CASES
Achievement
Kamegawa Stone Store Co., Ltd.
Pursuing new possibilities for Komatsu stone through tradition, skilled craftsmanship and cross-border EC.
The future of the stone industry as a whole is not bright so Kamegawa Stone Store (KSS)is considering to start a new business since there were good responses from overseas from the test sales. KSS decided to build a full-fledged cross-border EC website and implemented overseas expansion.
At the same time, they were not familiar with the EC industry, so they were looking for an expert in cross-border EC to help them with their business. As a result, they were able to smoothly handle the entire process from construction to operation with the companionship support provided by a cross-border EC specialist with extensive knowledge of cross-border EC from j-Grab.
As a result, Kamegawa Stone Store are able to link the EC mall with their own website, and also expanded their product range with advice on how to make the site suitable for overseas markets, despite the fact that they were affected by the new coronavirus before the shop opened. This was achieved with little effort and with the help of a subsidy.
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Genre
B2C
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Industry/ Sector
Retail
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Shop
Magento
Pursuing new possibilities for Komatsu stone through tradition, skilled craftsmanship and cross-border EC.Kamegawa Stone Store Co., Ltd.
Representative Director Hiroshi Kamegawa
We are located in Manazuru Town, Kanagawa Prefecture, which is known as a production center for the famous stone called "Komatsuishi". This stone has been mined since the Nara period and has been used for shrines and temples, tombstones, etc. from the Kamakura Shogunate to the Edo period. Our successive craftsmen have been involved in the production of some of the tombs of Emperor Taisho and Emperor Showa. And even now, I am the 4th generation involved in the production of the tombstones for famous people.
In recent years, sculptors and art school students have also been paying attention to the new ways of using Komatsu stone, and we were inspired by them, while preserving the tradition, for the future of traditional Komatsu stone, we decided to actively work on new things with Komatsu stone, which is called “endangered stone". Until now, we have proposed stone towers that have never existed in the past while being relatively inexpensive and yet having traditional beauty.
Then, we remembered the existence of foreigners inquiring about Komatsuishi, which is becoming less popular in Japan. Although the number is not large, we thought that it is not necessary to just focus on Japan local customers when considering the future, so we asked j-Grab Inc. to build a cross-border EC site using a national subsidy.
Since it is a stone material, we discussed with j-Grab in order to overcome the disadvantage of high shipping costs due to its weight, and devise measures to prioritize building an active community with overseas people, and we proceeded with the strategy of focusing on that.
We haven't started as planned due to the this corona pandemic at this timing but we are looking forward to a full-scale start from now on.