[revdocjim]

While I don't have first hand knowledge, I think the same could be said of China, Korea and maybe even Taiwan. Fairly closed loop in the sense that most of their primary retailers do the majority of their business domestically. But each market is quite significant. And since all four countries tend to have very highly concentrated population centers the retailers are also rather concentrated and tend to carry huge inventories. China may actually do the most international business online but once again that is just anecdotal.

Yodobashi Camera is probably Japans largest photography retail chain, although there are several other big electronics box store chains with more outlets and they all have extensive online retail resources. Just for fun I decided to do a quick comparison of Yodobashi.com and B&H online. The numbers pretty much tell the story.

The numbers below simply indicate the number of items listed in each category on the respective websites. Some of the category structures are a bit different so I had to combine multiple categories in order to get meaningful comparisons.

Digital Cameras: (all types)
Yodobashi: 4899 B&H: 934

DSLR:
Yodobashi: 2611 B&H: 324

Compact Cameras (P&S and Mirrorless)
Yodobashi: 2125 B&H: 469

Tripods & Monopods:
Yodobashi: 2045 B&H: 1340

Film Cameras (all varieties):
Yodobashi: 482 B&H: 251

Film (all varieties)
Yodobashi: 615 B&H: 346

Digital Medium Format Cameras
Yodobashi: 14 B&H: 29

Memory Cards:
Yodobashi: 2689 B&H: 644

This is just a quick sampling, and isn't anything scientific at all. Actually I found it interesting that digital medium format cameras was the one category where B&H actually had more offerings. The key difference was the complete absence of Hasselblad on the Yodobashi site. They must have other sales routes in Japan. I haven't actually checked other online retailers in Japan for these various numbers but Yodobashi really is just one of many options, although probably the biggest.

[atlnq9]

Ummm..., maybe the English speaking world...

And really B&H is no different for any other brand either. They seem to really rely on their customers knowing what is available and that the want. It's easy to find if you know what it is...

[texandrews]

While I don't have first hand knowledge, I think the same could be said of China, Korea and maybe even Taiwan. Fairly closed loop in the sense that most of their primary retailers do the majority of their business domestically. But each market is quite significant. And since all four countries tend to have very highly concentrated population centers the retailers are also rather concentrated and tend to carry huge inventories. China may actually do the most international business online but once again that is just anecdotal.

Yodobashi Camera is probably Japans largest photography retail chain, although there are several other big electronics box store chains with more outlets and they all have extensive online retail resources. Just for fun I decided to do a quick comparison of Yodobashi.com and B&H online. The numbers pretty much tell the story.

The numbers below simply indicate the number of items listed in each category on the respective websites. Some of the category structures are a bit different so I had to combine multiple categories in order to get meaningful comparisons.

Digital Cameras: (all types)
Yodobashi: 4899 B&H: 934

DSLR:
Yodobashi: 2611 B&H: 324

Compact Cameras (P&S and Mirrorless)
Yodobashi: 2125 B&H: 469

Tripods & Monopods:
Yodobashi: 2045 B&H: 1340

Film Cameras (all varieties):
Yodobashi: 482 B&H: 251

Film (all varieties)
Yodobashi: 615 B&H: 346

Digital Medium Format Cameras
Yodobashi: 14 B&H: 29

Memory Cards:
Yodobashi: 2689 B&H: 644

This is just a quick sampling, and isn't anything scientific at all. Actually I found it interesting that digital medium format cameras was the one category where B&H actually had more offerings. The key difference was the complete absence of Hasselblad on the Yodobashi site. They must have other sales routes in Japan. I haven't actually checked other online retailers in Japan for these various numbers but Yodobashi really is just one of many options, although probably the biggest.

That's just an amazing comparison, revdocjim. It's a pity their website isn't really usable for non-Japanese speaking people And of course the same criticism can be directed at the English language ones...)

[revdocjim]

I agree. It seems like they could get a lot of international business if they put the effort into it, but maybe there are all sorts of regulations making that difficult.

[texandrews]

I agree. It seems like they could get a lot of international business if they put the effort into it, but maybe there are all sorts of regulations making that difficult.

Or maybe the intensity of the Japanese market makes it difficult to ramp up and deal with the rest of the world. And maybe it's that more inward -looking Japanese thing....(my wife is a curator of the Baltimore Museum of Art's Asian collection, and will be leading a tour to Japan next year, so maybe we'll get to meet----I have several internet acquaintances in Japan I'd like to meet in person....and I've never been there myself)