Her lip to is a lifestyle brand produced by model and talent Hinata Kojima, which was launched in 2018. Characterized by high-quality fabrics and meticulous design, it has garnered significant support from fashion-conscious women in their 20s and 30s.
Starting with an apparel line, the brand is now expanding into new territories, including the beauty line "Her lip to BEAUTY" and the lingerie line "ROSIER by Her lip to." In addition, a concept store named "House of Herme" was opened in Omotesando in 2022.
To support this rapid growth, a flexible and scalable e-commerce platform became necessary, leading to the adoption of Shopify's Plus plan in 2022. Since then, the brand has successfully expanded into eight countries, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, advancing its global presence.
By switching to Shopify Plus, the brand achieved:
- GMV (Gross Merchandise Value): 120% increase*
- Customer Repeat Rate: 149% increase*
- Percentage of Customers Using Shop Pay: 118% increase*
- Increase in Sales from Cross-Border E-Commerce: Approximately 400%**
*Comparison of the first 14 months post-implementation (May 2022 - June 2023) and the latest 14 months (July 2023 - September 2024).
**Increase in sales within six months of starting the use of Shopify's cross-border e-commerce services (April 2024).
In this article, we spoke with Sayo Okada, director of Heart Relation Inc., which operates "Her lip to," and Kanako Tachimatsu, who is in charge of e-commerce development, about the background and outcomes of implementing Shopify's Plus plan.
Three Challenges Faced by the Rapidly Growing "Her lip to"
In 2022, "Her lip to" launched unique apparel and beauty products, gaining high support from trend-sensitive customers while steadily expanding its sales. However, this rapid growth brought the following challenges to the e-commerce business:
■ Decreased Customer Satisfaction Due to Server Downtime During Traffic Surges
During the release of popular products, access peaked and resulted in server crashes. Consequently, the website became temporarily unavailable, leading to customer complaints such as "I couldn't make a purchase" and "The item sold out while I was waiting," negatively affecting customer satisfaction.
■ Difficulty in Achieving Brand Experience Due to Customization Constraints
"Her lip to" places a strong emphasis on providing not only a comfortable shopping experience but also a special experience that enhances customers' moods. However, the limitations of the previous platform made it challenging to express the brand's world throughout the site, resulting in not being able to provide customers with the expected experience. Okada reflected, "Even when we had ideas or features we wanted to realize, the hurdles to their implementation felt high, leading to frustration."
■ Inefficient Operations with Heavy Manual Labor and Difficulty in Utilizing Data
The platform previously in use lacked specifications to support sales, such as image displays for each size and variations, recommendation features, and ranking features. Furthermore, data extraction and analysis required downloading data every time and processing it with another tool, making real-time data utilization extremely difficult.
To address these challenges, "Her lip to" implemented Shopify's Plus plan. Okada noted, "The rich features and apps offered by Shopify's Plus plan provide the essential stability and flexibility needed to express our brand's world. Additionally, the comprehensive cross-border e-commerce functionality was highly appealing for our global expansion."
Additionally, to maintain brand consistency while aiming for efficient operations due to diversification, the online stores that were previously operated separately were integrated under the "Her lip to" brand. This initiative streamlined data management, enabling the realization of loyalty programs and personalized customer experiences.
Regarding the results, Tachimatsu commented, "We are advancing cross-selling based on customer purchasing behavior, connecting the customer experience across different brands. For instance, we can propose 'ROSIER by Her lip to' to users of 'Her lip to BEAUTY,' allowing us to deploy more effective marketing strategies."
They also appreciate Shopify's ability to integrate with various services and APIs. Particularly for apparel brands, it's crucial to increase opportunities for customers to engage with the brand's content outside of purchasing. Therefore, they linked Shopify's blog feature with a self-developed app to deliver app-exclusive articles, effectively increasing user touchpoints.
Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency Achieved with Shopify Plus Features and Apps
With the transition to Shopify's Plus plan, the stability of the system has significantly improved. Website downtimes during peak access are no longer an issue, eliminating the need to allocate resources for that concern. This allows the organization to build a system that focuses on initiatives that enhance the customer experience, thus contributing to business growth.
So, what specific features and apps of Shopify are being utilized to improve customer experience while achieving operational efficiency? Let's take a look at each.
Shopify Payments: Shopify Payments is a payment processing service provided by Shopify, allowing for easy introduction of payment methods such as credit cards and "Shop Pay" on online stores. By implementing this feature, purchasing convenience has improved, and the customer abandonment rate has significantly decreased. Given that many products sell out immediately after restocking, "Shop Pay," which allows users to input card information and delivery details with one touch, has received high praise, with utilization rates reaching 59%.
Furthermore, the average order value of "Shop Pay" users is 23% higher than those using other payment methods, promoting repeat purchases from a customer segment with strong brand loyalty, thus contributing to improved LTV (Customer Lifetime Value).
Launchpad: An automation app that streamlines event and campaign management, allowing for various events, such as the beginning or end of new products and sales, to be scheduled in advance. "Before implementation, personnel had to always be on standby to handle new product launches and campaign announcements during the night. However, with Launchpad, we're now able to schedule sales periods in advance and automatically launch products. This has saved time and effort, enabling more efficient operations," said Kanako Tachimatsu from the Community Relations Department, Digital Planning Group.
Shopify POS Pro: Shopify’s POS system for physical stores has enhanced functionality for unified management of both online and offline customer data and inventory information. The implementation of Shopify POS Pro not only streamlined inventory management but also connected the online and offline facets of their membership program "Club Hers."
Specifically, it enabled personalized customer experiences, such as sending newsletters to new customers attending pop-up events and providing customer service based on existing customers' purchase histories.
Checkout Extensibility: An extension that includes features like "Address Validation," which automatically checks whether the delivery address entered by the customer is correct, and allows for no-code implementation of delivery date specifications. This feature provides the desired checkout experience for customers while reducing issues caused by customer input errors and lessening the workload on customer support teams.
With such a wealth of features and apps from Shopify, many previously manual tasks have been automated, allowing for further resource allocation to improve customer experience.
Moreover, the Shopify Plus plan offers a development environment where various tests and customizations can be tried. This enables testing of new features and designs without interrupting store operations. Tachimatsu remarked, "For companies that want to manage development and operations in-house and improve without relying on partners, this is an essential function," confirming that they conduct various patterns before releasing the final version.
Accelerating Global Expansion with Shopify's Cross-Border E-Commerce Tools
In recent years, "Her lip to" has particularly focused on cross-border e-commerce. Not limited to Japan, the brand has expanded operations in eight countries, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States, implementing flexible product offerings, pricing, and UI tailored to each market through Shopify.
One of the prominent cross-border e-commerce tools utilized by the company is the "Translate & Adapt" app, which automatically translates according to the sales country without manual translation, successfully localizing their content. Additionally, through Shopify's cross-border e-commerce marketplace functionality, they customize product lineups based on the country accessing them. By adjusting displayed products to align with import/export regulations and seasonal cycles differing from Japan, they also contribute to improving conversion rates (CVR).
Furthermore, the "Theme Contextualization" function optimizes the storefront theme of "Her lip to" based on the country, providing user experiences tailored to each market. As a result, within six months of starting to use Shopify's cross-border e-commerce services, sales increased by 400%, more than doubled compared to when they used previous cross-border e-commerce services.
Okada commented, "Thanks to Shopify's wide range of functions and apps, including promoting cross-border e-commerce, we can flexibly add the functionalities we desire. Additionally, as customer data, inventory, and sales are all interconnected, the breadth of data utilization expands, allowing us to simultaneously achieve both efficiency and customer satisfaction." Looking back at the positive impacts of adopting Shopify's Plus plan on their business, she expresses her appreciation.
Results from utilizing Shopify Plus:
- Gross Merchandise Value: 120% increase*
- Customer Repeat Rate: 149% increase*
- Percentage of Customers Using Shop Pay: 118% increase*
- Increase in Sales from Cross-Border E-Commerce: Approximately 400%**
*Comparison of the first 14 months post-implementation (May 2022 - June 2023) and the latest 14 months (July 2023 - September 2024).
**Increase in sales within six months of starting the use of Shopify's cross-border e-commerce services (April 2024).
Cross-Selling Strategies with Shopify Leading to Further Brand Growth
In particular, the cross-selling strategy utilizing accumulated customer data from multiple brands, such as beauty and lingerie, is making significant contributions to repeat purchases. The percentage of customers utilizing Shop Pay, which allows users to register payment information and input card details and delivery addresses with one touch for future purchases, also increased by 118%, resulting in a smooth purchasing experience leading to enhanced loyalty.
Regarding future plans, the company has set the goal of further strengthening their one-to-one communication strategy using customer data. "In the apparel and beauty sectors, the experience of purchasing is important, but so is the content that the brand disseminates. We expect that Shopify's flexibility and customization will meet those needs," shares Director Sayo Okada.
Additionally, through content marketing using apps, they aim to increase touchpoints with customers while enhancing LTV. Tachimatsu expresses, "We want to approach customers through the most suitable channels for each customer, such as LINE, email, and app push notifications," believing that personalized communication using data will be key to enhancing customer loyalty.
In conclusion, Okada hopes to increase real stores in the future to merge online and offline touchpoints, providing seamless and comfortable customer experiences while delivering self-love to more customers. With this vision in mind, they plan to leverage Shopify's Plus plan to continue building deeper connections with customers while aiming for brand growth.