selling to Japan: payment method
If you wish to sell your products to Japan via your online shop, I suggest you to look into accepting JCB card.
JCB is a Japan based credit card. Although not well known outside the country, it is the most widely accepted credit card in the country. Some consumers in Japan – particularly the younger ones who haven’t traveled much abroad - only own JCB card.
To cater to this population, many airlines and hotels accept the card, and so do the retailers in tourist destinations such as Hawaii and Korea where the Japanese love to travel to.
Another payment method that you might want to consider is money order issued by Japan Post Bank. Established in 2007 as a result of privatization of government owned Japan Post, Japan Post Bank is the largest bank in Japan and one of the largest in the world in terms of total assets.
Japan Post Bank’s money order can be made either to your bank account or street address. Bank account maybe a better choice because it’s faster (4-6 days vs. 5-12 days estimated) and it involves no fee on your end. With the money order made to your street address, on the other hand, you might have to pay a fee when depositing the money order, depending on your bank.
The drawback of money order made to your bank account is that if you don’t want to post your bank account number on your website, you need to correspond it to your customer.
Nakamura-san;
I’ve returned to your site from time to time over the past two years. It’s well-written and for us it’s timely stuff.
We’ve launched an e-commerce business in Japan. We’ve been hunting for credible and affordable provider of credit card clearance. The Japanese providers are prohibitively expensive for a start-up and the overseas ones either don’t handle JCB or don’t deal with firms based in Japan.
Can you recommend any service providers?
Thanks and keep up the writing! 8^)
18 Jun 2010 at 10:12 pm
Hi Micharel; Thank you for your comment. Have you looked at X Cart? There are also some sites like this one that compares shopping carts. Hope it helps.
20 Jun 2010 at 4:31 pm
Thanks for the tips, I’ll look into those options. 8^)
24 Jun 2010 at 2:32 pm
Also, I just found out that you can use JCB card - in addition to VISA, Master and Discover - via Paypal. Paypal site in Japanese language shows JCB. You don’t need to have a Paypal account to pay with your credit card. Paypal would probably be the easiest and fastest option for you. The drawback is that Paypal is not as widely used in Japan as in the US. I think it would help if you provide some information about Payal and explain how easy it is to use it.
24 Jun 2010 at 3:36 pm