Service fee by marketplace
| Buying from | Fee |
|---|---|
| a ZenMarket recommended store | ¥300 per item |
| Amazon.co.jp | ¥500 per item |
| Rakuten Ichiba | ¥500 per item |
| any Japanese online shop | ¥500 per item |
| Mercari Japan | ¥800 per item |
| Yahoo! Auctions | ¥800 per item |
| Rakuten Rakuma | ¥500 per item |
Other charges
- Payment / deposit fee: 3.5% of the gross transaction (about 3.63% on top of what you need)
- Packing / consolidation: included
- Free storage: 60 days
- Export clearance fee: not published
When ZenMarket is actually the cheapest
Fee tables do not answer that on their own, so here is the same set of orders priced through all five services, showing where ZenMarket lands:
| Order | ZenMarket | Total | Beaten by |
|---|---|---|---|
| one ¥10,000 item, 1kg, to the United States | 5th | ¥17,409 | Doorzo ¥16,300 |
| three separate items from one shop | 5th | ¥18,135 | Buyee ¥16,500 |
| a heavy 3kg parcel | 5th | ¥22,591 | Doorzo ¥21,300 |
| an expensive ¥100,000 item | 5th | ¥110,674 | Doorzo ¥106,300 |
| a light 200g order to Taiwan | 5th | ¥13,993 | Doorzo ¥13,023 |
ZenMarket does not come out cheapest on any of these five, which does not make it a bad choice (what it bundles in for the money is covered above). If price is the only thing you care about, though, the comparison pages below will show you which service to use instead.
ZenMarket in each of the 9 destinations
On the same ¥10,000, 1 kg Mercari order, ZenMarket is the cheapest (or joint cheapest) of the five for 0 destinations out of 9. The postage is the same whichever service you use, so the differences below come from fees and from how each service handles tax.
| Ship to | ZenMarket | Rank | Cheapest instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | ¥17,409 | 5th | Doorzo, ¥1,109 less |
| Canada | ¥16,477 | 5th | Doorzo, ¥1,077 less |
| United Kingdom | ¥19,357 | 5th | Doorzo, ¥1,077 less |
| Australia | ¥17,917 | 5th | Doorzo, ¥1,077 less |
| Germany | ¥19,213 | 5th | Doorzo, ¥1,077 less |
| France | ¥19,357 | 5th | Doorzo, ¥1,077 less |
| Singapore | ¥16,365 | 5th | Doorzo, ¥1,031 less |
| Taiwan | ¥14,807 | 5th | Doorzo, ¥997 less |
| Hong Kong | ¥15,181 | 5th | Doorzo, ¥1,031 less |
As the item gets more expensive
ZenMarket's own charges grow with the price of the item, from ¥1,123 on a ¥3,000 item to ¥4,641 on ¥100,000, because part of what it charges is a percentage. The table uses the same 1 kg Mercari order to the United Kingdom at four prices; "own charges" excludes the postage and the tax, which do not depend on the service.
| Item price | ZenMarket's own charges | Total | Against the cheapest |
|---|---|---|---|
| ¥3,000 | ¥1,123 | ¥10,703 | +¥923 vs Doorzo |
| ¥10,000 | ¥1,377 | ¥19,357 | +¥1,077 vs Doorzo |
| ¥50,000 | ¥2,827 | ¥68,807 | +¥2,527 vs Doorzo |
| ¥100,000 | ¥4,641 | ¥130,621 | +¥4,341 vs Doorzo |
Storage, and what happens if you leave things too long
ZenMarket stores a purchase free for 60 days from the moment it reaches their warehouse. After that it is ¥50 per item per day. This matters more than it sounds: the free window is what lets you win several auctions over a few weeks and ship them together in one box, which saves far more in postage than the storage costs. Leave it past the limit and the item is disposed of, with no compensation.
Optional services you may end up paying for
- Photographs of the item before it ships: ¥500 for 3. On a second-hand auction purchase this is often the only way to find out what you actually bought before it leaves Japan.
- Repacking after the parcel is made up: ¥1,000–¥4,000 depending on weight.
- Reinforced packing: ¥1,000 per box.
- Cancelling after the item has reached the warehouse: ¥1,000, and not possible at all for auction or flea-market purchases.
- Disposing of something that cannot be exported: ¥300 per kg, plus ¥1,000 per 15 minutes of work. Batteries are ¥300–¥3,200 each.
- Digital goods such as game codes: an extra 10% of the item price.
Import tax collected up front
- AU: GST 10%
- NZ: GST 15%
- GB: VAT 20%
- NO: VAT 25%
- CH: VAT 8.1%
- SG: GST 9%
- KZ: VAT 16%
- DE: VAT 19%
- FR: VAT 20%
Where tax is collected up front you pay nothing extra when the parcel arrives, and you usually avoid the courier's own customs handling charge.