A pawn shop that operates 3 actual shops in Fukuoka with over 100 years history.
Its business started to expand to second hand stores, e-commerce and dealer oriented business in recent years.

Please introduce your company first?

Miyoshi: Under our motif “creating stories for things”, we have been doing our best to connect people with things which have true value, and help them to create stories of happiness.

The long history is very impressive. What’s the strength of your company?

Miyoshi: We are good at handling jewelry which is difficult to assess for normal recycle shops.
We are constantly doing business with jewelry dealers, so we have the knowledge and confidence to provide high quality assessment.
And we are proud of our various products of middle class jewelry which has a high demand in the market.

What made the pawn shop interested in WORLD SWITCH?

Please tell us something about the encounter with WORLD SWITCH.

Miyoshi: Frankly speaking, we had a very good conversation in the conference on used business held by Rakuten, but we didn’t think about using it at that time.

Good conversation doesn’t mean good cooperation. How was your e-commerce status before using WORLD SWITCH?

Miyoshi: At that time, 95% of our EC sales was on Rakuten Ichiba. Only with that, we could clear all our goals til 2008. However, we felt that we had reached the limit of growth if we just rely on the growth of EC malls themselves. So we started to discussing the expansion to other malls.

So what have you done to achieve that goal?

Miyoshi: With the expansion, the management of listing, order and inventory became much more difficult, so considering the initial cost, we started with a system call NEXT Engine. But after some time of usage, we felt that it is not suitable for the operation of second hand products. Some day, I recalled the encounter of WASABI.

Thank you for remembering us!

Miyoshi: During the contact with Wasabi, they told us that they could solve the problems we had, so we decided to start using WORLD SWITCH. But we had a feeling that we just raised our difficulties to a next level.

Too expensive to integrate?

What were your difficulties in respect of system before you using WORLD SWITCH?

Miyoshi: For the sale of used products, we usually have only one product of that specification to sell, and once it is sold, we don’t have that product for sale any more.
Big scale malls and major EC management system are designed for the regular sale models and the way of selling are not suitable for second hand businesses like us.
Most of the functions are the ones we don’t need, and it costs more time and labor to work on it.

We agree that major systems are all like that.

Miyoshi: Yes, some staffs could get used to that system but some could not, which created a gap of efficiency. We were facing such a delimma. And as a result, we didn’t have the spare to consider expanding our sale to other malls.

How was the NEXT Engine?

Miyoshi: Too many functions that we don’t need.

What has changed after using WORLD SWITCH?

Miyoshi: It has improved our efficiency in many ways. The speed of listing has increased, order handling has become much more easier. Bad quality inventory can be managed now and we can plan EC events very easily.

Were all your problems solved at last?

Miyoshi: It’s always more than that. We are alway modifying our settings according to the current operation status and the requests from part time staffs in the front line are always being considered. Some companies may think that the usage fee is a little bit expensive, but considering the cost to add extra staffs, it is very reasonable for it efficency increasing ability.

Flexiblity and possibility from the perspective of staffs.

Thank you for saying that. Were there any difficulties during the integration?

Miyoshi: Of course we had some, such as the initial setting process.
The customization according to the requests from each companies did need a lot of time to finish. And it costs more if you what to solve more detailed problems.
With the technical support vis chat, we finally finished the setting process.

We are very glad that you could spend that much time with us to make it a better tool.

Miyoshi: We felt that we took a lot of time from you but the quality of your service hasn’t changed a bit.

What is your favorite function?

Miyoshi: I think it’s the overall batch registration function. We are able to set up our own customized items and synchronize all data between different malls. We can finally sell our product in various ways.

How do other staffs think about WORLD SWITCH?

Miyoshi: They said that they can modify very detailed items to fit their operational needs.
Sometime they felt that the modifiable items are far more detailed than they expected.
I think they are talking about the flexibility and its possibility to make things even more easier in the future.

Fun in the complexity!

We’ve heard that you have started the cross-boarder business, can you tell us something about that?

Miyoshi: Right after the integration of WORLD SWITCH, our focus was local market, and didn’t consider much about foreign market (eBay America). We thought it was complex and not very profitable.

What happened then?

Miyoshi: We just let you guys do the settings and listed the products to foreign malls in the way we listed to local malls. And our order and shipping started to increase.
At first, we were only using EMS, but our needs grew and started to add more delivery companies such as DHL.

How is it today?

Miyoshi: We are selling a lot of jewelry, watches and bags. It has become an important market for us.
And we felt a lot of fun that we can understand that the foreign customers are also satisfied with our products.

Striving for change despite of failure!

What do you expect WORLD SWITCH to do in the future?

Miyoshi: It doesn’t support smartphone and tablet and that is what should be solved in the future. And also the function to analyse statistics is not good enough and it will be great if that can be customized.

Please feel free to consult us about the request for customization.

Miyoshi: Thanks. We had a lot of ideas about what to improve during the usage of your system. But in our opinion, the competitors are perhaps already working on that kind of ideas, so we think it is a very serious issue.
We are grateful that Wasabi and WORLD SWITCH can provide the flexibility that we need to strive for change despite of failures.
And of course, you have your own problem.

At last, do you have anything to say to Wasabi?

Miyoshi: We believe there will be more companies to use your system, but we hope you can focus on middle and small-sized companies like us. And we hope that you can make the second hand industry more interesting and provide more possibilities for us. Keep the current pace and do your best to be better. Thanks!

Thank you for your time!