Ben Robinson | The Japanese Market – Shopify Success, Building Brand Loyalty & Consumer Trends

Today on The Negotiation we are speaking with Ben Robinson, Merchant Success Manager at Shopify Plus mostly covering the Japan and Singapore region. We talk about how to successfully localize a product to be successful selling into the Japanese market, noting how they are really rather price-insensitive and how Japan is one of the most insular and protected markets globally. We also talk about how long it might take, and the strategies brands can deploy, in order to build trust which is difficult to obtain as Japanese consumers typically live in the camp that foreign brands don’t build products with the Japanese in mind. We discuss the different social media in Japan and some consumer trends that have emerged in the last few years that are unique to Japan that brands should know about as well as their appetite for some of the trending techs coming out of the west like cryptocurrency and cleantech. We talk about how to be successful on the Shopify platform in Japan and the importance of getting delivery right including not just when but also what time.