How to Order from a Japanese Shopping Service (Treasure-Japan Review)

Do you want cool Japanese goods or cute Japanese clothing, but live overseas? The answer for you is to utilize a Shopping Service. The term “shopping service” had connotations of expensive and sketchy in my mind before making my first order through one. I was worried I’d be paying tons of money for things that would never arrive, but luckily I found a few trustworthy services that I will let you all know about as well as tips and tricks on how to know if a service is safe, and a step by step process of how I went about placing my last order that arrived yesterday. 

TIPS & TRICKS: SERVICES I TRUST

When shopping around for a Japanese Shopping Service, there are a few things you should look at to ensure the safe exchange of your money for the goods: payment method, calendar of operation, and reviews. First, does this service accept PayPal? It’s really important that they do, as PayPal will protect your money and give you a full refund if you do not receive your goods. Next, do they have a “calendar of operation?” If they do, it would be best to stay away. I’ve seen a few sites that seem to constantly be on vacation and only accept orders certain times of month/year. Likely, if you do receive your order from one of these sites, it will take ages. Lastly, please research the service you are thinking to use through honest/non-sponsored reviews (such as this one) that give a thorough explanation on how a service is good or bad. In this step-by-step I will be showing you how I made an order through a shopping service called Treasure-Japan as it is the only serviced I have personally used. The process was easy and quick; the support team kept in contact with me the whole time, and my goods arrived neatly package and on time. I have a few friends that have ordered through a service called Samurai Buyer who had good experiences as well; I might be wrong, but you may only be able to order from amazon.jp through Samurai. Either way, if you use the tips listed above, you should land in the arms of a trust-worthy service. 

STEP BY STEP: HOW TO ORDER FROM TREASURE-JAPAN

Create an Account: this can be done by clicking on the Log In button at the top right of the homepage, and then selecting the “Sign Up” button on the right half of the Log In Screen.

Shop: go to the Japanese website you want to order from. (I ordered my items pictured above from Ank Rouge.) Once you find an item you want, copy the URL that links to that item into the first shopping order form box. Next, copy and paste the item’s name into the second box. Then copy and paste the price into the third box (it should be in yen – to know how much you will be spending in US dollars multiply the number by .0083). Next type in your quantity as “1” or however many you would like. Last, fill out your comments box by saying the size and color you want the item in (if applicable). Below I have a screen capture of the blank form, and an example of it filled out. Once you have filled it out for your first item, select the orange “Add to Cart” button. You can continue adding items from your website and the “your cart” section will start to fill up.

Place your Order: Now that you have filled up your shopping cart with whatever items you wanted, double check that everything is correct by looking over the cart section of your shopping screen. You cannot cancel your order and you cannot change your order after this point. When you’re ready, scroll down to the bottom of the page. There will be a question on how you want 'out of stock' items handled. Once you’ve made your selection click “Proceed to Checkout.” At this point PayPal will load, and you can check out as a guest, make a free PayPal Account, or log in to your current PayPal Account to choose a card and process the order.

Shipping Invoice Request: After you have processed your order, support will contact you to let you know when they have purchased the items from the site, and give you an ETA on when it will arrive to them. Once they have received your things, they will update you again, and ask that you complete the shipping invoice request. I have not included a screen shot for this as it includes personal information; however, you will click on the tab “My Page” and scroll down to “Shipping Invoice Request.” Fill this out and select your shipping method. I selected EMS and my items arrived in 5 days. Once they have confirmed your invoice, your items will be on the way to your home!



I hope this informational post was useful to you. If anyone has ordered from a shopping service before post your experience below!