ZenPlus, a Japanese Shopping Paradise

January 26 2023

Are you a fan of good quality, innovative Japanese products? Here is a paradise for you! ZenPlus is an online marketplace where more than 2,000 Japan-based shops advertise their products for sale. Their mission is to connect genuine local Japanese shops and overseas customers by eliminating barriers that often separate the two. Current showcased products cover a wide variety including anime goods, plushies, foods & drinks, drugstore beauty products, kitchenware, traditional Japanese goods, handmade products, souvenirs, Japanese-language manga, DVDs, games, and many others.

Any interesting shops in ZenPlus?

For example, you could find Nicker, the poster color brand used by Japanese animation studios like Studio Ghibli. There's also one of the most famous Uji-tea brands, Nakamura Tokichi, and a big name well known among figure lovers, Kaiyodo. And many, many more.

How does ZenPlus work?

The online shopping mall is designed to give users the simplest shopping experience possible. The prices, which are originally all set in Japanese yen by the seller, are automatically converted to any of the supported currencies in order to avoid any unpleasant surprises during payment.

While browsing items you might see a message on the page stating "This item might be prohibited by customs for international shipping. We will verify this after you place your order." This means the staff will verify if the product (and the amount you purchased) is accepted by shipping companies and not prohibited in your country before sending it. Unlike many cases encountered when using shopping proxy services, should an item not be fit for travel, it will be fully refunded along with all shipping fees.

Found something interesting but you are not sure about the specifics of the article? As long as you have a registered account it is possible to send an inquiry directly from the item page you are viewing. The ZenPlus staff will translate it and forward it directly to the shop, then translate the shop's answer back to you. This professional service ensures that no nuance is lost in translation.

A welcome perk is that even if you purchase items from different shops, ZenPlus will pack them all together at no additional cost. Once your cart is full and you are ready to check out, the final page will show exactly how much you are paying for your parcel. Because of the various legislations across the world however, ZenPlus is not able to apprise if and how much import duties you will owe to your country's customs. Make sure to research that in advance.

A bonus for residents of the EU, the UK, Norway and Australia is that value-added tax (or GST) owed at import is prepaid to ZenPlus, which will pay it for you so you will most likely not have any interaction with customs officers.

What can you find on ZenPlus?

While there are shops big and small advertising on the platform, the company actively recruits smaller, family-run businesses. This way articles seldom found abroad can be enjoyed around the world. The focus is on quality over speed. Since ZenPlus does not hold stock of any advertised item directly, they must wait for the shop to forward it to them first. Once the item arrives at the ZenPlus distribution center, it is re-packed with everything else you purchased. The team takes great pride in their packing staff who produce some of the sturdiest packages around - they have scarcely any record of claims about an item being broken or bent due to their packing. A recent hit is an item that requires no package reinforcing: Shinada Global's plush toys.

Circling back to the "unknown local shops", ZenPlus have recently been promoting articles from a certain geographic area in Japan. The current campaigns are for products originating in Tottori prefecture and the Hokuriku region, both coming with a welcome discount code for selected shops. Due to the season, there is of course an ongoing New Year campaign too. According to information shared with ZenPlus, this Trick-taking card game has sold on average a piece every day since the shop joined in early January. And speaking of crazes from Japan, Beyblades continue to be a top seller according to the ZenPlus team. Apart from these hand-picked examples, it is also worth browsing the culinary section for genuine ingredients, or anime goods for figures of your favorite characters.

Why consider ZenPlus?

The simple, sleek website interface and functionality offer a refreshingly uncomplicated shopping experience, backed up by a team passionate about building a bridge between The Land of the Rising Sun and the rest of the world. Should there be something amiss with the article you ordered, they will automatically ask the shop for a replacement before they send it to you or give you other options. The sellers take responsibility that the articles are genuine and the contract between the customer and ZenPlus protects the user should anything go wrong. The process ends with a one-click payment and allows for parcel tracking once the package is sent.

All of the above make the ZenPlus online store our recommendation for anything you might want to get direct from Japan!

• ZenPlus Website