DX Strategy
Top Management Message
The Adastria mission is Play fashion! In any time, our mission is to enrich the lives of our customers and make them happy through fashion. The speed of social change is remarkable these days. At the same time, the lifestyles and purchasing behaviors of our customers continue to diversify. To meet these changing needs, we must evolve and reimagine our business model itself.
The more than 16.5 million members of our e-commerce site and the points of contact with customers who visit our 1,500 group stores in person are valuable assets. We intend to create new points of contact with customers both in brick-and-mortar stores and online by integrating digital technologies with real-world services and experiences. We continue to create value and improve productivity through digital technology across the value chain, including brand development, product planning, logistics, PR, and store operations.
Under the Adastria Group medium-term management plan ending February 2026, we aim to transform ourselves from an apparel company to a Good Community Co-Creation Company. We intend to do a top-to-bottom review of our business practices and business models, unbound by conventional frameworks. And we have formulated a digital transformation (DX) strategy to support our businesses in all aspects as we take on the challenge of entering new business domains. In this way, we intend to leverage digital technologies and methods unique to the Adastria Group.
Representative Director and President
Osamu Kimura
Accelerating Adastria Growth, Supported by an Aggressive DX Strategy
1. Transforming the Customer Experience
We use digital technologies to maximize customer lifetime value (LTV), delivering excitement in abundance to our customers.
(1) By accelerating the integration of brick-and-mortar with e-commerce and offering greater experiential value, we will transform our physical stores into even more exciting, convenient, and attractive spaces.
Our Dot-ST store OMO model offers a new customer service experience through the use of digital signage. This technique creates more personalized styling suggestions while providing information related to purchase history, personal favorites, etc.
Starting from October 2023, we have launched two types of in-store pickup services to further enhance customer experience and convenience.
・Multi Pick:
A service that allows customers to pick up multiple brands' products at once at one store, in coordination with our online inventory.
・Quick Pick:
A pickup service that allows customers to receive their purchases made on our online store for a single brand the next day at our brick-and-mortar store.
We will continue to expand our services to make online shopping more convenient and enjoyable.
(2) We plan to evolve our own Dot-ST online shop into a more enjoyable Good Community through enhanced functions for convenient shopping, content such as the STAFF BOARD, and products from other companies.
STAFF BOARD consists of more than 4,300 shop staff members who post their styling tips every day. This is one way in which we foster communication with customers both offline and online.
And the Dot-ST platform is now open to corporate partners as well. We seek to deal in products from other companies that have an affinity to our concept.
We also open our STAFF BOARD to other companies' staff and encourage them to post, in order to send customers to each other.
(3) Bringing greater change to the customer experience overseas. In conjunction with our business strategy, we provide glocal customers new experiences tailored to local areas and tastes.
Our Shanghai flagship store links to wechat app, offering points benefits, the latest fashion news, etc. Due to improvements to the system in Mainland China, sells merchandise to customers in all regions of mainland China through the opening of stores on many e-commerce, such as T-Mall and VIP.
We have also working with our logistics subsidiary established in mainland China to create a system for delivery from mainland China without stock in Hong Kong and progressing trial of stockless e-commerce.
2. Transforming Work-Styles
We use digital technologies to improve the work efficiencies for Adastria employees, striving to create environments in which employees work with happiness and excitement.
(1) We intend to connect each business process in our value chain seamless with data to optimize internal processes, reducing time spent on unnecessary input and confirmations.
Link people (including external parties), operations, and data involved in the value chain seamlessly.
(2) Introducing digital technologies to streamline operations top-to-bottom, fostering environments in which employees focus on their core tasks.
Stores now focus on service customers, while headquarters has improved accuracy and speed of operations, improving productivity throughout the company.
・Stores: Expanded availability of self-checkout systems, improved store app, and simplified the store closing process.
・Headquarters: Adopted RPA* and other digital technologies to handle purchase returns, confirmation process functions in the human resources department, etc.
*RPA refers to the automation of business processes using software robots.
(3) We intend to upgrade business decision-making processes by using advanced technologies that incorporate data and artificial intelligence.
We leverage advanced digital technologies to integrate each operation and achieve centralized data management. In this way, we have increased productivity and improved operations. In addition, the implementation of demand forecasting AI has optimised inventory and improved operational accuracy, resulting in reduced missed sales.
DX Strategy and Organizational Structure
To foster DX throughout the Adastria Group, we created the DX Strategy Division, which reports to our directors. We augment and develop human resources with the IT knowledge and data utilization expertise necessary for digital transformation to support corporate growth.
We intend to work with DX human resources outside the company, and to strengthen our organization through collaboration with business partners and startup companies in Japan and overseas. We will also use side work as a means to pursue DX.
Our company aims to secure 70-90 domestic digital transformation personnel and 50-100 overseas engineers in the fiscal year ending February 2026 to advance EC expansion and business digitalization.
Certified Business Operator
In January 2022, Adastria became a DX Certified Operator by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
