Huckleberry Inc. (Setagaya-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Yusuke Ando; hereinafter "Huckleberry"), with the cooperation of Shopify Japan K.K., held the event for EC businesses, "Shopify Partner Roadshow Season 3: Next Gen Commerce ~The Eve of the EC Revolution~."

This event brought together top domestic and international EC brands and support companies through a keynote address and four sessions. Lively discussions on real-world "practical strategies" from the front lines covered topics such as responding to "agentic commerce," a new purchasing behavior driven by AI evolution; system overhauls to solve legacy infrastructure challenges; the essence of subscription businesses; and maximizing the Shopify ecosystem.

Digest video summarizing the day's highlights is available here:

https://huckleberry-inc.com/event202605

Session Highlights and Key Takeaways

[Keynote] The Future of Commerce Transformed by AI

Speakers: Junichi Okamura (Shopify Japan K.K.), Shoji Iizuka (and ST Holdings Inc.), Yusuke Ando (Huckleberry)

Shopify Japan presented the concept of "agentic commerce," AI-driven purchasing, which has seen a先行して本格展開 (preliminary full-scale deployment) in North America and has already led to an approximately 9x increase in access to purchasing sessions, along with the "Universal Commerce Protocol" (UCP). While the rise of agentic commerce and changes in purchasing behavior are anticipated in the Japanese EC market, and ST, which operates a mall with scratch EC, shared its unique perspective on the importance of "structuring product data" to ensure AI correctly understands products, and the real struggles involved in data preparation. The discussion then moved to how to reliably capture the new wave of purchasing trends in Japan and the possibilities for product data management using Shopify and data preparation for the AI era.

[Session 1] The Ideal Form of Next-Generation Commerce Marketing: Optimal Solutions for Organization, Talent, and Tools

Speakers: Tomohiro Ueda (TOMORROWLAND Co., Ltd.), Ken Konno (Braze Japan K.K.), Tamaki Sato, Yusuke Ando (Huckleberry)

This session introduced a "best-of-breed" system renewal case study using Databricks, Braze, and Shopify, involving TOMORROWLAND. It explained the benefits of using modern systems to escape vendor lock-in and enhance architectural readability, thereby reducing reliance on external companies and enabling flexible in-house improvements and operations. Furthermore, it revealed a transformation strategy towards a self-sustaining, "strong in-house organization" where long-term employees acquire IT national qualifications (such as Applied Information Technology Engineer) to improve their system understanding, addressing challenges specific to apparel, such as the "siloed division between EC and marketing departments" and talent turnover.

[Session 2] Renewing to Next-Generation EC Infrastructure: Restoring the Strongest Customer Experience While Retaining Core Systems

Speakers: Taisuke Iizuka (A&S Co., Ltd.), Hiroyuki Nakatani (Laox EC Strategy Co., Ltd.), Tamaki Sato, Yusuke Ando (Huckleberry)

A&S, which develops jewelry brands like agete, and the 100-year-old EC retailer Shaddy shared the fundamental premise that developing a data infrastructure is paramount for improving customer satisfaction. However, they revealed practical issues arising from the limitations of old core systems (inability to integrate via API) and the proliferation of peripheral systems, leading to "fragmented customer data," duplicated work, and dysfunctional CRM initiatives. Instead of a "complete overhaul of core systems" requiring immense cost and time, an extremely realistic and speedy solution was presented using "CoreLink," an iPaaS product that flexibly connects data through a hub while retaining existing systems.

[Session 3] The Essence of Subscription Business and Shopify Utilization

Speakers: Minoru Nishimori (Spic Co., Ltd.), Takashi Ito (Huckleberry)

Mr. Nishimori of Spic, whose company's sales are 95% driven by repeat purchases of the single product "Lypo-C," discussed the importance of customer insight during the "plateau period" after a boom has ended. He also revealed the secret behind a "KPI Dashboard Revolution" where generative AI directly analyzes and interprets payment data from Shopify and the "Subscription App," stored in Google BigQuery, abandoning traditional BI tool construction. By combining Shopify x subscription data with AI, it was strongly demonstrated that subscription businesses can be dramatically streamlined in terms of building analysis dashboards, extracting measures, and even PDCA operations, leading to sufficient growth potential. The session also covered the gritty methods for sharing AI initiatives with the現場 (front lines) so they don't end with mere admiration, and the new roles of leaders in prompt and environment setup.

[Session 4] Utilizing the Shopify Ecosystem and Improving Operational Efficiency

Speakers: Yuichi Azumi (BBF Inc.), Teppei Goto (Returns Inc.), Taiki Fukasawa (and.d Inc.), Tetsuya Seki (AMS Inc.)

The session explained why Shopify is chosen even in the large enterprise domain, citing its robust infrastructure and API extensibility. The "method of stopping the bleeding" from an expanding back office (returns, cancellations, fraudulent payments, etc.) was shared with case studies, emphasizing the early adoption of automation apps. Simultaneously, warnings were issued against "dark customization" due to the haphazard introduction of apps, and survival strategies for vendors and businesses in the AI era were presented, including the "gritty reality" (logistics domain) and "explainable calculation logic" (inventory forecasting) that humans must guarantee amidst intensifying AI-driven development.

Future Outlook

This event highlighted that the wave of AI (agentic commerce) has already arrived at our doorstep, and to respond to it, "data structuring," "seamless data integration," "in-house development of self-sustaining organizations," and "preparation of prerequisites for quality input" are indispensable, as evidenced by the practical strategies shared by each speaker from their respective front lines.

Huckleberry, leveraging its expertise from supporting over 32,000 stores and its product suite including the data integration SaaS "CoreLink" and the "Subscription App," will continue to strongly support EC businesses' "next steps" in both system and operational aspects.

<Contact Information for Inquiries>

Huckleberry will regularly hold events on the themes of "Next-Generation EC Strategy" and "AI x Commerce." Individual interview plans with the event speakers are also scheduled.

Media interested in future event schedules, interviews, or feature placements are welcome to inquire via the contact information below.

Huckleberry Inc. Public Relations

[email protected]

【About Huckleberry Inc.】

With the mission "To shape the future of distribution into the right form," we plan, develop, and operate services that support the sales improvement of EC businesses.

While everyone thinks "I want to build a good system," we feel that few companies have a clear definition of "what constitutes a good system." Huckleberry acts as a partner to create "good systems" and "good futures" that differ for each company, aiming for a future of distribution that is comfortable for both sellers and buyers. Our team, composed of veterans including serial entrepreneurs, engineers with extensive startup experience, and former PdMs who have long been involved in open innovation, along with ambitious younger members, supports the growth of Shopify stores.

Head Office Location: Unit B401, Block B, Mikanshita, 2-6-2 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

Representative: Yusuke Ando, President and CEO

Business Activities: Development and provision of Shopify apps. Support for EC site construction. Launch of co-creation businesses in the EC/SaaS domain.

URL: https://huckleberry-inc.com/

【Services Provided】

Data integration SaaS "CoreLink" that flexibly and affordably integrates various EC data

https://huckleberry-inc.com/core-link?utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral

The definitive subscription app! Shopify App "Subscription"

https://apps.shopify.com/huckleberry-subscription?locale=ja&utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral

Dedicated connector for TikTok Shop "CoreLink for TikTok Shop"

https://huckleberry-inc.com/core-link-for-tiktokshop?utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral

Shopify App "All in gift (Send gifts via LINE or Instagram!)"

https://apps.shopify.com/sns-gift?locale=ja&utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral

Chatbot to improve payment CVR on Shopify "CommChat" https://huckleberry-inc.com/commchat?utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral

Lottery sales app "Raffle315"

https://apps.shopify.com/raffle-315?locale=ja&utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral

App that easily enables login across major platforms "Unicorn SSO"

https://apps.shopify.com/unicorn-sso?locale=ja&utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral

Web Media "EC Magazine | Know-how Magazine for Successful EC"

https://ec.huckleberry-inc.com/?utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral

FACT BOX

  • Source: PR TIMES
  • Category: Eventレポート