Kidson Talks | The E-commerce Chemist

Well I had my email for my order, so I thought in the interest of education I would post the translation:

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Email this email is important for your order.
Please save your transaction to complete.
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[Your ship date] September 03, 2010
Estimated Delivery Days: 4 ~ 5 days from date of shipment
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[Destination] Hitchins Elizabeth-like
? *******my address here ************
(TEL) **********
The Products
Komon ?? wearing trousers made in Japan visiting graduation ceremony kimono black plum kimono embroidered collar half the original garden beauty Tate Hazime washable kimono (sberi02y-01)
Embroidery Color: A: Plums
1000 Price (yen) x 1 (each) = 1000 (yen) (excluding tax, shipping separate)
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Komon ?? wearing trousers made in Japan visiting graduation ceremony kimono embroidered kimono cherry red neck wash half the original beauty of the garden pottery Tate Hazime (sberi09y-02)
Embroidery Color: B: Cherry Blossoms
1000 Price (yen) x 1 (each) = 1000 (yen) (excluding tax, shipping separate)
************************************************** **************
The number one destination (offers)
2 total items (pieces)
Total 2000 commodity prices (yen)
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Subtotal 2000 (Yen)
VAT 0 (Yen)
Shipping 1800 (Yen)
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3800 Total (Yen)
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As you can see the important information is translated well, my details for the order – what I ordered and most importantly how much shipping I am going to pay and the total. And the crazy translations always give you a giggle! Now I shall wait for my order

Writers have always tried to document and pigeon hole the youth tribes of the moment, and reading a Sunday paper style magazine recently pandered to that exact point. However, this article struck me a little bit more than usual. Out of about 8 described ‘youth tribes’ 3 were influenced directly by Japanese culture, music and street fashion.

These youth tribes had reported distinct fascinations with the tea ceremony, geisha culture, j-rock, visual kei and of course the ever documented gothic/sweet Lolita.

I am probably now at 30 edging out of the ‘youth tribe’ sector but I know this, when you are part of a youth tribe or alternative group you strive for uniqueness within your circle.

With Japanese street fashion and culture influencing the mood on the streets of UK cities the launch of a direct pipeline to Japanese retailers is online purse candy! KAWAII!!!! I hear you scream…

I have an exhaustible and mostly inexcusable passion for vintage kimono, authentic geisha make up and Lolita clothing which brought me to shopping directly with Japanese online shops around 4 years ago. Unfortunately, it seemed at the time that the best outlets were all Japanese and shopping was restricted to those with an English offering.

It was during my kimono hunting when I came across Rakuten for the first time. I have to admit it was daunting but the pull of the Aladdin’s cave was too great for me not to open sesame.

Before I delve into how to find all of this glorious treasure, I will highlight a few basics when shopping.

Shipping:

Rakuten orders are shipped via EMS, a very fast and traceable postal service. A top or item around 300g will cost approximately £11-12 (1500 yen) and something the weight of a kimono (about 800g) will cost around £18-20 (2400 yen)

As items are shipped from outside the EU you will be bound to pay customs duty and VAT dependant on the total cost of your order. I won’t bore you with the details, but you can find more information here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/buying.htm

Rakuten is a marketplace made up of different shops and each charges their own shipping fee. However, Rakuten do have a ‘combined shipping’ option handled by Tenso.com. I prefer to pay each seller individually as it is less complicated.

There is a shipping cost calculator at the base of each Rakuten item listing but it requires you to enter the shipping weight. I find often that the shipping weight is not included in seller’s listings so you will need to ask the question.

I have found using the Google translator quite effective, as well as apologising if the email does not make sense. When you do use an electronic translation service, please use basic English.

Payment:

Using a credit card with fraud liability is always advisable, normally after you submit payment the seller will email you the total cost with shipping charges before your card is charged. Rakuten charge your card and not the seller. To avoid nasty surprises it is best to ask the shipping weight prior to payment, but if you know the approximate weight of the item you are buying you can predict the cost. Communication will be in Japanese, so have your translator handy!

Now the fun part, finding what you want!

The Japanese language is very different to ours, so I tend to stick with keywords and not phrases when searching, and also try the English and Kanji.

The kimono section has a handy front page designed to help you navigate to the items you need but not all sections have this. I find it best to navigate to the closest category before searching.
Here are some basic Lolita keywords:

Here are some basic Lolita keywords:

I normally take the simple names and couple them with either a colour:

Or a garment type:

*please see attached PDF for the Kanji to copy and paste as my database sucks apparently…

Combining both can be hit and miss at times due to the nature of the Japanese language but the best part about Rakuten is the range of items available. So go ahead and spend a little time browsing!

Let’s have an example I want a loli dress so I navigate to the dresses category:

And I have decided to use the English term Lolita to see what I find.

Bingo, I find a sold out cute dress but more importantly a seller ‘FunkyFruit’ in the search results:

For me, finding and bookmarking sellers that you find on Rakuten is essential, I can now browse the wonderful goodies this seller has. As a UK size 12-14 gal, I always opt for the larger sizes when shopping for clothes, as the average Japanese women is shorter and thinner than her European counterpart.

I have recently registered properly with Rakuten so I can rack up the ‘points’. A point equals 1 yen and I have just brought some han-eri and received 20 points. It’s a small points system, but equal to that of most supermarket reward schemes in the UK (1% cash back)

So this Christmas, find your loved ones something unique on Rakuten!

Oh dear, well pulled in by their points scheme finally I have registered on Rakuten and grabbed two han -eri (kimono half collars) from a seller So-Bien

Registering has made my purchase flow on Rakuten quicker and smoother, something that will help me empty my bank account each month I am sure.

However, things are going to get worse. On the 9th Sept, like with their Australian offering – Rakuten is going to have a specific UK site to tailor more towards the needs of the UK shopping entity. Hold on to your purses people.

This recession is forcing small unique bricks and mortar shops that import from places like Japan to either move on-line or close. The Japanese economy thrives on export so it is only natural that they start hitting the UK shores.

Kimono-wise Rakuten gives me more options, there are a few good online stores with an English site (well 3) and also I buy from around 3 or 4 eBay sellers. But I do find myself hunting for things month on month as I can’t get them through those outlets. However, Rakuten opens up Japan for me so I can find the items on my kimono shopping list at the right prices.

So, what’s the future? Are marketplaces like Rakuten going to take our money out of our own economy? In the first place I would say yes, but if a marketplace is successful in a country they will also look for home-grown consultants and employees to support the success of the site.

With Japanese culture having a profound effect on the youth of today through Manga, Anime, fashion and fascination we shall see changes. Trade is a two way animal, many a time I have shipped my hairpieces to Japan so the Japanese on-line shoppers are looking at us too.

Watch out for more info and blogging on Rakuten nearer the launch!

Well it means a lot of work for companies like Channeladvisor. Channeladvisor already has the functionality to work with eBay immediate payment which bypasses the CA checkout and the sales are imported after the fact. I imagine this is going to be the norm for such systems after June 2011.

The issues I see at first glance is with shipping. eBay doesn’t let you be so bespoke with shipping methods as a checkout like Channeladvisor, eBay recently opened up to account for non mainland locations in the UK but I doubt they will get much more specific before next June. And how about promotional codes?

Third party checkout will be able to integrate no problem, but the sellers who have built their business on the extra flexibility of third party checkouts will have to edit their practises and how they price their shipping costs.

Fortunately, eBay has given everyone notice of this change – but as always you don’t really know the effect a change has on your business until you try it out

Some linkage:

Scott Wingo’s response to the death of the third party checkout!

and try the basket yourself http://pages.ebay.co.uk/shoppingbasket/

Channeladvisor insite is back with us again a month earlier in September. Better for the Christmas rush but maybe the timing is why the Birmingham event has had to be cancelled. But no fear, Manchester is not far away so I shall be attending the Manchester event!

Ebay is doing some funky (and possible flunky knowing eBay) things in the next 12 months, changing the customer experience, fiddling with the feedback and unpaid item process, writing bad automated emails that you can’t change….

The double edged sword in this mix is the eBay shopping cart. On one side its a big ‘YAY’ finally eBay has done this but a big…hmmmm as third party checkouts will be banned from June next year.

We knew that things would get difficult but as an eBay buyer this is a good move, the eBay checkout process is familiar and quick. On the other hand as a seller, third party checkouts let you use other card payment systems other than paypal. From next June it will just be known that you use Paypal for eBay and that’s it.

eBay wants the money to keep within its walls, it has more control over it that way, it can refund a buyer and take the money away from the seller at its own discretion. eBay wants a dictatorship and not a democracy.

Will this totalitarian eBay control be a good thing or bad thing? We can only wait and see, its only the kind of control Amazon has over its sellers and that’s doing okay for itself.

However this move might take eBay away from its community routes which made it great, and this is a shame.

Is this freedom of community a little to hard to control now the hyperweb has become so big? Fraud, privacy and security always feature in the news to terrify people and I wwould like to hear eBay speak at insite about its direction and why it has taken those decisions.

Two great forces on the interweb for me are Amazon and Ratuken which operate a shopping cart. Ratuken are going from strength to strength.

Ratuken are a big lust for me with a fantastic kimono section and for a English site just machine translated is surprisingly not that complicated to buy from. I do think we shall see more of this marketplace in the western hemisphere with their acquisition of things over this way

Ratuken, make sure you let your shop owners have a unique design…I could do with making money from you to buy more kimono stuffs….and err…lets sort that shipping out its like a black hole when you buy if you don’t know how much things cost to be shipped from Japan

*edited to remove the over use of the word ‘however’