CandyJapan Sends Sweets with Simple Subscription Model
Subscription models are cool. Provide a service to your customers, who in return pay a recurring fee. That’s the idea behind CandyJapan.com, a service that sends you (surprise, surprise) candy from Japan [1]. It was created by Bemmu Sepponen, a Finnish national living in Japan, and he operates it part time. And there are so many reasons why I love this idea that I’m not really sure where to start.
サブスクリプション・モデルはクールだ。自分の顧客にサービスを提供すると、その見返りに彼らは継続的に支払いを行ってくれる、と言うシステムだ。CandyJapan.comのアイディアはまさにそれで、このサービスは（驚くべきことに）キャンディーを日本から送ってくれるのだ[１]。日本に住むフィンランド出身のBemmu Sepponen氏によってこのサービスは作り上げられ、彼はこのサービスを非常勤体制で運営している。私がなぜこのアイディアが好きなのかといいう理由はたくさんありすぎて、どこから始めれば良いのか分からないくらいだ。
Japanese candy can be very unusual, and strangely, people all over the world are interested to buy it – whether it’s the many flavors of Kit-Kat or a DIY candy dumplings kit. The tagline for the CandyJapan service is “snacks from Japan to anywhere, twice a month, for $24.” And so far Bemmu seems to be doing well.
You can read a complete account of Bemmu’s story on his blog, aptly titled “I Make Stuff.” Here’s a quick excerpt from his year-end retrospective, after six months of selling:
Bemmu氏にふさわしいタイトル「物作りしています」と名づけられたブログで彼の背景などの詳細を読むことができる。こちらは6ヶ月間販売を続けた後の彼の年末の回顧論を簡単に抜粋したものだ：
"Since I had been buying a lot of candy very regularly from the supermarket (I represent about 50 percent of their candy sales), my relationship with the manager had become good enough that I could ask him for help. He agreed to try if they could just do the packaging inside the supermarket, so that we wouldn’t need to move the boxes home
Since I now knew very well the effort involved in making a package, I knew how much time it would take them to do it for me. We agreed on a flat per package packing fee. The initial trial run went well, and they have been making packages for me ever since. I just show up twice a month there with the address labels and other materials I have prepared and they take care of the rest. Post office picks up the packages directly from the supermarket. This has almost turned into a drop-shipping operation."
Even though Bemmu’s service looks pretty successful so far, with $36,000 worth of candy shipped so far, he notes that his subscriber count peaked at around 300 and started to subsequently decline. I asked Bemmu, if he could increase the number of subscriptions [2], could he still handle the higher volume in shipments? He explains:
" If I could find a sustainable source of traffic that converts well enough and is cheap enough to continue buying, there is nothing really unscalable about back-end of the business. I would be able to handle 10,000 subscribers if that amount suddenly subscribed tomorrow. Almost everything is automated and I have a partnership with a company that helps me fulfill the orders."
「購入し続けるために十分な換算高の良いトラフィックソースを見つけることができ、またそれらが手頃な料金であれば、事業のバックエンドにおいて実現不可能なことなどないだろう。例え明日突然1万人もの顧客が加入したとしても、それら全員の顧客に対応することができるだろう。ほぼ全てが自動化されていて、私は全注文をさばくために私の手助けをしてくれる企業とのパートナーシップ提携も行っている。」
「荷物をきちんと運んでくれて、継続できるくらい安価な、頼りになる輸送手段を確保できれば、このビジネスの拡大を阻むものは何もない。明日、10.000人の申し込みが突然殺到しても、その数なら処理することができるだろう。ほとんどすべて自動化されているし、注文に応えられるよう助けてくれる会社との協力体制もあるんだ。」
I really hope that things go well for Bemmu, because it’s just a stellar idea all around, I think. I love that he’s openly talking about his projects publicly on his blog, and inviting advice from readers and fans. I can’t help but wonder what might happen if he could work on this full time. Perhaps he might list CandyJapan on Quarterly.co, another subscription service where users can sign up to get items from assorted web personalities? [3]
I encourage you to check out the website at CandyJapan.com, or check out the Facebook page. And of course, if you enjoy candy, don’t hesitate to sign up! In the meantime, check out this awesome candy hamburger, just one of the many treats that Bemmu has sent as part of his service.
1 Seriously, why didn’t we have subscription candy when I was a kid? ↩
2 Bemmu manages the subscription payments using simple/regular Paypal subscription buttons. ↩
3 Although to be fair, Bemmu’s service has almost as much of a following as Quarterly does. ↩
１．本当に、何故、私が子供だった頃にキャンディの定期購入サービスといったものがなかったのだろう。
２．Bennuのサイトでは、simple/regularのPaypal購入ボタンを押すことで、支払い可能。
３．当然かもしれないが、BemmuのサービスはQuarterlyと同じくらいの数のファンがいる。
１．マジで、なんで私が子供の頃、サブスクリプション・キャンディーがなかったんだろう？↩
２．Bemmu氏は、シンプルな/従来のPayPalサブスクリプションボタンを使用してサブスクリプションで発生する支払いを管理している。↩
３．公平な立場から見ても、Bemmu氏のサービスでは、Quarterlyが提供する下記サービスのほぼ全てをオファーしている。↩
