Comment by waytogo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by waytogo | Hacker News Reader

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):

https://www.japancrate.com/

https://tokyotreat.com/

https://wowbox.jp/

http://www.kawaiibox.com/

https://www.sushicandy.net/

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).

I'm a current Candy Japan subscriber and have been for a long time. Looking over some of those they simply seem like a better deal. An average Candy Japan box has 4-5 items in it and you get two per month. That comes to $29/mo for 8-10 items. JapanCrate advertises 15 items at $30/mo. Tokyotreat is 17 items at $31.50/mo. Wowbox is 10-14 for $25/mo or 12-16 for $34.99/mo. Kawaii Box is 8-10 for $20/mo. SushiCandy is 20 items @ $15.99/mo.

To my eyes at least, CandyJapan seems to be the worst option of all of them. I'm afraid that they're simply being out-competed and without some rethinking of their model they will continue to lose subscribers over time. After looking at those competitors just now I will certainly be rethinking my subscription.

Candy Japan sends treats twice a month instead of one.

That's what I said:

> An average Candy Japan box has 4-5 items in it and you get two per month.

> Tokyotreat is 17 items at $31.50/mo.

No it isn't. It is 17 items for 35 USD/month if you pay per month. It is 31.50 USD/month if you follow their 12 month prepay plan (aka sub for a year and pay in advance).

We also shouldn't put too much stress on the amount of items. It isn't descriptive of what's in the box. Tokyotreat is specific with what's in the box.

These services also seem to have more lightweight, cheaper deals:

* Japancrate's Mini is 5 items for 12 USD/month, original is 25 USD/month with 10 items (1 DIY kit), and the Premium is 30 USD/month with 15 items (1 DIY kit, 1 drink, and 1 bonus item so its 16).

* Sushicandy has a set of 20 for 16 USD, a set of 30 for 20 USD, and a set of 40 for 27 USD. With also, like Japancrate, the option to sub for 3 or 6 months.

* Wowbox has a 15% coupon right now, and has a "try it out" button on the landing page. That invites me to give it a whirl. They also have different themes, and allow me to select different size of packages.

* Kawaiibox specialises in the kawaii candy theme (I suppose? I'm very newbie to this whole theme stuff or Japanese candy but I am curious). Its 19.90 USD for 8-10 items with discount options available if you subscribe for longer. The discounts are modest: 18.90 USD for 18.20 USD for 6 or 12 months respectively.

* Tokyotreat I discussed above as it all started my post, but since GP mentioned 5 companies I want 5 bullets in list. Its more expensive than Candy Japan, but you also get more items.

Even though you had that detail wrong you are right that all of these are indeed cheaper than Candy Japan. I feel like Candy Japan is a very small business compared to these (which isn't going to volume, but then again the question is, is it going for quality then?) and no offence, but a 10% coupon on Candy Japan isn't going to cut it compared to the competition.

All seem to provide free shipping world-wide. Payment options vary. The ones I checked accepted credit card, some accepted PayPal as well but not all.

As a final note, again no offence but you're basically exporting some stuff you buy in bulk from some local stores. In my language we call companies that sell technology equipment with low margin "dozenschuiver" (box mover, aka Sokoban). 50 USD/hour isn't a bad wage at all in that field. Larger Asian stores (called toko here) might even sell Japanese candy. You can't compete with that, so you want it to remain a special niche.

I agree that items/box is a bad metric. A regular-size butterfinger amounts to 4 kid-size. I'm not sure what a better metric might be.

> the question is, is it going for quality then?

I wouldn't say so. The candy in CandyJapan boxes seems about average. I've actually seen some of their candy brands in local grociers' foreign food isles quite cheaply. This leads me to believe the CandyJapan stuff is nothing particularly special. Some of the DIY candy kits they include lately are gross too—they're usually some variant of slime + sugar/flavor.

As a side note I actually ordered a Tokyotreat box. They have decent item count and they include a drink as well. I've really enjoyed some of the random Japanese drinks I've tried and I'm looking forward to receiving some!

I think that's an excellent comment about instagram, i wonder if pinterest would also be useful -- since the images of the candies are so enticing.

I'd never seen the site before this HN submission. My first thought is how quaint it was and how it captures the qualities of the packaging.

The links you provided "feel" like they're all created from some stilted framework and not hand crafted like the subject's site.

I mean I like that Neocities quality for websites so I know I'm in the minority.

An in depth comparison is in order (though you made a decent stub, and other responses are also valuable).

I went to Japancrate, and I can order once but also subscribe for say a year and save $30 in total (one month). That's not a whole lot saving. I get moved when I get 2 months free when I sub for a year (~16,67%). Also, Japancrate do seem to send to world-wide, but only accept credit card (Candyjapan's statistics show about half of the customers pay via PayPal). I feel like Candyjapan is winning out on these PayPal customers but you wouldn't know that for sure until you'd cancel the option or did an A/B test. Regardless, things like payment options, different packages, and discounts matter. Kawaiibox also provides PayPal as payment option.

PS: What happened with Candy Japan and not sending to Germany?

There is no way they get 200-300 subscriptions from a social news story. Their own self published data does not support this.

IDK but when checking his self-published data I see spikes adding min 200 new subs. Guess those came with blog posts.

And: 1% conversion when being on the landing page is way below average.

And2: This post was almost two days on the front page, guess he reached more than 20-30k visits. So, 200-300 subs should be the minimum he reached.

That's right, for a year-in-review post like this it is typical to gain 20 - 50 new subscribers and serve ~10k sessions. Somehow they never seem to spread beyond HN, not sure if there could be elsewhere I should be posting or something else I could do to get them to spread better.

i was always curious how they get first page placements every time, that knowledge right their is their greatest asset imo.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com