How we price - adventures in exchange rates

Hi there!

One of the big questions we've seen come up from those who haven't visited us yet is "what's your markup?" A fair question, since we obviously have to make a profit. And most companies that sell Japanese fashion in the US usually have some sort of markup (even Uniqlo usually costs more here - in their own stores!).

But we really don't. The dollar is really weak against the yen right now, so any perceived markup between the Japanese and US price is just the current exchange rate. All we normally do is take the exchange rate and then "round up" or add some token amount to help cover our shipping costs - which are pretty significant.

The bottom line is except for when Japanese retailers or brands are having sales, you should never be paying more buying through us than you would ordering directly from Japan. 1 dollar doesn't equal 100 yen right now - more like 88.

Here's a quick trick: Google will tell you the dollar price of anything in yen. Try "27800 yen in dollars". This is actually the price of the Innocent World Elda jumper skirt. Right now as I write this, it comes to a little over $309 - and we just add $5 for shipping from Japan, which is less than what it actually costs.

But we realize the need to keep things somewhat reasonable, so we eat part of that cost. $314 may sound like a lot more than 27800 yen, but it's not - it is $5 more. That's our markup - $5 on a $300 dress. No shopping service will be able to get this jumper skirt to you for less, and neither will buying direct, because the price is driven by the exchange rate and unless you have a bunch of yen lying around, you are going to need to change dollars into yen. (In our physical store, we're also required by law to charge sales tax on items over $110.)

The exchange rate does change, and our prices for future items could go up or down depending on that.

Hopefully this was informative - we're doing our best to keep things affordable.