Candy Japan 2017 Year in Review

216 点作者 hamstercat超过 7 年前

32 条评论

SyneRyder超过 7 年前

I'm glad to see this, as so often Year In Review posts are by companies humblebragging about how well they're doing, and they stop posting Year In Review when it's been a down year. It's refreshing to see a post that isn't "we're Crushing It", but is honest and real. (Though I hope next year will be more positive though!)Also, I don't know if this has any SEO impact, but I thought the sitewide "flags" link in the footer of Candy Japan looked suspicious. At first I wondered if the site had been hacked or if you'd started selling backlinks, before I realized it's a requirement of the Creative Commons Attribution licence for the flag images. Maybe experiment with removing that from the sitewide, and just putting that link on a Credits / About Us page?I'd love to read more about hiring the photographer & your artist. The artwork in the blog posts is amazing!

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waytogo超过 7 年前

I am following Candy Japan for years and I like the idea. In its early years the landing page was super charming despite its bootstrapped style. Now in 2017, it just looks aged. I mean the entire presentation, the dull white packaging without any branding and the still unexciting pictures feel like somebody lost all motivation and ambition. No offense, just my perception.I just googled competitors and all of them feel way more vibrant + being more active on social media (I checked Instagram for the first two):<a href="https://www.japancrate.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.japancrate.com/</a><a href="https://tokyotreat.com/" rel="nofollow">https://tokyotreat.com/</a><a href="https://wowbox.jp/" rel="nofollow">https://wowbox.jp/</a><a href="http://www.kawaiibox.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.kawaiibox.com/</a><a href="https://www.sushicandy.net/" rel="nofollow">https://www.sushicandy.net/</a>Building a slick landing page which is also responsive can be quite some work but looking at that competition it's a must, sorry. Look, it's not that people really need a monthly candy box, it's not a rational decision, it's something emotional—an impulse buy. So, if the landing page isn't even thrilling what should then trigger the buy?Social media in particular Instagram might be a significant marketing channel because Japanese candy and its colourfulness is tailor-made for Instagram.Maybe the business model is also the problem. There are little lock-ins/network effects and a low-barrier market entry for Japanese entities, thus all these competitors. There might be opportunities to pivot the business or extend into new fields/models. The first thing which comes to mind is licensing successful products for exclusive import/distribution to key western markets. Different game but highly scalable. Maybe there more unseen opportunities. If not then selling the business could be an option (after a final revamp re presentation and SEO).However, Candy Japan has still one major strength: Frequently placing stories on social news sites like HN and Reddit which always hit top 10 positions and generate tons of free traffic (should be 20-30k visits per placement which would translate in 200 to 300 subs at 1% conversion).

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Xixi超过 7 年前

The box subscription business model is getting harder and harder as competition increases. I can relate on two points with my own Japanese tea-of-the-month subscription (<a href="https://tomotcha.com" rel="nofollow">https://tomotcha.com</a>):- At one point customs were very slow to clear in Germany (one to two months), though shipments never actually bounced back. Paying for tea and not getting it is frustrating. Then eventually it arrives, two months late. We lost customers because of it. Eventually that problem went away and now shipments are going through as usual.- Competition: we used not to have too much competition when we launched 3 years ago, now similar services are aplenty. It hurts conversion rates, a lot...

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bold_panda超过 7 年前

My thoughts:Subscription boxes are hard. I sold mine.It's hard to keep subscribers happy every month, especially with food.Most profitable subscription boxes are profitable because they are run by savvy internet marketers & capitalize on novelty, trends, & gifting, not because the products deliver incredible value to the customer.I think Proactiv is the only subscription box service that's stood the test of time without having to drastically change their business model and they have historically been extremely savvy with their marketing.If you look at the landscape of subscription boxes, it suggests that for longterm growth & profit:1. Curation doesn't work.2. You have to make / manufacture / private label your own stuff (Dollar Shave Club & Proactiv)3. You should raise money, use that money to sell your first million boxes at a loss, grow rapidly and try to race towards an exit.4. If your product doesn't solve a major problem (acne sucks, razors are too expensive etc), you are probably doomed over long term (10-20 year horizon), so it's best to sell in year 3-5.

stevekemp超过 7 年前

I recently moved to Finland, and briefly considered setting up an online shop to export Salmiakki to the UK, as lots of people there seem to love it and beg me to bring it when I returned.I'm amused you're from Finland, but instead are importing Japanese candy! (In the end I decided I couldn't be bothered with the hassle. I just make sure every time I do return to the UK I pack my suitcase with 10-40 boxes of candy.)

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adventured超过 7 年前

You mention the decline in search ranking and Google traffic.I'd strongly suggest you set up on Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube.I would do an occasional YouTube video, talking about and showing people the various types of Japanese candy. Maybe do just one per week, focused on a group of related candy. I read your post about YouTube traffic and correlation to sales, I think the solution to that is what it tends to be with everything marketing: consistently drive it over a long period of time (obviously along with clickable links to your site, which the blogged-about video lacked).I'd post nice, alluring photos to Pinterest and Instagram. Making sure to update both accounts at least weekly. Every item from every box should eventually get an Instagram post, with a description. Japanese candy packaging always seems to my US eyes to be very colorful, energetic, with fun designs - which I think lends very well to a site like Instagram (and its scale is obviously immense).A Facebook page would also be ideal if you can or want to invest the time to cultivate it (a lot more work vs posting occasional media content to the other sites).Google isn't dying per se as a highly valuable source of traffic, but things have changed a lot in the last five or six years. Google search as a traffic source no longer occupies the overwhelming position that it used to, and that is going to continue to weaken vs everything else collectively.

Grue3超过 7 年前

Idea: allow people to order add-ons to their monthly packages (something relatively cheap like manga, magazines, etc.). You can order it automatically from Amazon Japan with free domestic shipping. So people could get their candy + whatever stuff they need from Japan, while saving on shipping costs.

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zeeZ超过 7 年前

> Another major hit was that all the packages we were sending to Germany started bouncing back. After this continued for several shipments, I decided just not to ship to Germany any more.I guess that explains why I only ever received one package from my gift code.Is that still a thing? Because when I open the website from Germany it says:> $29 monthly with free shipping even to Germany.

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rwmj超过 7 年前

I've said this before, but a twice-monthly subscription to sweets is too much sugar. If it was once every 3 months then I'd consider subscribing.

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chaostheory超过 7 年前

> What went wrong? This year I didn't have as much to blog about. In 2016 I had five popular posts (1 2 3 4 5), while in 2017 I only managed two (1 2). The posts tend to send a lot of high-quality traffic, so the impact was bigger than you might expect. I haven't figured out how to invent posts from thin air when I simply have nothing new to share.benmu if you're reading, what about doing shorter but more regular posts on life in Japan from your family's or just your perspective?(That being said, I'm much worse than you on blog posts; something I will correct starting now.)> Tried paid YouTube ads, and while I did get some subscribers, in the end they were just too expensive to keep running. Tweaking the ads was very time consuming and expensive (but fun).Instead of paying for Youtube ads, why not just do your own candy videos instead?

RulingWalnut超过 7 年前

I was actually thinking about canceling the service (trying to save a little more money + eat healthier) but I really love articles like this so I'll stay on for at least a few more months :)I would say for me, the personal story is a big selling point. You're just a guy who moved to Japan and started this service as opposed to some faceless conglomerate. The new landing page is much nicer but maybe add some of the stuff in the "Who runs Candy Japan?" page to the landing?

kuschku超过 7 年前

> Another major hit was that all the packages we were sending to Germany started bouncing back. After this continued for several shipments, I decided just not to ship to Germany any more.Have you ever figured out what was up with that? That sounds like something is going wrong with the Zoll. Normally, sending products to all EU countries should work the same.

manuelmagic超过 7 年前

Hi, I just checked your site and I noticed you are improving the UI of the web site as I suggested you on Twitter a while ago: now there are images on the pages “check your email for link” and “thank you” page after a subscription. Nice!Furthermore, about the photos you added on the home page, having good photos of the products you are selling (like examples of older boxes) is a huge improvement. IMHO you did the right thing having them shot professionally. Most of your competitors already had photos of candies, and I finally subscribed to your service mostly because I finally could see in advance examples of what (and how many of them) I will get in the mail.So, keep going and best of luck! ByeP.S.: thank you for the discount code in the article :)

marek12886超过 7 年前

Nice story! Thank you for sharing. A few thoughts:1) when is the last time you sat down with new and existing customers to see their reaction to getting their physical boxes? You might get a lot of good insights of how exciting (or not) the existing experience is of receiving the candy. How does that change between the 1st and 10th box a customer receives?2) why are people churning? Do you have a prioritized list of reasons? Not what they said (most users don’t actually want to offend you or your business) but what their real reasons were for canceling?3) keep in mind that the real product is the box with candies. The website is just for sales. Yes, SEO is definitely important to get new subscribers, but to improve your product you have to improve the box or the offerings around it.4) pricing. I noticed that the lowest offering of $29/month is rather expensive for a novelty purchase. How much experimentation have you done around testing lower price points with less frequent shipments? This could help with acquisition and retention.I’ll be happy to help you understand how to look at retention, basic AARR analysis, interview customers, etc. just let me know.

senko超过 7 年前

Bemmu, you mentioned you tried YT ads. Have you tried to build an audience on YT? For example with unwrapping / “reviews” of some of the candies.I know there are tons of people watching similar things (though my 1st hand exp is just seeing how my kid wants to spend infinite amount of time watching surprise eggs unwrapping).Just a hunch, but that might have a bigger ROI than ads.Thanks for the writeup, love the openness!

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pryelluw超过 7 年前

Every time the year update comes around I have the same I question (first time posted):Why not have a cosplayer (preferably a lady) (dressed in costume) review the candy and post that to YouTube? I mean, this can be done for cheap ($75-100 per video or so).

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itake超过 7 年前

I traveled all over asia with very little issues with using my Chase credit card, but when I went to purchase candyjapan for a Xmas gift, my purchase was insta-denied by Chase.it was almost like the banks have flagged your merchant account as fraudulent.

evanb超过 7 年前

You mention you haven't expanded. Have you considered also doing Japanese stationery / office supplies? All the best tools I've got came from my one trip to Japan :)

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codinghorror超过 7 年前

Aw that is a bummer, I subscribed in 2017 and love the Service!

LV-426超过 7 年前

Interesting article, and good to know you're still operating despite the problems.> All those new subscribers beyond the first 800 were actually fakes who had subscribed with stolen credit card numbers [...] a lot of shipping addresses turned out to be fake as wellI don't know if this was already discussed in previous years, but this sounds like a rival (either established or wanting to copy your model).Edit: https

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ddoran超过 7 年前

I appreciate your occasional updates posted here. They're always interesting.> "This year I didn't have as much to blog about ... The posts tend to send a lot of high-quality traffic, so the impact was bigger than you might expect. I haven't figured out how to invent posts from thin air when I simply have nothing new to share."This obviously seems like a lost opportunity. If you want to sustain the business, you simply have to write more posts, as a start. I visit Japan for two weeks every year and find the culture endlessly fascinating. Searching here for mentions of Japan [1], the most popular is yours, but not a business update, rather your post on the Japanese writing system [2]. Ignore the news stories and look at all those other posts about Japan posted by others. These are Japan topics that this community found interesting (I hope you promote to other communities). You could write posts about coffee culture, beer culture, Izakaya's, ex-pat life, other one-person businesses, life in Japan, J-pop even k-pop, heck even the McDonald's menu in Japan vs elsewhere etc etc. Of course the link to candy is tangential but a blog on entrepreneurial life / life in Japan would attract Japanophiles who I expect would be interested in regular candy packs from Japan. But why just focus on candy as the income. Why not become a go-to guy for Japanese culture through the eyes of a Westerner? You wouldn't be the first but you have a unique viewpoint. What about adding a podcast. Building an audience, listing on Patreon. Just some thoughts.I also have some comments about your website vs your competitor, presumably [3].* On Safari, when I type in "candy japan", the Siri suggestion is your competitor's, despite the search term basically being your domain name. You have work to do on SEO.* Your competitor's photos of their offerings are front and center. Personally that draws me in immediately. Your photo is at the bottom of your page. You are literally burying the lede* Your competitor has a time-limited call to action at the top of their page "Free Shipping even to United States! Next box subscription closes in: You have 4 Days left to get the next box!"* Your competitor has great testimonials. Do you have social media contests? Promote use of a hashtag / instagram posting so you can easily cultivate for your page?* This is probably an error, but when I click on your home page link "Past Boxes", I expected to see great photos of your past boxes. Social media pics and videos from happy users etc. Instead the very first text on the Past Boxes page is the post linked above with the text "This was another tough year for Candy Japan, with many factors combining to a sharp decline in subscriber numbers." I wanted to check out photos of amazing Japanese candy I can order but now I'm just bummed out.* There are so many things your competitor is doing that you are not. Check out how easy he makes it for reviewers to get a free copy. Check out the reviews on his website. Being copied sucks but fight back. Take their ideas and improve upon them. Stay one step ahead.* We're just through the holiday season in the West. How many parents were hunting for last minute gifts for kids (or adults). This would have been amazing gift and yet I see nothing on your front page that's marketing to "last minute gifts", "last minute xmas gifts for children" etc. A number of magazine newsletters I subscribed to had features on "last minute gifts", most of which were ticket, voucher or coupon based. How much outreach did you do?I'm not being critical. You've done a lot to get here and are now facing challenges. Meet them head on. There is so much more you can do. Not everything will work, but some will.As it happens, I have a relation whose birthday it is in January. I'm going to prove my own point and buy her a subscription from your site. I enjoy your updates and salute your success to date. I wish you the very best going forward.[1] - <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?query=japan&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?query=japan&sort=byPopularity&prefix...</a> [2] - <a href="https://www.candyjapan.com/口" rel="nofollow">https://www.candyjapan.com/口</a> [3] - <a href="http://www.japancandybox.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.japancandybox.com</a>

egze超过 7 年前

Maybe blog posts with candy reviews might bring in some traffic?

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agopaul超过 7 年前

It seems you have a high churn rate among your subscribers. Have you ever investigated that? An automated plain text email asking for feedback or a survey after someone unsubscribed would probably do it, though I guess you probably tried this already.

mherrmann超过 7 年前

Are your customers people who already know Japanese candy, but simply miss it because they're abroad? Or is Japanese candy new to them and your service is a way for them to try something new? With the temporary surge in search traffic, it sounds like it's mostly "new" people. In that case, my hunch would be that a subscription for a "novel" experience does not make sense. I would (personally) try to offer other novelty items as part of the subscription (eg. other Japanese cultural products such as Mangas, or candy from other countries if feasible). Just my 2¢ of course. It's your business and I know nothing about it.

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bluedino超过 7 年前

I never got the subscription services like CrateJoy. It's nice for a one-time gift, kind of like a grab bag. But once you've gotten a couple boxes, what's the point? You've discovered the brands/items you like, and it's easy to go out and buy them at regular prices (some of those crates are $35 for $10 worth of stuff)Something that you can control and sell at a lower price than I can buy (cheap razors, for example) is a different story.

drchiu超过 7 年前

This is a bummer indeed. I’ve noticed a few businesses that did decently well around 2015, peaking, and declining into a slow death sort of thing. From what I read here, this seems to be happening and will likely get worse in 2018. It might be time to pivot into something else entirely.

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wingerlang超过 7 年前

> even to SwedenIs Sweden typically a country where things aren't shipped to for free?

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GordonS超过 7 年前

Are there any other micro-businesses that do a similar end of year review?I used to read patio11's when he ran Bingo Card Creator, and find the Candy Japan reviews similarly interesting.

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carlos_rpn超过 7 年前

I wonder if the first season of the anime Dagashi Kashi in 2016 and the next season early 2018 had or will have any impact on it.

rootsudo超过 7 年前

Another year has gone by.I haven't done a company, or anything, really.I should just do something. Hmm.

hemantv超过 7 年前

Did you try any of the smart fraud prevention? Like Siftscience?

yipopov超过 7 年前

Let's be honest, weeaboos make a poor target market to base any business on. No real purchasing power other than the allowance they get from their parents or perhaps a burger flipping wage, and I'd imagine most of them just pirate their cartoons.