Sakura Trading

Yasuko Okumura, Morie Misumi

Q. Please tell us about your company's business, especially your business overseas.

 Our company sells kitchen knives and kitchen tools through cross-border EC and some BtoB. We started full-scale sales in 2020, with about half of our sales coming from North America, and the rest from Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, and Asia. We have been selling our products on eBay and Amazon FBA in the U.S., but we have received a lot of questions and requests from our customers. Many of our customers are professional chefs from overseas, who are very knowledgeable about Japanese knives and even fans of the makers. We also keep a certain amount of stock because many items are shipped from Japan.

Q. How did you choose OPTI?

 We were looking for a company that could help us with the changes to the VAT rules for non-EU cross-border EC businesses that were implemented in July 2021. In the process, we came across Opti through JETRO's articles and online research. We made inquiries to several companies, but the detailed explanation on the website of OPTI was the deciding factor. We had never heard of IOSS until OPTI introduced it to us, but we thought it would be perfect for our business, so we decided to go with IOSS. We are very satisfied with the best solution for our business.

Q. Please tell us the advantages of using IOSS.

 OPTI introduced IOSS (Import Onestop Shop) to us, and it is an excellent system that allows us to file tax returns for all products sold in the EU for less than 150 Euros through our website. The first is that you don't need to file tax returns in each country. Normally, you need to register and file VAT returns in each country where you sell your products and pay the tax regularly. However, with IOSS, you can complete your tax returns in the EU in one go. The second advantage of using IOSS is that customers do not have to pay VAT on arrival, which increases customer satisfaction. If you don't use IOSS, the logistics company will charge you a VAT collection fee on arrival, which is not beneficial to the customer. By using IOSS, the customer only has to pay the selling price, which is very clear and convenient for the customer. Finally, we heard that sellers in countries outside the EU were introducing IOSS, so we did not want to be left behind.

Q. Please tell us your aspirations for your future business and anything you would like to say to us.

 In the future, we would like to further expand our product line and increase the number of shipments. We would be very happy if we can increase the number of our company's fans using our website as a base. We hope that OPTI will continue to provide optimal solutions such as IOSS in the future.