Introduction of U-KOMI increased customers' willingness to purchase, contributing to sales growth.

Kyuryudo Co., Ltd. is a publisher with a history spanning nearly 100 years, specializing primarily in the production of art books such as portfolios. Against the backdrop of the growing popularity of e-commerce, the company began exploring ways to strengthen its own website. After implementing the U-KOMI word-of-mouth tool, it saw an increase in sales. In this interview, we spoke with 足立様, President of Kyuryudo, about what prompted the decision to adopt U-KOMI, the key factors behind the choice, the results of the implementation, and the company’s future outlook.

A 100-Year-Old Publisher Specializing in Art Books

First, could you tell us about your business?

Founded in 1923, we are a publishing house that primarily produces art books. In addition to publishing numerous collections of works by artists ranging from emerging talents to established masters, we also produce exhibition catalogs and art merchandise.

Regarding merchandise, we produce items upon request from art museums. Additionally, we have been selling artworks and art supplies since our founding, and although on a small scale, we continue to do so today.

What are your company’s unique features and strengths that set you apart from other publishers?

While we primarily handle art-related books, there are only a handful of publishers in Japan that specialize exclusively in art books. Art books come in various forms, such as technique guides and general interest titles, but we focus particularly on books that emphasize the visual aspect, such as artist portfolios and exhibition catalogs.

As a result, we possess the expertise to use the medium of the book to compile works in a way that preserves quality while maximizing the conveyance of the artist’s vision during the process of translating their work onto paper. We take pride in the fact that this is something other companies find difficult to replicate, and our ability to craft the book itself into a work of art through artisanal skill is a unique feature that sets us apart from other publishers.

Among young artists, whose art books and collections are currently gaining attention?

Among young artists, 深堀隆介, who primarily creates works featuring goldfish, is very popular. He creates three-dimensional pieces by pouring resin into buckets or measuring cups and layering dozens of coats of paint, making it look as though real goldfish are swimming inside.

小松美羽 is also gaining attention. As an artist known for avant-garde paintings, their work is so popular that it sells out immediately upon release. Their profile is rapidly rising, thanks to appearances such as live painting on the 24-Hour TV charity broadcast and designing T-shirts.

Another artist worth mentioning is contemporary artist 野口哲哉. He creates three-dimensional sculptures featuring samurai in armor, while incorporating modern elements such as smartphones and cars. With his unique and original ideas, he has gained immense popularity.

In this way, we are actively publishing collections of works by artists who are both popular and highly skilled.

We began considering the publication of reviews on our own e-commerce site and implemented U-KOMI

Could you also tell us about the background behind starting your e-commerce business?

Our motivation for starting the e-commerce site was to ensure we could reliably deliver accurate information, and we’ve been operating it for about 15 years. Incidentally, since many older products are out of stock, not all items are listed on the e-commerce site.

Our main sales channels are bookstores and museum shops, so we didn’t originally focus much on e-commerce sales.

Could you tell us what prompted you to consider implementing U-KOMI and what ultimately convinced you?

When we first started our e-commerce business, smartphones didn’t exist, and society wasn’t as digitally connected as it is today. However, over the past few years, bookstore sales have gradually declined, and with the widespread adoption of smartphones, e-commerce platforms like Amazon have become the norm. This led us to develop a desire to grow our e-commerce sales.

Additionally, over the past two years, stay-at-home trends driven by the COVID-19 pandemic have increased demand for home-based activities, and as interest in e-commerce has grown even further, we decided to strengthen our efforts in this area. It was right at that moment that a representative from U-KOMI reached out to us.

I felt that the biggest thing missing from our e-commerce site was the inclusion of objective third-party feedback (reviews), so I initially introduced the service on a trial basis. Since it proved effective, we have continued to use it to this day.

Since we implemented the service shortly after U-KOMI launched, we felt we could grow together with them, and we believed they would provide attentive, detailed support—which was one of the deciding factors. In practice, whenever we had questions, they provided thorough support each time. Additionally, the user interface (UI), such as the admin panel, is intuitive, and we were impressed by the potential for future feature additions.

Reviews stimulate purchasing interest and contribute to sales growth

What specific results have you seen since implementing U-KOMI?

Sometimes reviews include descriptions of the artist’s exhibitions, which I believe helps stimulate the purchasing desire of users who couldn’t attend the exhibitions.

We don’t have a dedicated analyst, so we can’t perform detailed analysis, but looking at the dashboard, we can see that customers who make a purchase often read reviews beforehand. Therefore, I believe reviews play a role in encouraging purchases. It’s also true that having third-party feedback gives customers a sense of reassurance. In fact, our sales have been increasing every year since we implemented U-KOMI.

What surprised me was that there were almost no complaints or requests regarding the products themselves; instead, there were many purely positive comments. Also, although the number is small, I was surprised to receive praise for our store’s service, such as “The packaging was careful” or “Shipping was fast.”

Frankly speaking, we’ve received far more positive feedback than we anticipated, and we’re truly grateful for it.

Finally, could you share your thoughts on future prospects and any requests you might have?

It might be a good idea to use the survey feature to ask customers how likely they are to recommend the products they purchased. I believe that would help further strengthen the site.