Japanese pop culture webshop!

[slazor]

Me and some friends are planning on starting a webshop and are doing some research on what people want.
If you are interested in anime, manga and other related items.

Please consider filling out the survey for some discounts and offers when everything goes live:

http://bit.ly/mFodGw

*Feel free to leave comments below.

 

[cwstjdenobs]

All I'm going to say is this. All of the sites you link to are terrible. Most merchandise e-shops are either horribly cluttered, ugly, impossible to use, or all three. Try not to emulate another merchandise site, especially a Japanese one, and base it in Europe. I love the stuff you'd be wanting to sell but absolutely hate the sites that sell it. Find a really good e-shop site, one you really like that's not too complex, and try and work out how you could make that type of store front model work with your product range.

Just my 2 cents.

EDIT: They may be great shops, but crap sites. Just clarifying.

 

[doyama]

Yeah Japanese sites seem to be stuck in the old ICQ days of 'throw enough shit and moving images on the wall and see what sticks' mentality. I can read Japanese and navigating a typical site is an exercise in massive frustration.

The thing is play-asia.com already does a pretty good job of this. You need to look at your competition in this area and see how they are doing. You've listed a few sites but there are a lot more that do what you are looking at and have massive inventories. You need to widen your net to see what's out there and how you can differentiate yourself from them.

 

[Miss Panda]

Yeah Japanese sites seem to be stuck in the old ICQ days of 'throw enough shit and moving images on the wall and see what sticks' mentality. I can read Japanese and navigating a typical site is an exercise in massive frustration.

The thing is play-asia.com already does a pretty good job of this. You need to look at your competition in this area and see how they are doing. You've listed a few sites but there are a lot more that do what you are looking at and have massive inventories. You need to widen your net to see what's out there and how you can differentiate yourself from them.

Play-asia is no good for me the import VAT is to high. If the there were a decent EU based shop I would be delighted.

 

[boktor666]

You should first get into the pop culture itself, learn what's going on in Japan. Then, take notes.. Select products etc, and THEN plan the site, build and stuff.

 

[slazor]

You should first get into the pop culture itself, learn what's going on in Japan. Then, take notes.. Select products etc, and THEN plan the site, build and stuff.

Thanks for the tip, but we have a few years of experience in it already. We just want to get a better understanding on what people want the most in Europe (and the rest of the western world for that matter).

We recently returned from Japan where we did some preparations and some of the things you just said.


@cwstjdenobs
I also agree that none of those websites are particularly good. What we want to know is basically what "features" could possibly be well received over here.

Keep 'Em Coming. All your thoughts and ideas are very much appreciated.

 

[Mazor]

Representing myself and a few people I know who would be likely to buy from you if you get this launched, I would say prices are undoubtedly what matters most. If having a flashy website will lead to increased prices to make up for the cost of developing and maintaining it, it's definitely a really bad trade-off.

Me and the people I know have used Hobbysearch and Hobbylink and all think their sites are just fine, it doesn't really make much of a difference to us and I don't think it does to most other people either. As long as it's clear how to find what you want and make an order, it's fine.

Again, my advice is to aim for having low prices above everything else. If you're looking to create a long-term business, having extra cheap prices initially might be a good idea. It will get you many customers who are then much likelier to purchase from you again if there's a bit of a general price increase than they would be had they not already bought something from you.