Is It Good or Bad? - Amazon Japan Convenience Store Pickup

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Is It Good or Bad? - Amazon Japan Convenience Store Pickup

As I mentioned in my previous entry, a week before my husband went on business trip to Japan last month, I ordered Panasonic hair dryer from Amazon Japan. He picked up my item at the convenience store which was located near his hotel in Tokyo. We have used Amazon Japan some times when we visited our parents home in Fukuoka, Japan before, but it was our first time to receive our order at convenience store in Tokyo. Wow, it was very convenient, and we really loved it! Indeed, this month he went to Japan for his business trip again and picked up items we ordered at home in the U.S. :) Anyway, I'm going to share with you five reasons why I love Amazon Japan convenience store pickup.

Why do I love Amazon Japan convenience store pickup?

1. You can pick up your items even though you don't live in Japan.
     Amazon Japan allows you to choose convenience store pickup option, so you can pick up your package while you are traveling Japan. :) In Japan, convenience stores are everywhere especially in big cities like Tokyo. Indeed, it took him only one minute by walking from his hotel to the convenience store.

2. You can save a lot of time in Japan.
If you don't live in Japan, you probably don't have enough time to shop around while staying in Japan. You can skip in-store shopping by ordering from Amazon Japan. Indeed, he only stayed in Japan for one night last month, so he obviously didn't have time to go to an electric store to purchase my Japanese hair dryer. Because we ordered it from Amazon Japan, he was able to get it without spending a lot of time for it.

3. You can check reviews before purchasing.
You can find highly rated products by reading reviews in Japanese. It's very helpful when you try to find new products.

4. Some items are more affordable than ones at stores.
      I found some beauty items on Amazon Japan are slightly less expensive than ones at drugstores. However, groceries are a few dollar more expensive than ones at supermarkets there. (The price may vary though.)

5. You can get requested items easily.
     If you go to a store and shop for yourself, you can enjoy shopping there. However, if someone asks you to purchase products which you have never been interested in, it's pretty hard to find the right one. If the item is out of stock, which product should you buy then? When I ask my husband to purchase beauty items for me at drugstores in Japan, I try to choose easy items which he has often seen at home. However, I can order girl's stuffs from Amazon Japan without too much hesitation. He just need to pick up the packages in Japan. :)

   However, I don't think ordering Amazon Japan is always a good idea. :( These are three disadvantages of Amazon convenience store pickup.

What are disadvantages of Amazon Japan convenience store pickup?

1. You cannot order whatever you want.
   They only ship items sold by Amazon.co.jp to convenience stores. Some items are not eligible for store pickup such as items shipped by Amazon Market Place Sellers and too big items.

2. You need to pick up your items before the pick-up period expires.
     The convenience store pickup period is within 11 days from the date you get a delivery notice e-mail. They deliver pretty fast especially around Tokyo area. My packages were arrived at the convenience store one to two days after I ordered them. To be safe, I ordered the items 6 days before my husband was flying to Japan.

3. You need to understand Japanese sometimes.
   You can choose a language preference from Japanese, English and Chinese on Amazon Japan. If you cannot read Japanese at all, it might be difficult to order from Amazon Japan. My first language is Japanese, but I chose English in order to share my experience of shopping on Amazon Japan with you through my blog. Even when you set English as your language preference, item titles, item descriptions and reviews are still Japanese. When you are choosing at which convenience store you want to pick up your items, they show shipping store lists in Japanese.