Running an eCommerce business from Hong Kong (E136)

Joonas GebhardFounder of the Kawaii Group Show Notes: Started in 2014Moved 2008Early in the influencer spaceStrengthNo taxesNo profit taxesSuper cheap shippingClose to ChinaSubscription boxHigher LTV Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – Dropshipping Automation Software Bio: Joonas started his first business when he was 15 years old and his first e-commerce store around 2004. Now Joonas runs 2 online stores and 2 subscription boxes from Hong Kong. He sells cute Japanese stuff to kawaii fans worldwide. Links: https://www.blippo.comhttps://www.kawaiibox.comhttps://www.japancandybox.comhttps://www.instagram.com/joonasgebhard/http://m.me/joonas.gebhard Transcript : Charles (00:00): In this episode of the Business of eCommerce. I talk with Jonas. Gebhart about running an eCommerce business in Hong Kong. This is the business of eCommerce episode 136. Charles (00:17): Welcome to the business e-commerce to show the helps eCommerce retailers start launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Chelsea [inaudible] and I'm here today with Jonas hired. Jonas is a founder of the quiet group, the company that he launched in 2004 in Finland. He since moved to Hong Kong and has been running it their sentence, I assume in the show today to chat about what are some of the benefits and difficulties running an eCommerce business in Hong Kong. So, Hey Jonas, how are you doing today? Fine. Thanks. How are you? Good. Great to have you on the show. It's a, where are you? So you're still currently the founder of the quiet group rice. All right. And you're not currently in Hong Kong about right. Joonas (00:59): Corona, evacuees, and currently in Finland flew here in late, late January. Charles (01:06): Okay. So are, but your home still is Japan, but you're just kind of Finland. Joonas (01:13): Yeah, we live in Hong Kong, but we have a apartment here in a house. Charles (01:17): Okay. Gotcha. And you're originally from Finland, Finland. Okay. So I'm curious, can I talk about the background of how you got started? And so first actually the quiet group I was looking through your products, but what exactly, how do you describe what you guys sell? Joonas (01:36): We sell everything cute and Japanese cute, like a hello kitty. And character's like, hello, kitty and everything. Pink. Fluffy. Charles (01:47): Okay. And what markets do you sell into? Joonas (01:50): Mostly North America and Europe. Charles (01:52): Okay. So you and you sell them and where is it? I mean, just a few questions here. Cause this is a very different, most folks are either in North America or Canada and they're selling to their local market, but you are in, did you start the business when you were in Finland or in Japan? Joonas (02:13): Yeah, we started about 15 years ago in Finland. So we had a few physical stores and then we sold, sorry, Hong Kong. I should have said Hong Kong. Sorry. Yeah. So we sold from Finland, Finland. We imported the stuff to Europe and it's just impossible to sell from Finland to any other countries. It's too expensive. Everything from shipping and labor and storage and all the fees. So then we moved the business to Hong Kong about 10 years ago. So now we are able to sell everywhere in the world and beyond the same, same basic like cost structure as all our Chinese competitors and other Asian companies. Charles (02:56): So you're you moved the business to Hong Kong, but I wanna make sure I understand. So you move the business to Hong Kong, but the products now are being distributed from both Finland and Hong Kong and North America. Where do they actually, where, where is it? The distribution come from? Joonas (03:11): We S we ship everything from Hong Kong. We have a warehouse in Hong Kong and everything is shipped Charles (03:16): So direct, like basically Hong Kong to North America and Hong Kon...