Challenges Facing the E-Commerce Industry and Its Future | Interview with Tomohiro Amaguchi, Architect of EC Curation Media

E-commerce refers to transactions conducted via the internet, encompassing payments and sales. This series explores its current state and future through interviews with pioneers in the field. In the second installment, Ryohei Mitsuhashi from Dentsu Inc.'s EC & System Solutions Department visits Tomohiro Amaguchi of Net Concierge, operator of the e-commerce curation media platform CART, to discuss the challenges facing the future of e-commerce.

*Details of this conversation will also be featured on " New Commerce Hub," a media platform exploring the future of e-commerce.

 

The reason I entered the e-commerce industry was hearing clients say, "Thanks to you, we sold well."

Mitsuhashi: As the CEO of Net Concierge, you've produced over 140 e-commerce sites in the past decade, Amaguchi. What initially drew you to e-commerce?

Amaguchi: I started out in the web industry, initially working as a web designer. Back then, I helped create websites for artists, but honestly, I didn't feel much satisfaction. I received no feedback from clients, so I had no way of knowing how my work as a designer was being evaluated. Then, while designing an e-commerce site, a client contacted me saying, "Thanks to you, sales really took off." That experience felt incredibly rewarding. I thought, "E-commerce sites are interesting because the work you do gets properly recognized," and that sparked my interest.

Mitsuhashi: So you transitioned from being a web designer. Were you originally employed by a production company?

Amaguchi: Yes. That said, I worked at a CM production company, creating commercials for major logistics firms and the like. The CM production department was the star within the company, but we also received web design requests. However, I gradually realized that in e-commerce, factors like the system and marketing elements had a much bigger impact on sales than the design itself. That made me want to acquire more useful skills. From there, I built a more practical career as an engineer and marketer, leading me to where I am now.

The challenge facing future e-commerce sites is "differentiation from others."

Mitsuhashi: We collaborate with Net Concierge, where Mr. Amaguchi serves as CEO. Working with him several times, I sensed he wasn't solely fixated on numbers like conversion rates but was looking beyond them.

Amaguchi: When I first met Mr. Mitsuhashi, the industry itself was undergoing a period of transformation, with the number of e-commerce sites increasing dramatically. In that environment, when considering "what challenges the e-commerce industry faces now," differentiation became a crucial point, not just the numbers. How to differentiate from other sites to attract customers. And how to maintain customer relationships to prevent them from being poached by other sites. I've always been thinking about how to overcome these two challenges.

Mitsuhashi: Something that really stuck with me from a past conversation with you, Amaguchi-san, was your statement: "While improving conversion rates and CPA is important, anyone can do that."

Amaguchi: The part about increasing the purchase rate after customers add items to their shopping carts can actually be outsourced to external vendors. In fact, many companies specialize in handling that. However, defining the site's worldview and how to express its unique hospitality—these differentiation strategies have no single right answer, making them difficult to outsource. That's precisely why I believe a company's resources should be focused there.

Mitsuhashi: Differentiation from competitors is a challenge across all industries, not just online. How do you communicate this with clients, Amaguchi?

Amaguchi: As I mentioned earlier, the challenges of differentiating from other sites and maintaining customer relationships are ultimately part of branding activities. Therefore, I believe these challenges can be overcome by focusing on communication that encourages clients to engage in branding activities.

Services to Overcome the "Awareness Barrier" in E-commerce

Mitsuhashi: You operate an online shopping media platform called " Cart," right? This platform seems to support the expansion of awareness and branding for e-commerce sites.

Amaguchi: Cart is a service akin to an online shopping magazine, where approximately 140 to 150 curators each introduce products they find interesting. Our curators include notable figures like Makiko Takizawa, an exclusive model for VERY magazine, Wakadanna from Shonan no Kaze, and ILMARI from RIP SLYME. When you really dig into "how to build branding through e-commerce," you hit a wall called "awareness." Getting consumers to know about products is incredibly difficult. So we thought, "If we create opportunities for people to discover products, differentiated communication might start happening," and that's why we decided to create Cart. For e-commerce businesses, Cart is a platform to gain awareness. When recommended by a trusted third party, consumers think, "If this person says it's good, it must be a good product," creating a positive perception. Cart aims to create that flow.

Mitsuhashi: I feel that the products selected by Cart's curators all reflect their unique personalities. Followers might already be fans of the curator, and they also gain more opportunities to discover products that match their preferences. Until now, consumers mainly found products by searching online or stumbling upon them by chance. Cart can be seen as a service that turns that chance into necessity.

Amaguchi: Thank you. When considering the future of e-commerce, actions like searching, finding, and comparing aren't very productive and will likely disappear. I imagine these actions will be automated and replaced by recommendations... Currently, recommendation engines handle these suggestions, but they often feel rather impersonal, just displaying product photos. At Cart, we want to achieve this by adding magazine-like content elements.

Mitsuhashi: I imagine various parts of Cart will become automated in the future. But currently, is the order in which curated products are displayed automated?

Amaguchi: Currently, it only displays recommended products from curators you follow in chronological order, but that's about to change dramatically. We plan to categorize content into areas like men's fashion and lifestyle, allowing users to browse information even from curators they don't follow.

For example, for a female user in her 30s, we'll make suggestions based on statistics about what she might be looking for and reach out to her. We don't think showing gal magazines to a housewife in Shibuya Ward would go over well, so we want to build and introduce an algorithm while fine-tuning that aspect. In that sense, the current Cart hasn't even realized 10% of the vision we have in mind.

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The full interview with Net Concierge's Mr. Amaguchi is available on " New Commerce Hub," a media outlet exploring the future of e-commerce.