Now, your marketing copy is all over the place. The layout is so hard to follow. Things are just too spread around, and the eye cannot follow an easy reading path.
Put everything into two columns, side by side. Put more pictures, and more information. Get a smaller third column on the right side for the testimonials.
Also, your headline is not bade, but it has nothing under it for me to read . The job of a headline is to get people reading the copy. You have no copy.
The big ugly green button is akin to a car salesman handing you a buying contract for a brand new car before you even shake hands. Get that out of there!
I believe that if you did a video of you hand picking specialized candy for your customer then sales would improve. People are not buying the candy, they are buying the experience. Let them see the process through a camera so they can relate and live out their Japanese fantasy. In fact, do a 10 minute long video of you shipping for candy. Put all the different candies and give out your opinions. Talk to Japanese people, and have them share their favorites. You could even try and get the best selling candy manufacturer into letting you do a little tour of their factory.
There are so many neat things you can do that will turn this into a 10K business ASAP.
Good luck!
PS. Shoot me an email to rm at innovafy dot com
that movie inside my head ain't stopping. :)
The thing with these videos is that I need to make two per month, and I'm not sure how I would source that many people to agree to appear in the videos.
But yeah, it would be pretty awesome if I could figure out how to pull that off.
For some reason, the "testimonials from random Japanese people" idea seems rather unsettling to me. It makes it feel exoticized, touristy, and fake.
1) The photos of the candy should really near the top and visible without scrolling -- 'candy' is not a term I come across often, so I wasn't completely certain what was being sold. Perhaps I'm unusual, but I don't bother with videos unless the product has already interested me.
2) My eyes skipped past the price completely. I was actually about to write here that they left it out, finally spotting it only when I went looking.
...the green pay button was fine for me -- not particularly ugly or dodgy looking.
I think it needs to be clear exactly what step I want the user to take to join, so that's why that huge big green button is there. It's also not half bad looking in my opinion, although depends on your browser since it uses some recent webkit CSS stuff.
Factory tour / other kind of video back scenes content is probably a good idea. Since the current video works, it may be that that would work even better. Even before that though, I've been thinking of experimenting with a video that would just explain the service in simple terms.
You have a lot of ideas, have any for how to bring in traffic?
Also, based on the demographic of people who will want candy from Japan, perhaps toy with the 8-bit nyan-cat-anime-retro geek-style vibe? Cute rainbows and hello kitty and all giant eyes and all that. Perhaps do huge detailed 8-bit renditions OF THE CANDY.
Update: added some example pics
May I suggest using the same code to also convert the price from $23.95 to the users local currency as this will help increase conversions. £15.10 feels a lot less than $23.95!
Other than that, great idea and I wish you all the best!
Mystery sweets from Japan for £15.10 ($23.95 USD) / month
I realise that there are overheads and that your service is presumably aimed at people with a high enough disposable income.
How can we see earlier blog posts?.
Earlier posts are at http://www.bemmu.com/ with currently no easy way to see only the Candy Japan related things. I was still feeling a bit undecided where to put them, wondering if it's a good idea to expose customers to income-related posts.
Do you think you automate the packing and shipping?
Yeh, there are many others offering fresh/organic/luxury/quality items delivered to your door. Wine has also made a comeback (forgot the name of the recent big US startup).
Graze have a great website. Will offer some inspiration to others looking at getting into similar businesses.
And these income reports are clever Marketing.
I did the same, but my idea didn't really work. Too bulky and sensitive to the shipping delays.
Lightweight, should be cheap to ship, etc.
Would partner with someone who was there on the ground and handle design and so on if anyone was interested.
This interests me the most. Could you shad some light as of why you switching knowing the cost will go up. You say it will improve conversions, but #1 isnt PayPal still the most well known payment system over the web, and #2 dont they offer payment via regular credit cards?
What you trying to do here, is replace better option with narrower one for all customers. If anything, you should add Google Checkout, as I got used to using it over PayPal (and sometimes wont convert) because PayPal got me real mad couple times in the past.
I am now paying PayPal $339 / month.
Recurly charges 1.25% + $0.10 / transaction + $69 / month. WireCard charges 2.75% + $0.19 / transaction + $24 / month. My total cost from these would then be about $473 / month. If I can get ~20 new customers because of this more convenient payment method, then it was worthwhile.
I'm also expecting some increased life happiness from having to deal less with PayPal (the interface is sloooow).
I see that you're running on App Engine, hence the question...
For example if I were to go to an anime expo in the US to sell candy there, then I would need to clear the customs and comply with FDA regulations such as the list of ingredients that have to appear in the packages.
But when I am situated here in Japan and people order things from me from all over the world, then they are the ones who are clearing the customs. However when the shipments are really small, customs is not a problem for the person receiving them and many countries have limits where you never need to deal with customs if the order size is small enough.
Of course, we're talking about Candy.. I'm just intrigued by the idea of shipping-worldwide subscription businesses in general.
I realize right now it's just a small operation but if you hit it big, what are the approval hoops that you have to run thru for stuff like that?
When it comes to sweets and deserts Japanese taste is so different from what's popular in the west. It might be interesting but I'm not sure I'd want to pay for a continuous supply.
French/Belgium products might appeal to western taste better.
Other than that - Good luck!
That might include Japanese people living abroad, students, workers living in the middle east for 12 months, etc
The service could very easily appeal to people living abroad and wanting a reminder of home every month.
If I started doing the importing on US side myself in bulk amounts, that would be a different story and would involve at least filing FDA prior notices.
Candy Japan is about the emotional experience. The design should reflect that!
