5 Questions: Justin Sandery of 100Milligrams.com

The lowdown with the hip Hong Kong e-Tailer and gadget distributor.

You might know about Hong Kong e-retailer 100milligrams.com, but you’ve definitely seen the tech products that parent company Street Value distribute all over Hong Kong. We had a chance to catch up with Managing Director Justin Sandery for the first installment of our newest weekly feature: 5 Question Punch-Out – fast and furious questions about 100milligrams.com and Justin’s Hong Kong gadget life:

What is 100milligrams.com?

100milligrams is HK’s only on-line store for the coolest new fashion and lifestyle youth consumer electronics brands including Skullcandy, Zumreed, X-mini and many more.

How did you start it up and why

As a marketing/distribution company we wanted to understand consumers and global trends better and so we decided to create a retail environment to showcase our great brands. We thought about a physical shop but the rents are so high in HK we decided to go online first and give the HK consumers a fun retail space for browsing and purchasing our exclusive brands.

We started by asking a friend to build our first site on the cheap. We went live in a couple of months with a handful of products. As we had no experience online, nothing worked and the graphics were ugly. It was very amateur but we learned very quickly and 18 months later things are rockin’ along.

What is your best selling product in Hong Kong?

X-mini II – these babies rock.

What are some of the gadgets you use daily?

• New X-mini Max II Portable Speaker: Phenomenal sound, 12hours battery life.
• Skullcandy: New FMJ (yellow) best sounding and looking iPhone earphone on the market.
• Stylophone Beatbox: Rockin beats and record loop sampler makes me feel musically gifted and everyone around me irritated.
• iPhone: I hate mine, maybe if I get a Blackberry for Christmas that might be my favourite.

Where do you personally shop for gadgets and gear in HK?

DG lifestyle store, Ultimate, JC shop

These shops have sophistication and quality products so they stand out over the plethora of cheap electronics shops in HK. A gadget has to perform its function intuitively without complicating the task and the simpler it makes the task the better.