How to buy from Yahoo! Shopping Japan: complete guide

Do you want to buy items from Yahoo! Shopping, but it's not possible to enter an address outside of Japan? No problem, ZenMarket has got you covered. Continue reading for our step-by-step guide!

Things To Know About Yahoo! Japan.

"Yahoo!" is one of the pioneers of the Internet era. The American company was founded in 1994. Their search engine, which included the email service Yahoo! Mail, was number one among startups. 

While they lost this top spot worldwide, they managed to stay popular in Japan - Yahoo! Is still the most famous Internet portal here since one of its largest shareholders is the Japanese telecommunications and marketing giant Softbank Corp. They offer a search engine, email, news site, online auctions, and an eCommerce platform called "Yahoo! Shopping". 

What Is The Difference Between Yahoo! Shopping and Rakuten / Amazon?

Yahoo! Shopping (Japanese: "Yahoo! ショッピング) is a giant online platform with thousands of smaller stores listing items from all across Japan. It is smaller than Rakuten or Amazon but still effortless to use. 

Both Yahoo! Shopping and Rakuten are more store-oriented, while Amazon is more product-oriented. If you were to draw an offline parallel, Rakuten and Yahoo! Shopping are large shopping malls with different stores, while Amazon takes things from sellers and sells them themselves - rather like a big market or an outlet. 

Why Should I Use Yahoo! Shopping?

• Included in the product description are the shipping costs within Japan.
• Yahoo! Shopping is strict on store marketing policies.
• Item names are more transparent, and there are fewer ads on the site than on Rakuten.
• Yahoo! Shopping is very convenient and easy to understand, even without Japanese.
• Yahoo! Shopping is built into ZenMarket, so you don't have to leave our site to browse and shop.

The problem is that vendors on Yahoo! Shopping are very JDM (Japan-Domestic-Market) focused, meaning they almost only ever sell their products domestically, not internationally.

With ZenMarket, it becomes possible to shop on Yahoo! Shopping worldwide.

Step-By-Step Guide to Shopping with Yahoo! Japan.

1. Search for an Item

First, let's decide on an exciting Japanese product to buy. For example, let's say we wanted to have a gaming weekend, so we go on an online hunt for the famous Japanese game "Monster Hunter" (Japanese: モンスターハンター).

As mentioned before, Yahoo! Shopping is integrated into our website so that you can search items through the ZenMarket search field. Make sure you select Yahoo! Shopping from the stores and enter the keywords. 

Of course, keywords can be entered into the search bar in English, but we recommend entering them in Japanese if you want the most accurate results.

Don't know Japanese and panicked? Don't worry, that's what we are here for! Check out our 5 Tools to find Japanese products without knowing the language, and don't worry - it's straightforward.

^{* the name of the game（モンスターハンター） (Monster Hunter) is written in Japanese here in the search field}   

2. Browse Search Results

You can now compare the different products - sometimes, even similar articles may have varying prices based on other vendors and conditions (used or new). You should also check out the domestic shipping costs for Japan before adding a product to your basket. 

Because there may be many results (depending on your search), you may want to use some of the filters to get results that are more what you are looking for.

Filters that are available on Yahoo! Shopping are price, condition, whether the item is currently on discount, or whether the item has free domestic shipping within Japan.

3. View the Product Page

Click on an item, and you will be taken to the product page on ZenMarket. You can find all kinds of information here such as product images, the item name, the item description, whether the shipping cost of the item is free, the item condition, the item rating, the item availability, and the seller name.

Note that all of this information is translated automatically from Japanese, so there may be cases where it is not 100% accurate, though this usually only happens on the product name and description.

If you would like to know more information that you can't see on this page, you can ask us. Simply click on the "Ask a question about this item" link on the product page.

If you'd like to see the original product description yourself, you can click "This item page on Yahoo" - you will be redirected to the original page for the item as it is listed on Yahoo! Shopping. 

While you will be able to see a complete description of the item, it will almost always be written completely in Japanese. Don't worry; there is an easy way to view everything in any language if you are using Google Chrome - simply right click, choose "Translate to English," and let Google do the rest.

A few points on the Yahoo! Shopping page that are worth paying attention to are price (incl. tax), reviews, and shipping information. Don't click on "Add product to cart" on the Yahoo! Shopping page, as you cannot buy from Yahoo! Shopping directly.

4. Add Product to Cart

After looking at all the necessary information, we return to the ZenMarket page and add the product to the cart. In order to do this, you will need to have, or create a ZenMarket account. 

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When adding an item to your cart, be sure to enter any comments that our buying team need to know when purchasing your item for you. This may be size, color, or other customizable options available, that cannot be automatically specified on the ZenMarket website.

5. Pay for your Items

Our system will then check its availability for you and within a few minutes your item should be ready for purchase.

Once you pay for your items, ZenMarket will then contact the seller to purchase your items. 

Do note that if a Yahoo! Shopping seller has marked the availability incorrectly, there may be a chance we may not be able to make the purchase, even if it says it is available. In these cases, we will credit the funds back to your ZenMarket account.

Once our purchasing team buys your items, they will have them shipped to our warehouse in Osaka. From here you will be able to store your parcel for up to 45 days for free while you await other items you have ordered, consolidate your parcels, and organize international shipping from Japan.

And that's all you need to know about using Yahoo! Shopping on ZenMarket! If you ever need assistance with making a purchase feel free to let us know via the messages section on your account (login required), or from our help page.

Have fun buying original items on Yahoo! Shopping! Signup to ZenMarket now for ZenPoints welcome bonus!