Build an international ecommerce site from Japan – start with a free demo store

What changes when you build a store for overseas buyers

Product pages and the cart work the same as in any online shop. The difference is that your customers know little about Japan or your brand, so every piece of information and every step of the purchase has to be handled on the site itself.

• Language: English first, then other languages such as Traditional or Simplified Chinese for the markets you target
• Currency and prices: show prices in yen, or in local currencies such as USD or EUR
• Payments: cards issued abroad, PayPal, Apple Pay and other methods common in the target country
• Shipping and duties: how shipping is calculated, delivery times and who pays import duties and taxes

Settle these four points before choosing a platform or theme, and you avoid rebuilding later. Start with one to three target countries and design backwards from what a buyer there needs to feel confident.

Why overseas visitors leave without buying

If you already get international traffic but few orders, the cause is usually one of the following. Fixing them during the build is the fastest way to get a cross-border store moving.

• Product descriptions are raw machine translation, so materials and usage are unclear
• Shipping costs appear only at the last step of checkout
• Sizes, volumes and ingredients use Japanese conventions that are hard to compare
• There is no English page for returns, contact details or business information
• Familiar payment methods are missing, or card authentication fails
• The site never says the order ships from Japan or how long delivery takes

All of these come from one assumption worth keeping in mind: overseas buyers do not know your shop yet. If running orders and shipping in-house is too much, you can outsource parts of the operation – see how to choose a cross-border e-commerce agency.

Requirements checklist for a cross-border store

Write down your position on each item before asking for quotes. It makes proposals comparable and keeps extra costs down during the build. "Not decided yet" is a fine answer for now.

• Countries and languages: where you sell first, which languages, which markets may come later
• Pricing: local currency display, prices per country, shipping included or added
• Payments: cards, PayPal, digital wallets – which ones matter most
• Shipping: Japan Post international services, couriers such as DHL or FedEx, how rates are calculated
• Duties: paid by the customer on delivery, or built into your prices
• Restricted products: food, alcohol, cosmetics and items with batteries follow different rules per country
• Policy pages in English: returns, privacy, terms of service, business information

Food, alcohol and cosmetics in particular depend on each country's import and labeling rules. Always check the current conditions with official sources and your shipping carrier. If you plan to sell sake abroad, see also websites for sake breweries.

Building the English and multilingual version

Translation quality and URL structure decide how well a multilingual store performs. This order works well for most shops:

• List what needs translating: product names and descriptions, cart, notification emails and policy pages
• Choose how to translate: machine translation as a first draft, with product copy and brand story adapted to natural local phrasing
• Separate URLs by language: paths such as /en/, with hreflang telling search engines which pages belong together
• Use local units: cm and inches, grams and ounces, local date and address formats
• Review photos: add images that show size and use, and replace images with Japanese text in them

Shopify includes built-in tools to manage languages, currencies and country-specific settings in one place, which makes it a strong fit for cross-border selling. Our guide to cross-border e-commerce on Shopify covers the setup. With WordPress and WooCommerce you typically add a translation plugin, and BASE stores usually add English and currency display on top of the Japanese shop.

Steps, timeline and what to prepare

Typically, a small store in one extra language takes around two to three months, depending on the number of products. Budgets in Japan range widely: from a few hundred thousand yen for a template-based store to several million yen for multilingual builds with custom features. The steps look like this:

• Requirements: use the checklist above to set countries, languages, payments and shipping
• Design and structure: settle the home page and product page for overseas buyers first
• Products and translation: add your best sellers first, with copy and photos ready
• Payments and shipping setup: run test orders to check currencies, shipping, taxes and emails
• Launch and tracking: measure visits and purchases by country in GA4 as the base for improvements

It helps to have ready: logo files, product photos, a list of your main products with prices, any existing English material and two or three overseas shops you like. Open domain, payment, ad and analytics accounts in your own name so you stay in control whoever runs the store.

How UNANOBO builds your international store: a free demo first

Before you commit to anything, UNANOBO builds a free demo of your English store, based on your brand and products. You click through it on a computer and phone the way an overseas buyer would, from product page to checkout, and decide whether to go ahead once you like the direction.

The process is simple: free demo, feedback, launch, growth. The founder handles every project personally, so you keep one contact from the first demo to marketing after launch. Everything runs by message, in Japanese or English, including help with English product copy and policy pages. After launch, the store can be connected to Google Ads, Google Shopping and Meta Ads aimed at your target countries.