Originally published by Hugs for All
“I’ve been using ZenMarket as a proxy service for around 8 months now and in that time I’ve used them to buy all sorts of goodies from Japanese shops, like Suruga-ya, Yahoo Japan Auctions (the Japanese equivalent of ebay), Amazon Japan and Mandarake, that I wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to purchase.
So today I’d like to introduce you to why I think ZenMarket is a 5 star company. Firstly, everything is always packed efficiently and safely with plenty of bubble wrap and newspaper packing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a wall scroll, manga set or anime figure, it will be protected from the potential hazards of international shipping. Speaking of shipping, I love the range of shipping options. Every order comes with free tracking, and EMS and most other options also come with free insurance. I just received my latest order, as you can see above, they also include a lovely thank you flyer in different languages. The box itself is incredibly sturdy, so I can only imagine what the paid option for an extra reinforced parcel would be like.
Secondly, customer service is amazing. When I first started out I was confused about some basic things like internal shipping costs, but they’re always happy to help out, and will even help you translate listings if google translate isn’t up to par. There are other proxy services I know people use, but I’m convinced zenmarket is the best choice. They’re open everyday except Sunday, so you shouldn’t worry about your items selling out. They also offer free package consolidation, which is a life saver when buying things from multiple shops or auctions. The service fee per item is a mere 300 yen, or $3.60 AUD, and sometimes they offer sales where it only costs 100 yen per item. If you buy things through Zenmarket place, they even waive the fee completely.
They’re just completely customer focused in a way that really stands out nowadays, and they even allow credit to frequent customers for convenience. They offer several ways to pay, but I generally use paypal. I also love adding auctions I want to buy in their watchlist, because then I can choose to have email notifications about when they are ending.
While I generally buy most of my anime figures preowned, I generally shy away from buying them without boxes, but no more. Guess how many anime figures are in that incredibly well packed pile? The answer is four. Here’s my favorite!
I’d really encourage everyone who read this to give them a try. Here’s a link to their homepage https://zenmarket.jp/en/ and know that they’ll let you buy your first item with no service fee! Go forth and find the discounts, my friends!”
About ZenMarket Japan
“Most Japanese online retailers don’t ship internationally, but we solve this problem. We buy, consolidate and ship Japanese goods to your address. Our goal is to make buying Japanese goods online as smooth as possible. We have integrated the biggest Japanese online shopping websites: Rakuten, Amazon and Yahoo!Auctions. You can also make purchases from any other Japanese online shop or auction with us. Just add an item URL from the desired product page to the cart and place the order. You can also bid real time on the biggest Japanese auction website, Yahoo!Auctions. We started this service with providing shopping facilitation for Russian clients in September 2013. Thousands of satisfied customers convinced us that our service has real value. In May 2014 we launched the English version, and now we work with all countries and ship world wide. Most recently, in November 2014 we launched a service for live bidding on Yahoo!Auctions in Japan.” — From website about section.
