Japanese for Online Selling: Vocabulary, Keigo, and Livestreams

At eleven at night, you open your phone and see a message from a customer in Japan: 「注文した商品がまだ届いていないのですが」. You understand every word, but you are not sure whether you should open with an apology or with a question about the order number, and you also do not know how polite to write so you do not sound like a machine.

Someone selling online in Japanese uses three kinds of sentences in the same day. On the product page are short noun phrases and terms-and-conditions sentences. In messages with customers is service-style keigo. On a livestream is fast, friendly speech full of ね and よ. General textbooks rarely split these three apart, so beginners often use one voice for everything.

This article is for people who are selling or preparing to sell to Japanese-speaking customers, including cross-border sellers and people planning to livestream sales. You will get vocabulary tables by stage, five grammar points used every day, three dialogue passages to read aloud, and how to keep practicing with a deck you can play right away.

• Three places you use Japanese when selling
• Vocabulary by situation
• Five grammar points used every day
• Three sample dialogues
• How to practice for sellers
• Frequently asked questions
• Where to start

Three places you use Japanese when selling

Before you learn words, figure out where you are writing or speaking, because each place has its own voice. The table below shows patterns you often see when sellers message customers or write product pages in Japanese.

Noun phrases on the product page are the part that gets overlooked easily. Japanese readers scanning a listing look for strings like 送料無料, 在庫残りわずか, 正規品, so being able to read these phrases before you can write full sentences is already progress. When you write, you can copy the exact structure of shops in the same category and swap in your own information.

Messages with customers are where keigo shows up most. The convention is to open with thanks, say what needs saying, then close with a polite line like どうぞよろしくお願いいたします. A short message with all three parts usually reads as thoughtful; a message that is only the answer content sounds bare. On a livestream it is the opposite, speaking like formal copy will make viewers leave, so the voice there is much lighter.

Vocabulary by situation

The tables below follow the order of work: listing a product, pricing, taking orders, shipping, handling returns, then livestream. Each word has a kana reading, because many are written in katakana or kanji you have not seen yet. The 40-word deck in the game at the end of the article fits inside these tables, plus a few extra words like 素材, カート, and 先着.

Product page and shop

The character 出品 is one you will see most often. 出品する is the act of listing a product on a platform, 出品者 is the person who does it, and 出店 is opening a full store. All three share the same root, so you can guess the meaning from the characters.

Price, promotions, stock, and payment

Numbers in Japanese are where mistakes happen most when you speak fast. Practice separately counting products with 点 (1点, 2点, 3点, 10点), people with 名様 (3名様), and money with 円, because if a customer mishears one number the whole order goes wrong.

Customers, orders, and shipping

When you sell cross-border, you will run into 通関 more often than you think, usually when customers ask why the package has sat still on the tracking page for days. Duties and import procedures depend on product type and change over time, so read the current guidance from your platform and carrier before you answer customers with specific numbers.

Returns, warranty, and reviews

One note on meaning: クレーム in Japanese is a customer complaint about goods or service, not the same as claim in English. You will hear colleagues say 「クレーム対応」 for handling complaints, and that is work that should be done in a calm, orderly voice.

Livestream selling

Five grammar points used every day

1. ございます, いたします: keigo when talking about your side

With customers, familiar verbs shift to more formal forms: あります becomes ございます, します becomes いたします, です becomes でございます. For action nouns, the pattern ご/お + noun + いたします is for things you do for the customer, like ご連絡いたします or お届けいたします.

• 在庫はございます。
• 3日以内にご連絡いたします。
• こちらが商品でございます。

A common mistake for Vietnamese learners is using いたします for the customer’s action, for example saying 「お客様がご確認いたしてください」. いたします is humble and only for what you do. For the customer’s part use ご確認ください or ご確認いただけますか. The second mistake is using ございます in every livestream sentence, which sounds like reading an announcement.

2. 恐れ入りますが and 〜いただけますでしょうか: asking the customer to do something

When you need the customer to send a photo, order number, or address, the opener is a cushion phrase like 恐れ入りますが or お手数ですが, then 〜ていただけますでしょうか. The cushion softens the sentence because you are asking the customer to take trouble.

• 恐れ入りますが、商品の写真を送っていただけますでしょうか。
• お手数ですが、ご注文番号をお知らせください。
• ご確認いただけますと幸いです。

Learners often write only 〜てください, or translate “please” literally as 「どうぞ〜してください」. Both sound like orders, especially when the customer is upset that the package has not arrived. Adding a cushion and switching to ていただけますか is enough for the sentence to sound like proper service tone.

3. 〜となっております and 〜場合がございます: writing terms on the product page

Product pages often state facts as fixed information, so a common pattern is 〜となっております. For something that may happen but is not certain, the pattern is 〜場合がございます, lighter and safer than a promise.

• 送料は全国一律となっております。
• お届けまでに3日ほどかかる場合がございます。
• ご返品は未使用品に限らせていただきます。

A common mistake is writing uncertain things in plain form or with 〜かもしれません, for example 「遅れるかもしれません」. That phrase sounds spoken. In notices, 〜場合がございます keeps the right tone and still says what you need to say. Do not write 「必ず届きます」 when you do not control the carrier.

4. 申し訳ございません and the structure of an apology

A good apology to a Japanese customer usually has three steps: acknowledge fault, say what you will do, then commit to the next step. The fixed opener is ご不便をおかけして申し訳ございません, then 〜いたします. When you make the customer wait, use お待たせして申し訳ございません or お待たせいたしました.

• ご不便をおかけして申し訳ございません。
• 確認いたしますので、少々お待ちください。
• すぐに新しい商品を発送させていただきます。

Common mistakes are using すみません or ごめんなさい with customers, or apologizing and then not stating the next step. Both leave the customer having to ask again. Also remember 〜させていただきます is only when you do something with the customer’s permission or convenience, not something to stick on every sentence.

5. ですよ, ですね, 〜てくださいね: livestream voice

On a livestream you go back to light です・ます, add ね to seek agreement and よ to tell listeners something they do not know yet. Sentences should be short, one idea per sentence, because viewers come and go and cannot reread.

• こちら、とても軽いですよ。
• コメントで教えてくださいね。
• 今夜だけ、この価格です。残り5点です。

Common mistakes are keeping heavy message keigo so you speak slowly and stiffly, or going too far into casual like 「これ、いいよ」 with viewers who do not know you yet. The safe path is です・ます plus ね and よ, and save full keigo for when you answer serious questions about products or orders. A slightly energetic sales voice should stay at a level you can speak naturally, you do not need to perform.

Three sample dialogues

Customer asks where the order is

This passage is back-and-forth messages with a customer. Read both roles aloud and watch the order: thanks, apology, ask for order number, then explain.

Item arrived damaged

Opening a livestream and answering comments

How to practice for sellers

Start by playing the online-selling vocabulary deck in Falling Stars or Pop It. Play a few rounds until you see a word and can say the meaning, then go back to the tables above and read each example sentence aloud. For sellers, reading aloud has its own benefit: you will notice which sentences you cannot finish smoothly, and those are the ones to replace with shorter patterns.

The next step is to hear real Japanese. Pick one episode from the Japanese podcast, listen sentence by sentence and transcribe, then compare to the original. Transcribing line by line shows where you mishear, especially particles and sentence endings like 〜ですね, which new ears often drop. If you want a path, see the courses, and use the vocabulary test to see where you stand.

There is a free practice method just for sellers: read product pages and customer replies from Japanese shops in your category, then copy sentence structures into a template file. After a few dozen messages you will have your own set of openers, apologies, and closings you can reuse many times.

Sources outside WELE: the Japan Foundation’s Irodori curriculum is free and teaches everyday Japanese very cleanly, so it fits the foundation step. Machine translation helps you grasp a customer message quickly, but you should reread the translation before sending, especially keigo, and have a native speaker check message templates you plan to use long term. When you want to test yourself, JLPT mock tests on WELE show where you stand. Platform selling rules change over time, so read the current help for the platform you use.

If you also handle sourcing or content work, see Japanese for sourcing and Japanese for content creation, or browse all of Japanese by profession and the online selling page.

Frequently asked questions

How good does my Japanese need to be to sell to Japanese customers?

It depends on your sales model and platform, so there is no single level. If you reply to customers and write product pages yourself, you need at least the sample sentences in this article and the ability to read customer messages. If part of the work goes to a partner or native staff, you should still be able to read to check.

Can I use translation tools or AI to reply to customers?

They are handy for understanding a message or drafting. Sending the translation unread is risky, because keigo drifts easily and one overly casual sentence can upset a customer. A tight workflow is to prepare fifteen to twenty message templates checked by a native speaker, and only swap in per-order details.

Do I need full keigo with every customer?

In service messages you should use it, because formal tone is the default. You do not need the highest forms, just solid ございます, いたします, ていただけますでしょうか, and apologies. On livestream, lighter is fine: です・ます plus ね and よ is enough.

How much kanji do I need to read product pages?

There is no fixed number. Many product names are in katakana, so learning katakana first makes sense. Then recognize the kanji in the tables above, because they repeat constantly in terms, like 送料, 返品, 在庫.

What are platform fees and import tax when selling to Japan?

This article does not give figures because they change by platform, product type, and timing. Read the current help page for your platform and your carrier’s guidance before you tell customers numbers.

Where to start

If you only do one thing today, play one round of the deck in Falling Stars, then pick three message templates from above and copy them into your own template file.