もう広告でネットショップ集客は難しい！これからの売れる方法とは？マーケティングの必要性【EC・ネットショップ】

Our guest this time is Jay, CEO of Channel Corporation. After working as a strategic planning consultant for Korea's No. 1 apparel company and at the Korea branch of Sumitomo Corporation, he achieved annual sales of 20 billion yen as an MD at the US e-commerce company eBay. In 2015, he was appointed Japan CEO of Channel Corporation, which provides "Channel Talk," a CRM and customer service chat service that has been adopted by over 70,000 companies worldwide and has created passionate fans. We asked Jay about "marketing related to online customer service"! ▽What would you like to discuss about the global e-commerce trend, including customer service? The e-commerce industry today faces the same challenges not only in Japan but around the world, making it difficult to attract customers. Of course, data tracking is no longer possible, but I think the biggest factor is that end users have stopped looking at ads. When social media advertising was effective, many people clicked on it without even realizing it was an ad. I think the biggest reason for the decline in advertising effectiveness is that customers have stopped talking about stores. Influencers are popular in Japan because customers can trust them because they are a third party, not a company. However, when viewed overseas, its effectiveness is declining. Influencers are ultimately paid, so they try to promote products that will sell, which leads to control. In Korea, influencers are already called sailors and are treated as sellers. So, I think the challenge is, what do they do next? When business was first established, before television or newspapers, the way things were done was for customers to say, "This is good," and spread the word. The "fundamental" of that advertising works well offline. But it doesn't work online. Online, money is involved, so it tends to end up being advertising from companies, and customers are starting to understand that. ▽So this means customers are getting smarter, right? That's right. There used to be little information, but now you can find out everything if you research it. Recommendations from people who aren't friends or acquaintances come across as advertising, so customers don't want to buy right away. When you look at new e-commerce companies that are successful overseas, many of them are based on these companies as their source of information. They imitate the media and provide information as objectively as possible. They act as a platform and review and introduce various products. Objectivity is very important, so if a company says in the media that only its own products are good, customers will turn away. Successful companies in this area introduce collaborative products. ▽Don't you think the reason brick-and-mortar is so strong in Japan is because there is so much information, and it takes so long from "searching" to "receiving" the product? That's definitely one reason. China, where e-commerce is growing, is a large country, so things that can only be purchased there can only be purchased online. But Japan is also a long country, so I don't think that alone can explain the low e-commerce rate. I think it's because offline shopping is fun in Japan. When I worked at eBay in my previous job, I didn't see any benefit in having to buy offline. But when I came to Japan, offline shopping is fun. There's a strong concept of "fun" in shopping. In countries where TtoC is popular or on content-based platforms, people come to online spaces to "have fun." There are interesting articles, etc. I think companies and brands that produce that kind of content are strong, so I think Japanese e-commerce will become stronger if it can do that. For example, e-commerce lacks the excitement you get from magazines, and to put it in extreme terms, it's like vending machines. I think it's a shame that Japan's strengths aren't reflected in e-commerce. ▽Why don't you invest in e-commerce? I think one reason they don't invest in e-commerce is because they're afraid of losing offline sales. At stores that are growing rapidly online, offline staff also actively serve customers online. There's not much reason to separate online and offline. It's ultimately for the company's convenience and doesn't matter to the customer. Whether you buy offline or online, it's the same thing, you're buying from that company. So it's best to sort that out internally and think about what's best for the customer. ▽The real question is whether you can meet customer demands, and is content important for that? That's right. That's why you need a reason for customers to visit your site. It's best to think of it as luck that advertising has been able to do that until now. The effectiveness of the advertising market decreases as more people use it. Even though the e-commerce conversion rate has not increased much due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of companies running e-commerce advertising has increased dramatically. I think you would lose out if ...