Many sellers know Japanese markets are famous for its particular and high quality demand.

So they said, when they deal with Japanese buyers, they quote higher price, it seems they would earn big profits on that order, but finally, they found it left little profits. Because Japanese buyers are very particular about the quality and every detail, including all kinds of safety certificate requirements. They inspect the goods very strict, and the goods have to be remade or improved again and again before delivery.

 

I knew this fact many years ago. But I didn’t have so many chances to deal with Japanese buyers.So I don’t exclude Japanese buyers, because I feel they are serious and cautious. But this is good business attitude.

 

One month ago, I got to know a Japan buyer.

At the beginning, he asked me to source some electronic products.

 

He also sincere said,
“Do not worry, we will place order. And we have no intention to use you as an info desk (we do not know anybody in China). We want to work with you with many projects and hope that you can be a good sourcing agent for us. We would like to have mutual and 'long term' business relationship.”

 

 

Because one of the main products we handl are electronic products. So it is easy for me to source these items. I provided him with all the information he needed immediately, he agreed the prices, confirm the order quantity and other details. But we had the problem with the payment way. He wanted to pay by paypal, but we didn’t have paypal account, so I suggested him to pay to my Australia associate’s paypal account.

When we solve the paypal problem, he cancelled the order due to some reasons.

He said as follows:

“This has nothing to do with payment, or your reputation/references. As i said, the pen are of good quality, but trouble with FM. May be the wire system, or the many mountainous parts of cities in Japan is causing trouble regarding FM reception signals. But in the end, customers were not happy, even tough the mp3 was working very well. So please, your reputation is not at stake here. Just trying to look for something else, that we could do in the next step to break the ice.”

 

He asked me to recommend him other products we sell, he will check the possibilities of the cooperation. I provided him with some more products. And he chose one model- aluminum laptop tables. He is very glad to see such a useful product. So when we went further some details, he found he has the problem with the Japan customs about this product. Japan customs ask 22% tax when buyers import home furniture. He found little profits to import them.

He felt awkard, as he didn’t want to waste my time again. And he really wanted to start the cooperation with me on some projects. He felt I am a reliable person to deal with and I think I gave him the good impression.

 

I continued to offer him some more nice items including the fashion laptop bags. He and his partner are quite interested in them and also worked on this product hard.

 

I reminded him about any safety certificate of the bags required.

At that time, he didn’t realize it would be a big hamper due to the certificate. We went further and further. he finally chose the designs after he visited some customers. When we finally settle the sampling order, he said to me as follows:

“A medium size wholesaler and few shops told my wife that they would not be interested in no certification products. According to them, non certified goods have "no commercial value" and no market potential here in Japan, and no responsible shop or wholesaler would even try to handle non certified goods. The same is for toys, consumers electronics, shoes..... except few areas.”

 

 

And my business partner told me to give up Japan markets. He said, although the buyer may be willing to pay to get the safety certificate. But they are quite particular about every detail. It will give you a lot of troubles, it will spend you many times and efforts, even you will lose money at last.

 

I just felt depressed. This is not about I work in vain after so many efforts and times, but the problem is that I found it is so hard to sell to Japan markets, even I tried my best to cooperate. Even I sell to USA, UK, France, it is still much easier than sell to Japan.

 

Maybe someday I will sell to Japan markets successfully and smoothly when I am ready!

Quoting from [herolight]:

Quoting from [lesley li]:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A long but thought-provoking letter . we spend lots of time and efforts  to meeting every potential customer ,but sometimes only a point has not  reach a agreement ,the order will be nothing and disappeared soon .

At this time . i believe all of us will be depressed .sometimes ,i always have a impulse to give up my job .but when i keep calm ,i think it just a simple  process to change me to  be maturity .

Never say give up .smile to every day ,every person ,every setback !best wishes for you and me .

Hi, yes. I like your sentence of  "sometimes only a point has not  reach a agreement ,the order will be nothing and disappeared soon".

Doing foreign business is quite like the fact that I just installed the teeth correction tools in my mouth, everyday I want to give it up, it looks ugly when I smile and talk in public, it is also inconvenient for eating. But I choose to go on when i keep calm and think it will be good for my better future life.

Anyway, cheer up and keep moving and moving!

Quoting from [herolight]:

Quoting from [lesley li]:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A long but thought-provoking letter . we spend lots of time and efforts  to meeting every potential customer ,but sometimes only a point has not  reach a agreement ,the order will be nothing and disappeared soon .

At this time . i believe all of us will be depressed .sometimes ,i always have a impulse to give up my job .but when i keep calm ,i think it just a simple  process to change me to  be maturity .

Never say give up .smile to every day ,every person ,every setback !best wishes for you and me .

too long, hard to read , i think need a japnanese guy give some advise to us

Quoting from [john5]:

Quoting from [hellojasmine]:

You are right. A lot of  research are required before start to do something, or it waste time and efforts only! 

But I think my situation is a little different. If I work as a trading company, I should have known which countries I can sell my goods properly. But I work as a sourcing agency, when the buyers come to me, they inform what they looked for, and we help to source or to handle.

The main problem of this story is my Japan buyer didn't know his market well, he never import from China, but I was happy to help him to start the import when he told me this.

In fact, the profit is not bad if we can work with any Japan buyers. But they require really good quality and many kinds of certificates required. So many factories don't past the inspection and need to reproduces or improved. Thus the factories complaint that no profits leave.

I don't have any special products to sell to Japan, because I work as a sourcing agency, we contact many kinds of products almost everyday.

I am also interested to export the goods to CA if the products we are handling fit for you.

If you are interested in, pls contact me. My website is there.

We are kind of a source agent too. We help our Japanese customers find manufacturers in Canada and then make some samples to see which one they like and choose the supplier to deal with.


I found that many Japanese business man are stubborn, don't listen and they expect a lot  from agents.  If there are problems with anything. They expect us to solve it even if the problem is cause by their mistake.


We did import some candles from China for our client before.  But, the company we dealt with didn't told us that they used an agent in HK and that person used an agent in China.... therefore, our price end up too high to sell in Canada and we lost our big order in Canada and the potential big order in Japan too. Then, we had to discontinue the candle business.


For our Garment export, we are starting to use more and more fabric made in China.


But, currently we just ask our manufacturer here to order it for us.  Probably in the future our customer will ask us to order from China directly to cut cost.


I'll keep your contact info in case we needed in the future.




 

you guys teach me  a lot. i am going to start my japanese market. But still there are lots of problem ahead, and the language is the monster.   i know that lots of chinese friends can speak Japanese. but for me , it is brand new.  I want to learn from books and japanese cartoons , movies.  tough work. but i want to ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say it is too long for me.

it is hard to do business with japanese. But it is also a challenge for us. We will have a precise mind and good service after working with them. 

 

Quoting from [Jessica_001]:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say it is too long for me.

it is hard to do business with japanese. But it is also a challenge for us. We will have a precise mind and good service after working with them. 

 

Doing business in Japan is not hard, but doing business with Chinese partners is getting harder. There is an issue call "Trust" and it has never recovered since the Dumpling and Milk Powder issue.....

Dear Madam!!

I have reviewed your article.

Now I'm looking for reliable good partner which is also able to supply brand strollers to Korea.

If you are interested in and able to supply these models with reasonable price, please contact me anytime.

I'm Insoo Choi and living in South Korea.

I'm much interested in purchasing the Quinny Zapp, Buzz model and StokkeXploryas a wholesaler.

So I would like to know whether you are available for supply this model wholesale price or not.

If you possible, I would like to know a few things for trading with you as follows,

- MOQ just for Three Wheel Type only for Quinny Model and 2008 or 2009

- Unit price for MOQ

- Payment Term (Advance / Balance)

- Payment Method : PAYPAL or Escrow(Prefer) or T/T(30% deposit and 70% balance)

- Shipping Term

- Included accessory

- Estimated Shipping Fee at Incheon port, South Korea : by Air

- Estimated Lead Time : by Air

- Have you been experienced for trading with any Korean company?

If you have any interest, please contact me at mireapa78@hotmail.com

Best Regards,

Insoo Choi

wa, so long

I am sorry ! beacuse i want to say that i can not speak English .so i should study from you and all people form ALIBABA
I just improve my ENGLISH thank you very much

Although it's a little long to read, it's a good story .

About the Japan Market, too many unknown , at least it's for me.

 

As  far  as  i  am  concerned,if  your  products  have  high  quality  and  the  resonable  price,it  will  not  be  hard  to  sell  to  Japan.

Best  wishes!