The number of reviews acquired doubled with the introduction of U-KOMI! We also achieved a reduction in the man-hours required to post reviews.

Wakabayashi Co., Ltd. operates "SOU・SOU," a brand offering kimono and lifestyle goods tailored to modern lifestyles. After implementing U-KOMI to encourage reviews that drive e-commerce purchases, the number of reviews nearly doubled. Furthermore, by automating the review approval process, the company was able to reduce operational
workload. We spoke with 瀬野様, who oversees U-KOMI operations at the company, to learn about the reasons behind the implementation and its results.

Selling traditional Japanese kimono and miscellaneous goods under the concept of “creating a new Japanese culture”

First, could you tell us about your business?

Our company manufactures kimono, furniture, and miscellaneous goods under the concept of “creating a new Japanese culture,” selling them both in physical stores and online. We are known for textile designs that express Japan’s four seasons and traditional charm in a pop style. While actively utilizing traditional materials and artisan techniques, we develop products that align with modern lifestyles. In addition to in-house manufacturing, we also focus on collaborating with other companies to create even more appealing products.

Are most of your customers foreign visitors?

About 40% of our online customers and approximately 80% of our in-store customers are international visitors. Since our flagship store is located in Kyoto, we see a very high volume of international customers visiting our physical location.

We felt the need to gather reviews that lead to purchases, so we implemented U-KOMI

Please tell us about the challenges you faced before implementing the review tool and what prompted you to adopt it.

We wanted to gather high-quality reviews that would lead to increased sales compared to before the tool was introduced. Since our physical stores are only in Kyoto and Tokyo, and customers purchasing online rarely have the opportunity to hold the actual product in their hands, we believed that reviews from buyers would be extremely important.

With clothing in particular, conveying the texture of the fabric and the fit is a challenge online. While we post images of models wearing the items and provide measurements on our e-commerce site, there are aspects that are difficult to fully convey with that alone. To address these challenges, we felt it was necessary to reflect the genuine feedback of a wide range of customers with different body types, heights, and ages to convey the appeal of our products more accurately, which led us to consider implementing a review tool.

Additionally, we had originally been using a review tool from another company, but our staff had to manually review each submitted review one by one to decide whether to publish it or award points. Furthermore, reviews from international customers had to be translated and published individually, and the significant amount of effort required for these tasks was a major challenge. That’s why we decided to look for a new tool that could reduce the workload involved in publishing reviews.

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

The third-party service mentioned earlier required customers to rate us with a star rating and provide a free-form comment, but it had some usability issues—for example, customers sometimes didn’t include details like their height or body type.

In contrast, with U-KOMI, we felt we could collect reviews more efficiently because the “Custom Questions” feature allows users to select their height and body type from a list of options. Furthermore, since the AI automatically determines whether a review is suitable for publication and can hide reviews containing prohibited words, we believed this would resolve the issue of the high workload associated with publishing reviews—a challenge we faced before implementation—which was another key factor in our decision.

Additionally, the fact that there was a one-month trial period before implementation—which could be extended—and that the representative provided attentive support in response to our inquiries were also key factors. We also appreciated the ability to integrate with the loyalty points system we were already using with another service.

The number of reviews we received nearly doubled. We automated the approval process and reduced the workload.