eSakura Market Co.

Mr. Hiroshi Funada, Representative Director

Q. Please tell us about your company's business.

I was originally an office worker of a major logistics company, but in 2011, I started a resale business on Amazon Japan, mainly selling used cameras. I gradually found stable suppliers, and my monthly sales reached 1 million yen a year after I started.

After that, I was able to continuously earn over 1 million yen in monthly sales from Amazon Japan, Yahoo and Ebay, so I quit my job and established this corporation in 2014.

As for overseas expansion, Amazon Japan approached me when my domestic business got on track, so I expanded to Amazon U.S.A. After the U.S. market picked up, we expanded our business to Europe. The products we handle include cosmetics, general goods, cameras, toys, etc., and we have been expanding our business while searching for products on our own that sell well.

I am also currently an instructor at a school for cross-border e-commerce. I have trained more than 100 cross-border e-commerce sellers over the past three years.

Q. How did you choose OPTI?

For the most part I do everything myself, but I had no knowledge about the complex VAT in Europe. I consulted with a logistics company, and they introduced me to OPTI.

Since I am a specialist in product sales, I wanted to leave tax matters to tax specialists and spend my time on product sales and coaching students of the cross-border e-commerce school. I found it very helpful when I was introduced to OPTI, a company that specializes in European VAT.

Q. What did you like about OPTI’s services?

We needed to submit various documents to the local tax authorities when registering for VAT, but OPTI carefully explained to us in Japanese what we needed to do, by when, and in what form. All I had to do was prepare what I was told, and everything went very smoothly.

As for the VAT returns, all we had to do was hand over the data; OPTI did everything else for us, preparing tax return certificates and calculating the amount of tax we needed to pay.

Also, OPTI is familiar with the different cases of Japanese companies and therefore is able to give advice about complex consultations, unlike overseas firms.

Q. What are your ambitions for the future?

Even though cross-border e-commerce is growing because of COVID-19, competition is getting intense, so we are starting to handle our own brand products as well as reselling other companies' products. To be specific, we are focusing on apparel, and are working with Asian manufacturers to develop our own original products and sell them through Japanese e-commerce. Depending on how we appeal to our customers and how we sell our products, we believe we have a good chance, so we would like to develop our business without relying on other companies' products.