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Maxwell Thomas and graduate school classmate Thomas Kase combined their backgrounds in marketing and fashion and business and technology, tossed in years of having lived in Japan, saw a business niche that needed to be filled and set out to do so.
Today, US-Style.com, their brainchild, was officially launched. It is the first online community-based shopping mall targeting Japanese consumers with a taste for American goods. After one stalled attempt at selling American and European house wares online to Japanese consumers, Thomas expects this effort to succeed.
"There's a very high ratio of Internet users in Japan -- predominantly women -- interested in American products," Thomas, US-Style.com CEO, told the E-Commerce Times Tuesday. "There aren't really many sites in Japanese selling goods to consumers, so we saw the huge potential of this and brought the idea to American retailers."
The US-Style.com site debuts on Yahoo! Japan and will feature goods from barnesandnoble.com, CDNow, Outpost.com, Toysmart, CD Universe, Omaha Steaks and Vermont Teddy Bear. Thomas said he expects that roster of retailers to expand as the company enters into a third round of venture capital financing. The first, he said with a laugh, ''was from friends and family,'' while the second round raised $1 million in private equity financing.
The site started actually selling goods on May 5th, Thomas said. Already, trends are starting to emerge. One young Japanese man bought every Beach Boys title ever issued, he said, a sign that pure old American nostalgia icons are still in fashion.
The road to Tuesday's launch was not an easy one, but the company's concept did win over some retailers. Many, Thomas said, had designs on entering the Japanese market, but were still a year or two away. To have a portal sell their goods in the Japanese language, with Japanese customer support and infrastructure, was a way for them to dip their toe in the water without getting completely wet.
The potential is certainly there, said Thomas. With over 14 million online users, Japan is the second largest Internet market and all projections have it only getting bigger in future years. Internet users in Japan are said to be growing at a faster clip than in the U.S. and projected online sales for this year are some $2 billion, Thomas pointed out.
There are some anticipated bumps in the road. The Japanese economy, like much of the rest of Asia, is in a deep funk. That will surely hinder US-Style's short-term progress somewhat, but establishing and maintaining a presence now should pay off down the road.
Thomas said the company eventually plans to expand to Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and, if all goes right, to mainland China, the enigmatic question mark in the global e-commerce future. For now, he says, US-Style will need to concentrate on the task at hand.
"There's no direct competition for what we are doing, but we expect to see some in the future," Thomas predicted. "We just need to continue to think like our customers and offer them the kinds of products they want." million.
