Organizational and App Initiatives to Improve CVR and User Experience

「Providing real-world experiences through the five senses so that consumers can enjoy shopping with a deeper sense of conviction and empathy toward products」

「For project supporters, the company improved the support purchase experience by updating the Review feature, which displays supporters' ratings and comments on project creator pages, and implementing Encore Projects, which relist popular projects after their support purchase periods have ended, allowing supporters to make support purchases again for limited quantities before the products enter the primary distribution market.」

「For project supporters, the company strengthened the environment in which they can enjoy support purchases with greater confidence by displaying on project pages both the distinctive mark assigned to recommended project creators certified under company-defined standards and ratings of project creators by project supporters. It has also continued releasing new features to enrich the support purchase experience, including project launch notifications for projects supporters want to support as early as possible, a redesigned Makuake homepage, a dedicated rankings page, and recommendations based on analysis of project supporters' activity.」

「For supporters, the company strengthened the environment in which they can enjoy support purchases with greater confidence by assigning a distinctive mark to recommended project creators certified under company-defined standards and displaying the mark on the site. It also rolled out various features to enrich the support purchase experience, including a function that notifies supporters when projects they want to support as early as possible are launched. In addition, it encouraged repeat support purchases by advancing CRM initiatives centered on distributing various coupons tailored to supporters' needs.」

「For supporters, the company strengthened the environment in which they can enjoy support purchases with greater confidence by assigning a distinctive mark to recommended project creators certified under company-defined standards and displaying the mark on the site. It also rolled out various features to enrich the support purchase experience, including a function that notifies supporters when projects they want to support as early as possible are launched. In addition, it encouraged repeat support purchases by advancing CRM initiatives centered on distributing various coupons tailored to supporters' needs.」

「For supporters, the company conducted regular user interviews to capture their candid feedback and worked with project creators to improve the quality of the services provided. It also held events and other initiatives where supporters could experience project products offline, increasing opportunities for them to gain a deeper understanding of Makuake's support purchases. In addition, it provided opportunities for repeat support purchases through various CRM initiatives, including its coupon feature.」

「On the supporter side, the company conducted regular user interviews to improve the quality of its services in cooperation with project owners based on supporters' candid feedback, and held events and other initiatives where users could experience project products offline, creating more opportunities to deepen their understanding of Makuake's backing purchases. It also released a coupon function and provided opportunities for repeat backing purchases by issuing various coupons tailored to supporters' needs. As a result, the number of projects launched by repeat project owners increased 13.6% quarter on quarter to 1,085, while repeat backing-purchase value rose 8.9% to ¥3,409.367 million.」

「For supporters, the company conducted regular supporter interviews and surveys after support purchases, worked with project creators to improve the quality of the services provided based on supporters' candid feedback, and regularly held offline preview events where supporters could experience project products ahead of time. By providing special opportunities to connect directly with project creators and offer input on the product development process, the company increased opportunities for supporters to gain a deeper understanding of Makuake's support purchases, which go beyond simple purchases. It also launched a coupon feature and provided opportunities for repeat support purchases by issuing various coupons tailored to supporters' needs.」

「The effects of reopening, which began in the second half of the previous fiscal year, continued during the cumulative first quarter. As a result of expanding support for project creators and initiatives to acquire new users, CVR (conversion rate = number of support purchases ÷ unique access users) increased 0.2 percentage points year on year to 3.0%.」

「Against this backdrop, during the first half of the fiscal year, demand growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic increased curators' workloads and the number and scale of projects. This reduced users' opportunities to discover new products and services and caused the matching rate between project creators and supporters, or conversion rate (CVR), to trend downward. In response, the company strengthened recruitment of curators and reviewers, established a new organizational structure for both departments, improved operations, and focused on developing new features for project creators and supporters.」

「The matching rate between creators and supporters, which had been declining due to the increased workload of curators and the challenge of providing users with opportunities to discover new products and services as the number of projects increased, rose slightly through stronger recruitment and training of curators and screening personnel and the development of new functions. The company aims to achieve further improvements.」

「In addition, the matching rate between project creators and supporters, or conversion rate (CVR), had been trending downward because of the increased workload for curators and the growing number of projects, which had made it more difficult for users to discover new products and services. The rate edged up as a result of stronger recruitment of curators and reviewers, the transition of both departments to a new organizational structure, and the development of new app-focused features. The company also continued focusing on creating a platform environment where project creators and supporters can use the service with confidence, training personnel hired during the cumulative second quarter, and improving operations under the new organizational structure.」

「As part of these improvement measures, we strengthened recruitment of curators and reviewers and began transitioning both departments to a new organizational structure. We also continued developing new app-focused features to improve the user experience. During the cumulative first quarter, CVR improvement measures were aimed at laying the groundwork for accelerating growth from the third quarter onward. CVR did not improve during the period, however,」