FLAVA Co. Ltd, founded in the year 2007, brings out the appeal of its products through their power in the E-commerce industry. The company houses several fashion retailers under their brand. Their primary brand in Japan, Jiggys Shops, implemented the Vue.ai Personalization Suite for the online store and emails to shoppers.
Here’s the full interview with Mr. Shoji Kimura (CFO, FLAVA Inc.) & Mr. Kotaro Sanada (Web Director, FLAVA Inc.) by Yuko Maie (Japan Head, Vue.ai)
Ms.Maie: How did you come to know of Vue.ai and why did you choose us as your business partner?
Mr. Kimura: I knew that incorporating advanced technology into our business services sooner than later would be the key to our success in the future. In 2019, we were looking for an AI company to partner with. During our research on companies focusing on AI for fashion, I saw an article that spoke about Japan-based KDDI Corporation’s investment in Vue.ai. We sent an inquiry soon after.
In Japan, there are two AI companies focusing on apparel and we looked at the functionality of their products, their potential, and achievements. While some of their functions were still in development, Vue.ai had already made several breakthroughs in the area. That was the reason why we chose them as our partner, despite not being based out of Japan.
Ms.Maie: Were there any concerns about working with Vue.ai who has no business experience in Japan?
Mr. Kimura: Before kick-off, we had some meetings and the Vue.ai team explained how their products are used across the globe, by leading fashion brands. Their suite is powered by Image recognition and most fashion standards and rules are universal. Therefore, we were reassured that Vue.ai could work for Japan.
Initially, I was not confident about communicating in English. However, Ms. Maie, Vue.ai’s Business Head in Japan, took up the project and communication was seamless. We also had timely updates from the team.
Ms.Maie: How effective have Vue.ai’s AI-powered solutions been for the company so far?
Mr. Kimura: Well, the numbers speak for themselves. Within three weeks of integrating with Vue.ai’s Personalization Suite, we saw 8x the engagement when compared to users who hadn‘t interacted with Vue.ai. Additionally, the average basket size per order via recommendations from Vue.ai was 40% larger than non-engaged users. The team has also been really prompt with suggestions for optimizing the placement of widgets and for constantly improving results.
Mr. Sanada: I’d like to mention that VueApp’s UI was particularly easy and convenient to use; we were able to make tweaks to our configuration ourselves. Real-time updates on the dashboard gave us clarity on daily user behavior and the effectiveness of each widget.
Ms.Maie: What’s next on your AI roadmap?
Mr. Kimura: As far as VueCommerce goes, we’re excited to see how Dynamic Personalization will impact our figures. We’re also eager to see how much machine learning is going to accelerate the confidence scores of the recommendations we make.
We are also thinking about other products from the Vue.ai Suite, especially VueModel. We want to continue providing great experiences to our shoppers with Vue.ai.
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