaking sellers coming as well? Maybe they speak Japanese and English. Do you that are based in Japan or is it just all Western?
Gary:
It’s mostly English speaking sellers. So we have sellers coming from the us, from Australia, from Europe. We have some Korean sellers coming up or you know, we’re promoting to the Korean FDA community as well. And we have sellers coming from like Thailand, digital nomad from Bali. So it would be a very unique mix. It’s not like the same crowd that you may see at some of the other events. And also the speakers, so many of them are speakers you probably have never seen before. And you know, we also were very privileged Bradley Sutton is coming our friend Bradley.
Kevin King:
The old sumo wrestler, Japanese sumo wrestler, Bradley Sutton.
Gary:
We’ll see if you can demonstrate some moves maybe at the after party. And it’s gonna be great. And yeah, hopefully you guys can join us.
Kevin King:
We have Ritu coming too. And Ritu actually won the billion dollar seller summit. She did an amazing presentation on ChatGPT tied to Google Sheets, tied to PPC. It just blew everybody’s mind. And she lived in Japan for like, and speaks the language like for 16 years or something like that. So to have someone like that coming is, is pretty good. So you’re not playing around with any of the speakers or anything. If I wanted to come to the event, it’s not too late, right? There’s still a few spots left. And how would I go about finding out more and getting a ticket?
Gary:
Yes. we still have some spots left where you can get your ticket at 7figuresellerjapanmastermind.com, and then you can get your ticket. And I think the, the pricing we’ve done everything we can to make it as affordable as possible for our first event. So you’ll be getting two days of masterclass. There’s gonna be two masterminds and Amazon’s gonna be speaking. You’ll get also coffee breakout sessions. You’ll get two lunches. And where this actually includes the pre-event reception, which will include dinner and drinks for three hours. I think for some people they’ll get the value from that.
Kevin King:
Bento box lunches.
Gary:
Yeah, it’s gonna be bento box lunches. So there’ll be meat, there’ll be seafood and vegetarians. So we’re trying to make sure this will be good for everybody. And then yeah, I hope you guys can join us. This will be the, you guys will be part of the first movers. Cause nobody’s ha has done an Amazon conference in Japan before. Very few people are selling in Japan. You know, I polled, our audience up about 33 sellers that filled out the survey. Only one person was selling in Japan. I mean, more people were selling in like, like even like Poland or those obscure countries. So, come on guys, this is, it’s kinda ridiculous. Nobody’s selling in Japan. So I think this is a perfect opportunity for the right seller to
Kevin King:
Where do you think it’s this Amazon Japan is gonna go? Do you think it’s gonna have a big growth spur or just slowly keep growing? Well where do you see it? Do you think it’ll overtake the UK as far as sales go and move up to third place in the next couple years? Or where do you see it going?
Gary:
I think it’s pretty close to UK and you know, we mentioned earlier the Japanese is very weak right now. I think it’s at a historic three or 40 year low. So that means that things are cheaper here in Japan. So if you come to Japan right now, you might be pleasantly surprised cause it’s not as expensive as people think. So, I mean, but back to your question, Kevin, if the yen does rebound and we see the continued Amazon growth in Japan, I do think it will reclaim the number three spot. So yeah, I mean, and people in Japan, they’re, they’re on their phones all the time and people are shopping. Yeah. And it’s coming outta Covid it’s pretty back to normal. You know, people still wear masks. I think it’s just culturally people wear masks just because of like pollen allergies here with the flower season, et cetera.
Kevin King:
Well, Japanese are very courteous anyway. If, if someone’s got a sneeze or before Covid, this is years before covid. If you, if you had a sneeze or whether it’s allergy or maybe anything, the Japanese as a courtesy to their other fellow Japanese would, will wear a mask. And that was so odd to when Americans were forced to wear a mask, they were fighting at tooth and nail when Japanese voluntarily do it to protect their fellow man.
Gary:
Yeah, that, that’s right. If you have a cold or if you have like a cough, people just mask up and that’s like the, the social norm here.
Kevin King:
Yeah. It, it’s such a polite culture as well. I mean, everything is when you do something, it’s two hands to give you back your credit card. You know, if you go to China and there’s, if you got a lineup in a queue, forget it. You know, if a new airline desk opens you know, everybody’s waiting in line to check in or something at the airline and new you know, they open up a second desk to alleviate some of the line I mean, sorry, in China, you people pushing each other to get outta the way to get to the front of the line. And Japan, that’s not the case. Everybody will politely say, you’re next. You go over there, you go over there and you go over here and slowly walk over and there’s no problems.
Kevin King:
It’s that, it’s that kind of culture, you know? And yes, the anime, the what’s that area? Harajuku. Every weekend people can do cosplay and stuff there. It’s just cool just to go and Yes. And see, it’s a fascinating place and there’s some day trips, so if you make it over for your, your event, the seven figure Japanese summit, if you make it over for that, make, add some extra time so that you can actually take some of the detours out out of Tokyo. There’s some really cool stuff you can do on a train that’ll get you there in no time. There’s some really cool temple complexes up in the mountains. There’s on the geishas. Yeah. Yeah, the geishas. You can go over to Kyoto on the bullet train. It’s what, a couple hours or something and experience Kyoto. Yeah, there’s on scenes, which are like outdoor baths. I mean it’s hot springs, hot springs. Yeah.
Gary:
They have like the natural, the natural hot springs. It’s, it’s like a phenomenon. It’s, yeah, it’s amazing. I mean, Kevin knows all about it. I really wish you were coming this year, Kevin. I mean, it would’ve been awesome to, but yeah, it’s.
Kevin King:
Well, I’m just trying to tell people don’t be afraid to go to Japan and this is a perfect opportunity to put two things together and have a total write off on your trip. Yeah, exactly. Is by going to an event like this. And like you said, you’ll be in on the exactly on the ground floor. And I do think it’s gonna continue to get better. And like you said, Amazon and they have brand managers specializing in bringing you to Japan. So I, I get emails all the time on one of my accounts saying, Hey this is Bob Smith or whatever at Amazon. We’d love to have you help you take your products to, to Japan. We’ll give you a bunch of PPC credits. We’ll do this, we’ll do that. So there’s people Amazon’s willing to, to help you as well along the way.
Gary:
Yeah, that’s right. Because, and Amazon is gonna be here, so Jeff Cohen’s gonna be here. We’re also talking with Amazon Japan. We’re trying to get some of their staff to be here. So maybe that relationship can open a door to get like a brand manager to help you with additional promotions. You know, maybe with those like you know, additional sales I think that that’s an additional benefit. And you can do on the ground market research here in Japan, right? So you can go to, like, if you’re in toys, you can go to a Japanese toy store, you can find out exactly what people are buying. You can look in touch and see what the competition is like price points what’s hot, what’s not. You know, just that market research opportunity, right? I mean, that’s like a whole nother level than trying to do everything remotely. I mean, no disrespect to Helium 10, but being here live in the flesh. That’s totally different. Right? And, and the other thing is you can write this off as a business expense cause it’s a legitimate business conference. And you’ll be doing market research. I mean, I’m not, obviously I’m not a tax, don’t consider this as, but I mean it is a business trip, right?
Kevin King:
Even if you decide in the end that, hey, I’m not gonna go, I’m not gonna sell in Japan at this moment, you’re gonna get a ton of ideas of products that you may be able to take as is and bring ’em to the US. Or slightly modify for us or, or European taste that nobody else is gonna see. You’re not gonna see a lot of this stuff at the trade fairs in China or any anything else. You’re gonna see it just in Japan. Cuz Japan still manufactures quite a bit of their own stuff as well. It’s not all coming from China. So there’s a lot of innovation happening in Japan.
Gary:
Yeah. They do have made in Japan type products. I mean, I just not like super prevalent, but the Japanese really, I mean, they see me in Japan, they tend to favor that because it’s homegrown. Right. And yeah, you’re you’re totally on point, Kevin. You’re totally on point.
Kevin King:
Well, awesome. Gary, this has been very informative and we could sit here and talk about Japan probably and tell stories for quite some time. But I hope I know it’s a short window here but I hope a few of you maybe can, can make it over there. So I think it, it’ll be worth a trip. If not hopefully Gary will be doing another one of these. Like he said, he is trying to do one a year and try to put that on your calendar for for next year or be looking out for that. And also be sure to check out his Seven Figure Seller Summit when that comes around. Probably what, like August or September or something like that.
Gary:
Yeah, we’re planning for August.
Kevin King:
Make sure you check that out cuz that’s always a great event. Brings together a lot of really good speakers. So Gary, if people want to find out more or reach out to you or ask you a few questions or something about anything that you’re up to how would they do that?
Gary:
Yeah, they can email me at [email protected]. So that’s my name.
Kevin King:
Awesome. Well, I appreciate you joining us on the AM/PM Podcast and look forward to talking to you again sometime soon.
Gary:
Awesome. Thanks so much, Kevin, for having us and hope to see you in Japan soon. And yeah, it’s been amazing here today.
Kevin King:
Thanks, man. I really wish I was able to make Gary’s event. It looks like a fascinating event, but I have a scheduled conflict and I’m not able to make it over there, but if you’re able to do it, I know it’s last minute, that would be a great investment, especially if you’re serious about exploring the Japanese market or just to experience another culture that’s really, really cool. I know he’s given away a discount as like a $400 discount on the ticket. The code to get that 400 bucks off if you’re able to make it over there is 7FS-H10, like he 10, so 7FS-H10. I’ll get you 400 bucks off the $1,500 ticket and help you help you out. But Japan is an awesome place to go.
Kevin King:
Somewhere that I’m looking actually into taking our sustainable brand. I think it’ll go over really well. We’re actually creating some specific products for that marketplace. So I think it’s an untapped market and a great opportunity for those of you looking to expand. And I know some of you might be uncomfortable with going into Japan or it may be a little daunting or scary for you, but that kind of goes in with this week’s final words of advice. It can often be to your advantage to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s right. It’s time to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and see what happens. We’ll see you again next week.
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