The introduction of U-KOMI has reduced man-hours for review management and revitalized communication!

AngelaX Co., Ltd. operates 11 beauty salons nationwide, primarily in Tokyo. As part of its efforts to fully launch its online store, the company implemented U-KOMI, which has yielded significant results, including increased sales. In this interview, we spoke with 大杉様, about the background and deciding factors behind the U-KOMI implementation, as well as the results achieved since its launch.

Focusing on both beauty salon management and online store operations

First, could you tell us about your business?

Our company originally started as a beauty salon operator and currently operates 11 locations in Tokyo, Nagano, and Fukuoka. We place the utmost importance on conducting thorough consultations and providing meticulous follow-up care even after customers leave the salon, which has earned us high praise from our clients.

We had an online store for quite some time, but since it was intended for our existing salon clients, we saw almost no new traffic and mainly sold salon-exclusive cosmetics and supplements.

However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, our CEO started a YouTube channel, which began attracting new customers. This allowed us to reach customers beyond our regular salon clientele, and as a result, we began operating our online store in earnest.

Please tell us about the challenges you faced before implementing the service and the background behind your decision to consider it.

At the time, in addition to our own e-commerce site, there were also online shops operated by manufacturers. The system was set up so that when customers registered with us made a purchase at a manufacturer’s shop, we would receive a cashback in the form of a royalty share.

In fact, that accounted for a significant portion of our sales, so we initially introduced a chatbot-type customer support tool with the goal of boosting sales on the manufacturers’ online shops.

Later, as I mentioned earlier, many new customers began visiting our own e-commerce site via YouTube, and our monthly sales—which had previously been around several hundred thousand yen—increased four- or fivefold. We then decided to further strengthen our own e-commerce site, and right at that moment, U-KOMI approached us, suggesting, “It would be better to have reviews.”

The excellent UI and the ability to reduce the workload of review management were the deciding factors for implementation

What factors ultimately led you to choose this solution?

First, we felt it looked very user-friendly. In particular, the AI-powered automatic moderation was a standout feature.Using natural language processing, it rates review content on a 5-point scale, and negative reviews can be temporarily hidden and held in the admin panel. Publishing all reviews without checking them carries risks, and conversely, checking each one individually is time-consuming, but thanks to this feature, managing reviews has become much easier. Note that even for negative reviews, as long as they aren’t baseless—such as defamation—we generally publish them all.

Another point I appreciated was that the settings allow the company some discretion. For example, with reviews for new products, having a negative review at the very top of the site can create a poor impression, so we can take measures such as slightly delaying the publication time. Of course, the review feature must be customer-centric, but I was impressed by the good balance it strikes in meeting the needs of the company as well.

Since settings to send emails requesting reviews and reminders after shipment are enabled by default, it required almost no effort on our part. Thanks to that, we were able to collect a large number of reviews immediately after implementation, and even now, it feels like reviews are coming in effortlessly. I feel that we’ve significantly reduced the workload involved in collecting reviews, as well as the effort required to manage their publication and privacy settings.

I see. You’re right; I don’t think there are many other review acquisition tools that can automatically collect reviews by integrating with shopping sites.

Furthermore, while the decision to publish negative reviews is ultimately up to the company, I appreciated the sales team’s stance that it’s better not to hide negative reviews.

I also resonated with the point that some customers make their purchasing decisions after seeing negative information, and that replying to negative reviews before publishing them can actually improve the company’s image.

Communicating with customers through reviews to improve our service

What are the benefits and results you’ve seen since implementing U-KOMI?

I really liked that the dashboard in the admin panel shows the percentage of people who actually read reviews before making a purchase. Specifically, over 60% of customers read reviews before buying. It gave me a real sense that reviews aren’t just being written—many people are reading them, and they’re contributing to sales—so I felt the cost-effectiveness was very high.

Additionally, we’re able to communicate with customers through reviews and use that feedback to make improvements. For example, we received feedback that the frequency of emails encouraging reviews was too high, so after replying to those reviews, we actually reduced the frequency.

Since we run our online store with a commitment to valuing repeat customers, we use the platform as a communication tool—including replying to negative reviews. In particular, when fans of our CEO’s YouTube channel make a purchase and post a review, the CEO features it on Instagram Stories, so it serves as a valuable communication tool in that regard as well.

When we launched a new product, we received several reviews stating that “the bottle is difficult to use.” After redesigning the bottle and relaunching it, we received positive reviews. We also received feedback that “the included materials, such as brochures, were too sparse,” so we informed customers that we would enhance these materials in the future. In this way, we are able to identify feedback and areas for improvement that we would not have received without reviews, and we can operate our online store while maintaining communication with repeat customers, making it extremely useful.

Other benefits include the ease of migrating U-KOMI reviews during our system transition and how word-of-mouth reviews have helped drive customers toward our subscription service.

Finally, could you tell us about your future plans?

We aim to further strengthen communication with users—including how we handle negative reviews and by improving our overall responses to reviews—to drive LTV growth.

Currently, even with a small operational team, our sales have grown dramatically, and we’ve been able to maintain a repeat purchase rate of 70–80%. Moving forward, we plan to further boost sales and repeat purchase rates by enhancing our FAQs and other initiatives.