Japonica Market Review

안녕! 

Welcome back to the blog and the first review. 
I’ve never written a Shopping Service review before, so forgive me for any weird reasons or statements I make. You can always tell me what you don’t like, what I could do better or what you want to know more about in the comments below. 
They are appreciated and will help make the reviews better.

Moving on to the actual review.

Japonica Market was a Shopping Service I used when the others I’ve been using before did not have time or specialized on in-store shopping only.

Their website is really well-structured and I like that their website includes a window with the Exchange Rate as well as a clock with the time in Tokyo. People from all over the world would like to purchase things and this will help you with not only knowing when auctions will end but also with guessing when you will get a reply from the staff. 
Their business hours are all Week from 9AM-5PM and that’s when you can count on getting a reply from them.

I’ve heard that some Shopping Services don’t purchase from Mbok but with this Shopping Service you don’t have this problem. 

Here is a picture from their website which shows how the system works and what process it is. 

Once you found an item you like, you send Japonica Market an e-mail which looks something like this:

If you want to order more than just one thing, you can just copy the part about the item and write it down again in the same e-mail. 
Once Japonica Market received your message, they will send you an invoice which will be your maximum bid or the price of the email along with the paypal feels. 

The title of their email will change and you will see the status of the items, which could look something like this. 

After you have paid, they will bid/order for you. I didn’t get many updates from them and had to check the statuses of the auctions myself. 
I actually messaged them and asked them to let me know, since I had to figure out if I won or not by myself without any updates after the auctions had already ended. 

After my ‚complaint‘ they sent me a message every day with the status updates and have done that ever since. 

I really like that they list all of your items and the individual shipping costs and commission fees in the email. 
In the end it will look something like this:

(P) stands for the Price of the Item
(S) is for the shipping costs within Japan
(C) is the Commission/Service fee 

You will have to wait a few days for your orders to be shipped to the office and then you will get another invoice which will include shipping costs in Japan, service fees and shipping to your home. 
You can find a chart with shipping costs, depending on the weight and your destination on their website HERE. 

You will receive your final invoice along with an email which will have all of your expenses listed.

For me it was 10.880¥ for my items and shipping within Japan, 2.000¥ for their service, 4600¥ for shipping to my home and 272¥ Paypal fees.
I had already paid 10.500¥ before which meant it was a total of 17752¥ - the 10.500¥ I had already paid, leaving me with an invoice of 7252¥ left to pay. 

These are the commission rates for an item:

(If you order several things from the same seller or store, you will get a discount. The will only have to pay 50% of the commission fee for second item and it will be even less for a third, only 25%. )

You can store items for up to 30 days, in case you want to order more and save shipping costs by shipping the things together. 

These are the things that I got, including what the package looked like: 

 ☆ Overall Rating ☆

Cost: ★ ★ ★  Commission fee is fine. I’ve seen other SS’s which are more expensive but also some that are cheaper. This one’s in the middle so it’s getting 3 ★’s

Communication: ★ ★ ★ ★  They reply in english and you can understand most of what they are saying. There were a few sentences which sounded kind of weird but it was okay. 

Shipping: ★ ★ ★ ★ It’s a little expensive but your package arrives fast and is well-packaged with a lot of bubble wrap. 

Pros:

❤︎ The site is well-structured and easy to use
❤︎ Offers both EMS and Airmail
❤︎ Able to bid on auctions/Mbok
❤︎ Package is safe with enough bubble wrap
❤︎ Usually reply within a few hours

Cons:

✘ Don’t update you/ You have to ask for updates
✘ More expensive than other SS’s

I’m not sure if I will use this service again. I’m currently trying out many different services and want to see which one is the best for me personally. 
But this one is definitely a reliable SS and you won’t have any problems when you order with them. 

I hope you liked this review and will comment below.

민아