Would this work with ads? Organic, free traffic from HN and blogs is nice, but it seems more like a low probability gamble than something you could count on. Your growth is going to be random and you really can't do any projections.
The lifetime value of each subscriber is really high, so it seems to make sense that you could spend $XX in customer acquisition costs.
I've wanted to do something similar for a while, but this is really my only sticking point.
Organic traffic from blogs, HN and Google is really the only thing I've found that works. I have tried several paid advertising campaigns, but they usually end up costing nearly $100 per conversion. Maybe the ad copy / targeting could be optimized enough to get below LTV, but doing those tests would be very expensive.
I've sort of abandoned the idea that there would be some easy way to just get traffic coming in. It's more a fight for finding and retaining each subscriber. Also ads aren't completely on autopilot either, as channels change. When you buy some ad space, it might work OK at first but then work less well in the future as visitors to those sites have already seen your ad. So have to keep following if each purchase still makes sense.
Let's say you can optimize it down to $75 with better ad copy:
* Higher CTR -> lower spend
Then let's say you can optimize it down to $50 with better conversion funnel tracking
* You get their email and then send them a free eBook about Japanese candy or stationery, then you ask them if you have permission to keep contacting them. If yes, you keep providing value and eventually sell them on more Candy Japan packages.
* You include the video on your page
Then you instrument a referral incentive system
* You give someone double-candy if they refer a friend
Then you ask the people who aren't retaining why they aren't retaining. You bucket their complaints into categories and you provide solutions.
* "I only needed it for this one specific occasion" -> You sell them a gift subscription package instead, at a much lower price, so the recipient knows they are still thinking of them, with bigger upside kicking it at later months. i.e., month 1 = one piece of candy, month 2 = two additional pieces of candy, month 3 = 3 additional pieces of candy
I'm finding that when I ask people "why are you cancelling?" I don't get any actionable suggestions, mostly just people running out of money or that they've already had enough candy.
Have enough candy seems quite actionable. Why not offer a less frequent plan to these folks, say twice a quarter instead of twice a month, and you could pick a festival or holiday for people to celebrate with candy. "Here's your Sapporo Snow Festival candy pack! Look for Cherry Blossom celebration in 2 months".
\) Can you try switching them to "Pen Japan" 1.1 months before the usual cancellation point? This could be done with an opt-in.
\) Incrementally iterating on Mithaldu's idea, can you try giving them a price break (and announcing it with an email!) 1.1 months before the usual cancellation point?
\) Can you add a "But wait! If you stay around, you can get a 10% discount on your subscription cost" last-minute notice to your cancellation page, that is only presented if the user has been around for (the mean cancellation time - 1.1months)?
This. I wanted so badly to sign up, my girlfriend and I go to Chinese grocery stores and stock up on junk food a few times a year. Getting top ups and bring exposed to Japanese products would be awesome, but $25 a month is pretty dear for a monthly product. At $10/month for less frequent candy it would be a nobrainer for me.
It is semi-monthly. Though I think monthly would be sufficient. It might be something to poll the customer base about (Moar candy or moar frequency?)
Hopefully with volume, better manufacturer/distributor relationships, maybe lower-cost fulfillment offshore and changing of shipping method/frequency, they can lower the price or increase the quantities.
One positive for this entrepreneur is that people already associate "Japan" with "expensive", so the sticker shock isn't really unexpected.
I am a client of Bemmu's and I can tell you the two weeks don't come fast enough.
In our country, they will send you a notice in the post when a package has arrived. And then you have to go queue at the post office to receive it. However, every week I now find myself queueing at the post office just to see if any candy packages might have arrived.
I think the twice a month deliveries are great as they are still pretty far apart that you aren't sick of them yet. Lately the packages have increased in size and its a good size to make it enjoyable but not put you off sweets for a while.
Bemmu - You mentioned that a lot of people have un-subscribed, is this after you have changed from using an envelope size package to the new larger box?
I didn't think of the box versus letter issue as well. Fetching parcels from my local post office is a 20 minute walk, it can be annoying after a long day of work.
That said, based on the testimony I've seen here I might try a few months and see...
Or to keep a handle on shipping costs, monthly, quarterly or even yearly packages?
One thing I actually appreciate about some of the random time-insensitive purchases I've made from HK/China on Ebay is that I tend to forget I've made my purchase by the time it arrives. It's like an unexpected Christmas.
Where have you been advertising? Places with NSFW content tend to have much lower ad prices because most advertisers won't touch them, but many of them (4chan and Danbooru come to mind) are probably pretty good for the audience you're looking for.
I agree! Twitch.TV might also have channels that you could send some candy to, and see if they would advertise Candy Japan to their viewers. While it's a bit different from the usual content, G2A (sells games) got a huge boost (the site even died a few times because of the traffic) from Lirik's referral link.
The lifetime value of each subscriber is really high, so it seems to make sense that you could spend $XX in customer acquisition costs.
I've wanted to do something similar for a while, but this is really my only sticking point.