Candy Japan: Getting my first subscribers | Hacker News Reader

Candy Japan: Getting my first subscribers

bemmu.posterous.com

28 pointsbemmu20 comments

I have to say, I considered it. But 3 things stopped me:

1) It has to be relatively expensive (to cover shipping and profit), so the candy would have to be both good and interesting to justify the cost, and my experience has been that foreign foods are very hit-and-miss.

2) I have an asian supermarket near me in Orlando, FL that carries a lot of candies and drinks.

3) The picture showed Pocky as one of the 2 products that went into that order. I can buy Pocky at Walmart (and the asian store mentioned above), so I would feel like I really wasted my money if that was in an order. And pretty much anything else I can buy at the Asian store. He has no way to know what I could buy locally, so I'd always be taking a chance that I'm paying way too much for something.

However, if the system was changed so that I can pick the candies from a selection, that might be more interesting. It's quickly approaching a standard storefront at that point, though.

Yes, there are definitely many people in your situation, and you will probably be better off visiting their local stores. They can import in bulk and can provide a good selection, it clearly is superior to sending random things from abroad individually.

Many places do not have such stores though, for example as far as I know in Finland there is just one such store in the whole country. I believe there are still customers left for this service as well.

If this turns out to be an unnecessary service, I would be open to accept that result too. I still feel I would be better off having started this experiment, I am learning much about how to approach bloggers, how to interface with PayPal and my new label printer and so on. Nice learning experience in any case.

Oh, I wasn't suggesting that you quit. I was just listing my reasons so you knew what you were up against. If you don't know why people aren't subscribing, it's hard to widen your customer base.

And if it works out and gets huge I want to be your first employee!

This could become really(hugely?) popular among "otakus", i have just a few suggestion:

- Update the sample image, weirder the candies in the picture higher the signup rate, imo.

- I'd restructure the page to put the subscribe button in the top half of the page and make it clearly visible.

- A/B test the price (understanding which price/candies_quantity ratio is the right one could make a big difference) and find another way to give the option to choose euro or dollar (location based?), i don't like the fact that you have two buttons with the same function.

- After Tofugu(nice start) you should try contacting some other anime or japan related site/forum/blog.

I changed the picture to something else, just to remove the Pocky from now on. "No Pocky" was the number one feedback I got from US subscribers.

I love A/B testing but I wonder if I have enough conversions to really test yet.

I would really like to do more guest blogging. Done it twice so far and it is my favorite way of reaching out to people. Bloggers get interesting content for free and I get exposure. For the readers, if done properly, it can be actual interesting content.

I remember an old blog called konbini-life where this guy reviewed the strange stuff he bought at local konbinis (candies and other weird "barely" edible things). The blog is now dead (but was quite popular at the time, he was even featured in the Japan Times), you could try opening something similar, i would read it :)

Also, yep, at the moment it's too soon for a/b test.

There's all types of short-run Pocky flavors that won't be at most places in the US, even most Asian groceries.

Still, I think that anyone who lives near a Mitsuwa could easily outcompete you without bulk importing and still have a great variety.

Market this to offices and small kitchens. It's a hassle-free way for whoever stocks the kitchens to add variety to the snacks.

That's interesting. I was thinking of a high class tier already anyway. I would like to start a kind of "corporate class" subscription option where a slightly bigger amount of only the best possible candy is sent, using the most convenient shipping option, with beautiful wrappings and so on. The cost would be much higher, clearly over $100 / month for just one monthly package.

You should say how large the envelopes are, and/or define how much candy (by weight) comes with each shipment.

Also, try to find out if there are candies which are sold only in Japan; I'm in NYC, and have lots of places where I can buy Japanese candy, but if there's something I can't get here, it will be more appealing.

Finally, you need to do something about the cost: I might try it if it were under $10 but $24 per month is just way too high.

Similar concept but much more expensive than Graze - http://www.graze.com/

Looks interesting. I was trying to find "the catch" there. 3.49 pounds sounds like it would hardly even cover the shipping cost. Perhaps they have figured out how to keep their costs really really low and somehow also managed to do really really big volume.

They only ship to the UK, which keeps postage costs down. They also buy produce in bulk, and partner with bakers/producers directly to obtain the best deals.

They had around 15,000 subscribers each paying about £3.50 a week in 2009. I can't find an updated figure for 2011.

You could learn something from their personalisation service, though; I'd be more inclined to try Candy Japan if I could select candy I didn't want to receive in a personal account page. I'd also suggest:

1. Offering a cheaper one-package-a-month option. (e.g. 8 /month)

2. Correcting the typos on your homepage (e.g. 'What is costs' instead of 'What it costs')

3. Showing more samples of what you send, with higher quality photos, and perhaps some shots of the sorts of shops you buy it from. Make people who've seen them miss that experience, and people who haven't curious about it.

Other than that, though, it looks like a great start. Very best of luck with it.

I use graze. Very impressed with the service, the value for money, and the site itself.

You vote on items they send and 'bin' the ones you don't like so that they don't offer them again. Over time, it builds up an index of the snacks you like, and becomes less hit and miss. I'm rarely sent stuff I don't like now (although I'm not a fussy eater).

The whole operation is very slick; the packets are designed to be nutritionally balanced -- you'll never get 4 packs of chocolate in one delivery, for example. The packages they send are robust and they fit through standard UK letterboxes, so you never have to go out and collect items, or worry about them being torn to shreds.

I just signed up because I like surprises :D If it's to expensive I think I can cancel any time.

awesome idea :). curious to see how it will work out – good luck!

Thanks. I've already started writing some future posts. I intend to get the next one published again on Friday.

$23 a month? Wow.. too costly. My email marketing service costs less and it provides way more in ROI.

I agree in that in my current situation I would not be willing to pay this much for such a service. But I am trying to look beyond my own situation, imagining all those people in all other places in their lives. For some, $23 can be reasonable sum to pay just for the surprise element alone.

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