Anna • Content Marketing Manager US Team
Jun is a fashion brand known for blending traditional aesthetics with contemporary design, offering high-quality, stylish apparel across various sub-brands.
The Problem: The apparel market is shrinking and rather than sell at a discount just to move stock, Jun wanted to keep selling products at full price to protect their business.
The Solution: Jun used Channel Talk to create a sales concierge service for their online store that provided personalized service to help customers make decisions and purchases.
The Result:
Before Channel Talk, Jun wasn't able to distinguish between customers which led to one-off interactions.
But now, the team can proactively engage with loyal customers, offer personalized recommendations, and help customers purchase through 1:1 communication.
Read on to learn more about Jun's story.
In addition, customer satisfaction is 85%.
Online shopping is often less smooth than a physical store experience. Customers especially have questions about size and coordinating pieces with clothing.
However, Jun's live chat experience mirrors a physical store experience where the store representatives are able to help with all your concerns.
Feedback from their customers includes:
"I never expected to get such personal advice through chat."
"The suggestions I got through chat made me more confident in my purchase."
How was Jun able to achieve this?
Through their focus on building a customer-centric business model
Using Channel Talk to communicate and understand their loyal customer base
We spoke with the Information Systems and Logistics Executive of Jun, Mr. Nakajima, on his approach to live chat customer support for sales.
Information Systems and Logistics Executive of Jun, Mr. Nakajima
The apparel market is shrinking due to oversupply and Japan’s declining population. Right now, the industry’s big issue is overproduction, which forces companies to sell at discounts just to move stock.
We used to produce with the expectation that we would clear inventory through end-of-season sales, but we’re shifting away from that model.
By becoming a leaner, more resilient business that sells products at full price, we can protect our brand’s value and build a more profitable business model.
We need to ensure that customers can enjoy a seamless shopping experience, whether in-store or online.
Our goal is to build a strong, profit-focused business model supported by a solid customer base, which is essential to navigating these challenging times.
Instead of treating every customer like a one-off, we need to strengthen our customer relationships.
As customer behavior becomes more omnichannel, we’re focusing on enhancing our OMO (Online Merges with Offline) strategy.
Jun’s OMO strategy, "Equalizing the Experience Between Online and Physical Stores," focuses on three key areas:
① OMO for information
② OMO for inventory
③ OMO for customer service.
We’ve already implemented OMO for information and inventory, and now, we’re focusing on OMO for customer service as a key differentiator.
Since understanding customers and meeting their needs is essential for product creation, OMO for customer service is crucial.
Yes, and implementing OMO for customer service not only brings those benefits but also helps us achieve a conversion rate similar to that of physical stores.
Even in physical stores, the average purchase rate for apparel is around 30%, so our online conversion rate is on par with in-store performance.
To reach this level, it’s important to provide experiences that exceed customer expectations.
Right now, very few e-commerce platforms offer personalized service like this.
That’s why we believe that creating a memorable, engaging customer experience through service—and turning customers into fans and loyal patrons—is directly linked to the lean, resilient business model we’re striving for.
The key to successful e-commerce customer service is responding quickly and thoughtfully to inquiries that require a human touch.
There are three key methods we follow:
1. Inquiries needing a personal response are addressed within one minute.
If you ask for help in a physical store and have to wait several minutes for assistance, it wouldn’t be a great experience. That’s why speed is essential in our approach.
2. We use chatbots from Channel Talk to handle common inquiries that can be resolved automatically.
Now, 70% of common inquiries are resolved automatically. This reduces customer wait times and allows us to focus on queries that lead to sales or create loyal customers.
3. Our chat support is available from 10 AM to 10 PM.
Since our e-commerce site sees the most traffic in the evening, we schedule our staff in shifts to make it easier for customers to shop during these hours.
Collage created by CX agent for a customer during a live chat.
In e-commerce, we’re limited to images, text, and videos for communication, so it’s important to maximize the quality of these elements.
In a physical store, customers can pick up an item and get a sense of it even without help. We need to recreate that experience online.
That’s our foundation, and the next step is to offer personalized advice, like suggesting an outfit combination that suits the customer’s taste, for those who find it difficult to choose products on their own.
This way, customers can enjoy a shopping experience similar to what they’d get in a store.
This approach has impressed our customers, leading to feedback like, "I never expected such detailed coordination advice online. I definitely want to consult with them again."
Offering live chat customer support also increases the overall value of our site.
Training is also a key part. With Channel Talk, all team members can access a shared management screen, allowing them to observe how others handle inquiries and make suggestions.
This creates natural learning opportunities. Being able to see how others handle customer interactions in real-time helps foster a sense of community among the team. This sense of camaraderie boosts motivation in our chat-based customer service.
And to stay up-to-date on trends, our team visits nearby stores once a week to examine products firsthand and attends brand product briefings and trend training sessions.
The metrics we focus on are:
The number of chats we handle
Positive feedback we receive in post-chat surveys
Our response time
We want to make shopping enjoyable whether the customer is online or offline.
Our priority is not short-term CVR but how well we can build a base of loyal customers and fans.
Building a loyal customer base requires a deep understanding of customer needs and personalized service.
Before, we relied on other chat tools that couldn’t distinguish between customers, leading to one-off interactions that didn’t carry over to the next time.
Now, with Channel Talk, we can:
Proactively engage with our loyal customers
Easily suggest new products
Maintain ongoing communication
This has allowed us to build lasting relationships and continually nurture our customer base.
Our CX team members share daily reports, which often include suggestions for improving the website.
If a sales associate identifies missing information or suggests changes to images, these are implemented on the site by the next day as a standard practice.
This helps us maintain a customer-focused approach to continuous improvement.
Typically, site improvements can take time due to A/B testing and other processes, and employees may become too familiar with the site to see it from a customer’s perspective.
However, because our team interacts with customers daily, they constantly share insights on where customers face challenges and how we can improve the site’s user experience.
Acting quickly on this feedback is a key opportunity for us.
While we use analytical tools to monitor the site, they only provide quantitative data. The CX team shares qualitative insights, like which products customers considered before purchasing and what influenced their choices, which has greatly sped up our website development.
Looking ahead, we want to offer personalized services similar to those provided by personal shoppers at high-end department stores.
To make sure customers choose us, we need to offer experiences they can't get anywhere else.
Delivering this level of service online requires good data. By analyzing customer preferences, we can make precise recommendations.
We plan to use Channel Talk even more effectively to gather customer data and feedback.