Buying from BOOTH with a proxy shopping service

We get ‘hey DEJAPAN team, can you help me buy stuff from this Japanese website?’ emails all the time. Alllllll the time. And 99% of the time, the answer’s ‘yeah, sure we can’.

BOOTH is…

…a website set up by art community pixiv, for creators to promote and sell their work. And for fans to support their favourite artists and illustrators. It’s been running since 2013.

The name’s kawaii, right? BOOTH. Like every artist’s got their own little display booth set up at an exhibition. And the ‘oo’ is a cute sound, in both languages.

For customers, the choices on BOOTH are impressive and unique. You’ve got the chance to pick up something super cool, something only a few other people in the world own.

There’s a genre out there for everyone

You could try searching by (what feels like) infinite scrolling down the homepage. It’s not, but there are enough categories and items to see right there. BOOTH’s recommended listings at the top of the page, followed by popular goods from each main category.

Use the top-left search bar to put in keywords (you can use English or Japanese). It brings up suggestions when you start typing – you might find stuff you’d never thought of that way.

Another option’s exploring the categories and tags listed on the BOOTH homepage:

• マンガ – manga
• コスプレ – cosplay
• カルチャー – culture
• オリジナル – originals
• ゲーム – gaming
• 音楽 – music
• 小説 – novels, short stories
• 同人誌 – …you know what this one is…

Put the results in order with this little drop-down in the corner. From top to bottom, the sorting options are: ‘most popular’, ‘newest’, ‘price high-low’, and ‘price low-high’.

From there, browse through the results and see what interests you.

On the search results page or an item page, you can click on a seller’s name to visit their profile. It shows everything else they’re selling – handy if you like an artist’s style enough to buy in bulk.

How to make requests on DEJAPAN

When you’ve found everything you want, you can start ordering with the DEJAPAN item request form. It works for way more J-websites than just BOOTH, so why not go ahead and bookmark it?

There’s a full guide to using the request form in another blog post, read that for more info. If you get stuck, or have any questions, please contact us.

Things you’ll need to know for BOOTH requests:

• Some sellers have limits on how many of an item you can order – always check the item page info.
• For pages with multiple items, or items with variations (different designs/sizes/colours), put all your choices in the Option box on the form.
• Items are either sent out to us by the seller, or from BOOTH’s warehouse. That’s always shown above the ‘add to cart’ button on the item page.
• Domestic (inside Japan) delivery costs: if all items are sent by the seller, the highest charge applies. If they’re all sent from the BOOTH warehouse, it’s capped at whatever’s charged on the first item to arrive. If some are from the seller and some are from BOOTH, domestic delivery’s charged twice.
• For ‘download’ items, we’ll forward you the file(s).
• Cancelling an order is difficult, and not always an option. Delivered items can’t be returned or refunded.

As above, talk to us before putting in a request if there’s anything you’re not sure about.

For one-of-a-kind merch, it’s always worth the wait

Once you’ve filled out the request form and gone through 1st payment checkout, please wait while we confirm the details and try buying your items. You’ll get a confirmation email… or a cancellation email, if there’s anything we’re unable to get.

Delivery time to our warehouse will vary by shops/sellers – if you feel like an item’s taking longer than you expected, let us know and we’ll investigate.

Any BOOTH warehouse items ordered within a 3-day period are shipped together. For example, if you make an order on a Monday morning, anything else you order before Thursday morning’ll be bundled with it.

If you choose our consolidation plan, you’ll still have to combine items/orders for international shipping.

Another email should land in your inbox when items reach our warehouse. From there, log in for next steps. The international delivery cost, packaging, and any other fees/charges will be part of your 2nd payment. Once that’s paid, we’ll get those items on their way to you.

We’re here to help you explore

Sites like BOOTH are a goldmine for amazing art, ‘only in Japan’ items, and weird/crazy stuff you’re never gonna see on sale anywhere else.

Whenever you want to request items from Japanese websites, come ask the DEJAPAN team.