Thinking of starting a "Concept Shop" in Japan....

[djrajio]

Deal is I'm moving to live in Japan in 3 months for 2-3 years job and I'm thinking in my spare time to start an online retailer/rakuten/Japanese auction deliverer/shipper for America and other English speaking countries solely devoted in selling and help people get hard to acquire Japanese brands clothing/shoes/etc. I speak Japanese and can read Japanese and have always found it hard to acquire these dope styles and fashions in Japan without the help of my friends to ship em, buy em, etc. While Concept Shop is good, their English is sketchy and the prices are a bit too inflated. Also, everyone knows of em and look to them for the lastest ish. Also, im not in the business of selling BAPEstas limited editions, etc. Rather, geniune brands I love and I know others will appreciate. Hopefully in the future I'd like to extend this to sell my own line. Anyways, I wanted to know from the supertalk fam what you guys think of this, if this is feasible, what are the hurdles, if there are others you guys know whom I can contact for help or advice. I'm fairly serious about this venture and I have web development/online retailer development experience, so the actual development of the website is not the problem, rather the shipping fees, legal issues in Japan, acquiring of stock, etc... Any advice or opinions would be great.

Thanks.

[jjs home]

I think thats real dope, I dunno how hard it would be, but i defeinetly think it would be worth the effort. Only prob would be jeans cause like all japanese jeans nifringe levis copyright, but I'd fuck with you (pause). Shit put me on with your people n japan, I need a Japanese hookup

But i definetly think you should start doing your research, because I only se japanese fashion getting bigger in america

good luck, and Hit my PM box so i can press you for your Japanese COnnection

[ian carey]

I can handle all of your shipping needs for you. From moving there to handleing any import/export you do. all at great priceing. give me a call or email me 888-902-2888x206.

Give us a call and we'll be glad to give you a free quote on your shipment!

[Corbin Law]

i think its a great idea the situation in japan is only gonna get bigger so why not jump on the band wagon while the gettings good

i am thoroughly intimidated

[woejozney]

go for it, that japanese shit is gewd. And hook me up with dope jeans and all.

[rhythmandsound]

Quote: enough out there.

there are? which ones?

personally sounds like a good idea to me. Pretty tough getting stuff from Japan to America, period.

[Westmount]

yea im definitely interested too

give me all the details through pm or whatever when its started

and i can offer any help i can

[MilSpex]

Interesting idea. what do u think your options for stock will be? just browse around and pick up what you think will be popular at retail level or build contacts to source your stuff?

2000AD Hectic Homeboys Lace Themselfs on a Daily Basis

Be Advised: Morgan Nixon AKA Moman631 AKA Moman6040 is a fraud.

[hahnstch]

by how much cheaper can you offer the item than conceptshop? also, considering many proxy bidding/shopping services have sprung, can you still keep your markup price (as a 'reseller' or indirect retailer if you will) lower than these people's commission? what kind of brands do you have in mind btw?

also, as much as you hate it, you gotta admit that reselling bape stuff ala concept shop is a highly profitable business

[djrajio]

Based on the interview Concept Shop did with "The Brilliance," Concept Shop actually doesn't have any special arrangements with any of the brands that they sell. They are a reseller store based in Hong Kong and essentially hire people in Japan to wait in line and buy the items individually. Their prices are inflated for a number of reasons, particularly with goods like BAPE, Neighborhood, etc.

1) They have to ship their items from Japan to Hong Kong and then to any place around the world. Essentially you're paying a mark-up because of the shipment cost from Japan to Hong Kong.

2) They only select clothing brands and styles that are "uber" (artifically) limited and thus they can only purchase one or two items of a given style and in a size that fits the customer who actually bought the item.

3) They are selling brands that are highly sought after outside of Japan. Particularly Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, USA, and increasingly even Korea and China, are into the same prolific brands and so demand allows them to inflate the price.

Fact: BAPE is NOT popular in Japan anymore and hasn't been for many years. It's actually a running gag in Japan that people who wear Bape are out of the "fashion-loop". This is partly the reason Nigo has been "forced" to open stores in London and SoHo to fatten his bottom line. The clothing line has been stagnent in Japan for 3-4 years now. As a result, BAPE t-shirts sell for a fraction of the cost they do in Hong Kong and USA. In fact, at the Kyoto shop I visited last summer, the t-shirts were selling for $40-50 dollars, average price for a fashion label t-shirt and BAPE shoes were approximately $110 dollars.

I made a quick glance at average prices they are charging for t-shirt on the site and its safe to say purchasing a t-shirt from Concept Shop would run you approximately $90 to $100 plus shipping. Let's suppose shipping is $10. Then in total you are actually paying around twice the price it would cost if you purchased the shirts in Japan. With bape shoes as well, ur paying over twice the price in addition to shipping.

I am very confident that I could cut Concept Shop's prices by at least 1/3 -2/5. I think the most difficult issue is keeping shipping costs low while still remaining competitive and keeping a profit.

But ultimately, what I really want to do is provide other people the opportunity to get the hard to buy brands from Japan that I fell in love with when I lived there the first time. Brands that I'd like to sell include:

Devilock

Bounty Hunter

W)taps

Doarat

Undercover

Fiberops

TMT

Neighborhood

Edwin

Levi's Japan exclusives

Madfoot

Swagger

Mack Daddy

SiFury

Virus

Haze

Head Porter

etc.

Ideally, I will focus on Japanese brands that have more potential and sell these well. But by building a loyal customer base, I feel I could create markets that don't already exist and develop demand for brands that aren't there yet. I see myself essentially focusing on brands that work, developing a base from which to spring board cool smaller brands, and becoming the sole distributer for these markets. In short, I don't think I need BAPE to get there but I do need a significant amount of capital to start.

[Westmount]

I'm definitely interested in brands such as neighborhood and head porter

speaking of capital to start, are you going to run this business yourself or are you going to have partners?

[magicclean]

If you can cut undercover by 1/3 and accept paypal let me know when you are up and running. i'm also eyeing on some denim and other stuff.

[hahnstch]

djrajio, that sounds promising. but consider people buying from rakuten, zozotown etc using proxy bidding/shopping service like celga, can your prices still be lower than the total cost of getting the items through these services?

also, please add headporterplus, unrivaled, tas, whiz and japan exclusives lvc to the brand list please. and i think the denimheads on this board would probably want you to get sugarcane, d'artisan, fullcount etc too

[MilSpex]

To come clean, I've had kinda the same idea for around a year now. I was thinking of starting thru the eBay powerseller route then building the capital to do a proxy bidding service and/or reseller website. You going on JET 05 too? Maybe we should partner up? If not, good luck with it, sounds like u have thought it thru a lot more than I have at this stage.

2000AD Hectic Homeboys Lace Themselfs on a Daily Basis

Be Advised: Morgan Nixon AKA Moman631 AKA Moman6040 is a fraud.

[djrajio]

Good points hanstch. I believe there are several reasons why people would want to go through me rather than rakuten, zozotown, etc. using a proxy bidding/shopping service like celga. Firstly, this service will be targeted to buyers who don't speak and read Japanese and who are interested in Japanese fashion. Celga, I believe, is targeted towards Anime (non fashion related items) buyers? Essentially, there is some insurance in knowing that I can decyher different items, types, styles of a brand and provide a certain level of consulting and expertise in helping the buyer decide what they want. In addition, trying to decypher all the rules and regulations, charges and expenses is difficult on one's own and by allowing a proxy bidding/shopping service to do it, your essentially de-empowering the buyer. My site will be no nonsense. I will purchase the items in retail stores and what you see is what you get, all in English and easy to read and understand terms. Secondly, by going through celga, you're basically charged a mark-up fee for them acting as a proxy, in addition, to shipping and material and labor costs. Essentially I won't act as a proxy, as least not initially, so no commissions will be charged for me acquiring the items. Finally, I have already set up banking account in the US that will be very liquid to accounts I will set up in Japan. What does that mean for a buyer? If you use a service like PayPal, they charge a commission for conversion of currency. I intend to allow consumers to make payments in the US to a US account, meaning that since the dollar is strong and there is no currency conversion, US consumer can get the best prices while I am still reducing my costs and still making a profit. Unfortunately, I have only done a minimal of research on these issues, so if anyone has any experience or advice or can clarify some issues, that'd be great.

[djrajio]

MilSpex,

No I wont' be doing JET but I have friends who have and they have said its an awesome experience. Congrats and have fun! You'll learn a lot. I am definately looking for people who will be living long term in Japan to help with the business. If you can speak and read Japanese, that'd be a major plus. PM with your info if you'll be living in Tokyo.

[Corbin Law]

just wondering, is this your first venture into the buisness world? (not meant sarcastically, )

[djrajio]

Actually, yes. I'm seeking advice from both fashion related sites like supertalk, to finance sites and contacts, to friends and mentors in Japan and abroad. I wont be in Japan until beginning of October, so I'd like to start the dialogue now. Any advice and commentary would be great, even negative.

[herpsky]

if i were you, id just stick to reselling stuff

there are way too many websites that do yahoo.co.jp auction

ive always wanted to buy stuff from concept shop but their products

are a little too pricey for me

[orijahnalflavah]

Hey Man, if you are really serious about this please give me an email at [email protected]

I have many many many people in Japan that I can hook you up with to get your feet off the ground.

Besides that, I can immedietly link you up with dozens of boutiques which you can wholesale merchandise to, not to mention hundreds of buyers (sneakerheads, rappers, nba players, and celebrities) to buy from you. I've been doing this for about 5 years and basically threw in the towel cuz i got bored, but I still have all my connections and I can easily hand them over to you or partner up or something.

But yes, please email me so we can talk.

[rhythmandsound]

Quote: if i were you, id just stick to reselling stuff

there are way too many websites that do yahoo.co.jp auction

he's not talking about doing auctions.yahoo.co.jp: that's the point!

[ChadR]

I am sure if you got into the rarer Denim (i.e. Samuri, Burger, Denime, anything we can't get), people on superfuture would eat it up. I know I would.

[MilSpex]

Quote:

MilSpex,

No I wont' be doing JET but I have friends who have and they have said its an awesome experience. Congrats and have fun! You'll learn a lot. I am definately looking for people who will be living long term in Japan to help with the business. If you can speak and read Japanese, that'd be a major plus. PM with your info if you'll be living in Tokyo.

--- Original message by djrajio on Jul 9, 2005 11:38 AM

Thanks for the congrats. I'm lookin forward to it. Unfortunately I'll be in the boonies tho, but plan on getting down to Tokyo as often as I can. speaking is better than reading but my Japanese is okay, hoping to improve it a lot in-country

2000AD Hectic Homeboys Lace Themselfs on a Daily Basis

Be Advised: Morgan Nixon AKA Moman631 AKA Moman6040 is a fraud.

[teejayess]

You might also want to consider acting as agent/go-between for shops in Europe/North America and Japanese labels, working on a comission basis. It is often very hard for the shops to secure any stock from JP labels unless they have personal contact (eg. Gimme5 group and Hiroshi Fujiwara/Nigo), speak Japanese or have a representative in Japan. You provide contact between the two parties, translation services etc. and then take a percentage of the value of the wholesale order.

Edited by teejayess on Jul 10, 2005 at 05:25 AM

[djrajio]

That's certainly an option. Unfortunately, I still need to get the Japanese contacts first. As for the denim heads, I very very much want to sell denim. But since the price points are pretty high compared to t-shirts, the shipping is higher, and I dont have contacts for wholesale discount, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to do t-shirts and accessories on onset.

[hahnstch]

you gotta do a lil bit of denim at least in the beginning, i'm pretty sure there's a high demand for neighborhood denim at retail price on the street at the moment

[powerglov]

This sounds incredible. If I were to be living in Japan I would be extremely interested in helping out with this business. I'll very interested to see how things work out.

[jhaime]

Quote: My site will be no nonsense. I will purchase the items in retail stores

well, hate to burst your bubble...there's your problem right there...

you're going to have to have one hell of an amount of capital to start this venture if you're buying your stock from current retailers???

Time spent wishing...is time wasted

[nowhere]

yo dude man, i've alway been buying stuff online, i will sure support you

[jhaime]

I wont...

why would anyone pay more than the retail price, and then shipping charges...:S

Time spent wishing...is time wasted