Achieved a significant increase in the number of reviewers with the introduction of U-KOMI! Easier searching and sorting of reviews

Cecile Co., Ltd. operates a mail-order business specializing in clothing—such as underwear and outerwear—and household goods. The company had been facing challenges with the inability to post reviews based on detailed criteria or upload images, as well as poor searchability of review information. After implementing U-KOMI, they found review management became much easier and achieved a significant increase in the number of reviewers.In this article, we spoke with the Cécile team members responsible for U-KOMI operations to learn about the reasons behind the implementation and the results achieved.

Operating a comprehensive mail-order business through catalogs and e-commerce

First, please tell us about your business.

We are a company that operates a comprehensive mail-order business, primarily selling clothing and household goods. Founded in 1972 in Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, we initially engaged in direct sales of stockings. From there, we gradually expanded our product range and sales channels—from catalog sales to e-commerce and TV shopping (currently suspended)—to reach our current business model.

While catalog sales were originally our main focus, we have recently been placing greater emphasis on e-commerce in response to changing trends. Given our long history, including catalog sales, our primary target demographic is women in their 50s and 60s; however, I get the impression that the target demographic for our e-commerce platform is slightly younger.

We identified challenges with collecting reviews by category (such as sizing) and with search functionality, leading us to implement U-KOMI

What challenges did you face before implementing the review tool?

Since customers cannot physically check factors like fit, comfort, or texture when shopping online, the information provided in reviews becomes extremely important. Many customers hesitate to purchase products with few reviews, and some even ask about the number and content of reviews when placing orders by phone. We felt it was necessary to gather a large number of reviews to increase customer trust in our products. Since our customers span a wide range of age groups, we also recognized the importance of collecting reviews broken down by age group.

Our e-commerce site originally had a review feature, but we were unable to collect reviews broken down into detailed categories—such as fit, value for money, and ease of use—that customers find helpful when making a purchase. Another factor was that our staff needed reviews with more granular evaluation criteria to utilize them in product development.

We also wanted a feature that allowed users to post images along with text comments. Additionally, since there was no search function for review content, we wanted to be able to pinpoint reviews containing the specific information we were looking for.

Could you also tell us what prompted you to switch from your existing review tool to U-KOMI?

Since our existing review system had the issues mentioned earlier, we began considering the introduction of a new review tool. We did
consider upgrading the existing system, but since it would be difficult to meet all our requirements and the upgrade costs would be prohibitively high, we decided it would be better to take the plunge and switch to a new tool.

With other review tools available, what was the deciding factor in choosing U-KOMI?

The main deciding factors were that it offered the features we were looking for compared to other tools, and we received a proposal that was reasonable in terms of price. Another key factor was that the service is updated daily, and we felt it was evolving at a rapid pace.

Additionally, we appreciated that they were willing to customize the admin interface to make it easier to use, taking our specific requests into account. Specifically, they implemented features such as the ability to apply custom labels to reviews, making it easier to sort them using filters.

The number of reviewers has increased significantly compared to before implementation. AI-powered, more detailed customer support is now possible.

What benefits have you seen since implementing U-KOMI?

From our perspective as administrators, it has become much easier to sort reviews based on their content—identifying which ones require individual responses and which can be made public.For example, previously, we defined reviews with one or two stars as “low ratings” and had staff respond individually. However, U-KOMI features AI that determines whether a comment is “positive” or “negative” regardless of the star rating, allowing us to provide more thoughtful responses based on that analysis.
Additionally, the ability to quickly find specific reviews using the filter function is another benefit of the implementation.

From the customers’ perspective, we feel that the ability to filter reviews by rating or reviewer attributes is leading to actual purchases. Furthermore, since customers can now post product images along with their reviews, we believe this provides other customers with more information to help them make purchasing decisions.

The significant increase in the number of reviewers is another major benefit. Compared to pre-implementation figures, we’ve seen an average year-over-year increase of 120–130%, with some months recording growth rates exceeding 200%. Since implementing U-KOMI, there hasn’t been a single month where the number of reviewers fell below the previous year’s level.
*Review poster count: Actual results from October 2023 to May
2024 *Review poster counts exceeding 200% year-over-year were recorded in October and December 2023

What do you think are the main factors behind this significant increase in the number of reviewers?

I believe a major factor is that the format has become much easier to use compared to before.
Additionally, I think the ability to send review request emails in conjunction with product shipments—made possible by implementing U-KOMI—has also contributed to the increase in submissions. When we first implemented U-KOMI, we sent only one email one week after shipment, but recently we started sending a second email another week later, and we’ve seen a noticeable increase in reviews submitted via email as a result.

Finally, please let us know if you have any requests or expectations for U-KOMI.

Since we have a large volume of reviews, relying solely on API integration sometimes prevents us from retrieving all the data. Therefore
, it would be helpful if there were a feature to sync data via files in addition to API integration. This would make it easier to utilize the reviews collected by U-KOMI in other systems as well.

Currently, I feel that U-KOMI is particularly recommended for small-scale stores struggling to collect reviews, but I hope you will continue to improve and update the features so that it becomes an even more user-friendly tool, including for large-scale e-commerce platforms.