Q. What are the current statistics on Japanese e-commerce?
A: According to the
International Technology Union the number of Japanese Internet users hit 87.5 million in 2007 - with nine in 10 Japanese under 40 online. And they like to shop - Japan is the largest market in Asia with online sales last year of $38.4 billion. A 2008 Nielsen report found that 97% of Japanese Internet users have shopped online – for comparison only 57% of U.S. Internet users purchase goods online!
Q. Do Japanese customers use credit card for online purchases?
A. Yes. Although it was not the case five years ago, credit cards have become a common way of paying online in Japan. More than two-thirds of Japanese Internet users use credit cards to settle transactions.
Q. Do most Japanese web users have broadband connections?
A. According to Eurotechnology.com, broadband Internet access in Japan is among the cheapest in the world, and broadband Internet access (mainly ADSL) exceeded 75% penetration in 2006.
Q. How much does it cost to create a website localized for the Japanese market?
A. Prices vary from project to project. In order to arrive at an accurate quote, we need to know the specifics about your target audience, business objectives and success metrics. We can also provide original research to answer questions for your specific industry and potential competitors.
Q. Do you provide support for double-byte Japanese characters?
A. Yes. We have extensive experience in dealing with Japanese characters including hiragana, katakana, and kanji. We can modify the language encoding of your web pages, system, and database to ensure Japanese audience usability. Our native Asian staff can also handle Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean hangul and hanja characters.
Q. Can you help us communicate with Japanese customers?
A. Yes. Our native Japanese team can assist you with customer emails, response translation and other text content. In most cases, the process can be completed within 24 business hours and is cheaper than hiring an in-house Japanese customer relations representative.
