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Japan has always been at the forefront of successful eCommerce. It has the third-largest economy in the entire world and a lot of it is thanks to the world of eCommerce. When it comes to making sales online, Japan falls behind the UK, the US, and China only.

The eCommerce market is thriving all around the world, but Japan remains among the top countries where people love to shop online. After China and the US (the US market reaches a third of China’s), follow the United Kingdom with 4.8% of the retail eCommerce sales share, and Japan with 3%.

So, if a new trend appears in this market, Japan would definitely know it. Not only that, but they’ll do a lot to develop it further, implement it, and use it to boost the customer experience. That new trend right now is headless commerce.

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What Is Headless Commerce?

If you aren’t familiar with this term, it is basically a separation of the back and front end of eCommerce applications. This is only simply put, while the entire headless commerce meaning runs a lot deeper. Just imagine – the front and back end functioning independently. This allows for a whole new level of customization and flexibility.

Companies that aim to create an omnichannel experience for consumers, and many Japanese companies have this goal, use headless commerce. The front end provides a highly personalized experience to users because it automatically connects their personal data in the back end. Not to mention, headless commerce eliminates many of the technical headaches that traditionally occurred at the back end.

There are plenty of applications of headless commerce these days. It allows businesses to shape the buyer’s journey, adopt new touchpoints for technology, and create more interactive, more personalized digital experiences.

Headless commerce offers brands the potential for testing and experimentation, as well as more choices for customization than were ever available. It makes sense that many Japanese companies are thrilled with this system.

Headless Commerce is Trending in the Japanese Market

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 brought a whole new level of demand for eCommerce in the world, including in Japan. People started doing online shopping as their only or safest option. Many of those people started favoring online shopping to buying things the traditional way. Even now when the restrictions are minimized, many people still prefer to do this on the Internet.

According to Statista, the revenue in Japan is expected to show an annual growth rate of 14.70% between 2022 and 2025. This means that, by 2025, Japan expects a projected market volume of $324.60 billion.

This makes today the most successful time for Japan in terms of eCommerce.

There’s a reason why buying in Japan is such a popular endeavor, and it’s not just the pandemic. For a long time, Japan has been one of the top four places where eCommerce is thriving. This is because sellers in this country are dedicated to providing the most amazing customer experiences, work hard on personalizing their offers, and impress the buyers.

When it comes to personalization, higher SEO optimization, lesser expenses, and faster fixing of issues, headless commerce is an amazing choice. Many Japanese companies are adopting this new system in order to provide their customers with an improved experience.

In a market that’s so popular, the competition is immense, too. This makes it hard for Japanese brands to stand out in the crowd unless they are truly unique. Traditional commerce allowed for a little customization, which made most stores look similar to each other. Headless commerce is the exact opposite – it offers an amazing level of customization, as well as the flexibility to change things faster – and at a lower cost.

It’s no wonder that the Japanese market is slowly moving toward headless commerce. This is not for every company, but many companies use the omnichannel system to boost the satisfaction in their customers.

Businesses are getting more sophisticated and innovative as we speak in Japan. For example, ZozoTown, an online fashion retailer, has launched an app that people can use to order custom alterations to their clothes, as well as get them delivered once they are finished. Uniqlo, on the other hand, is using its e-commerce app and AI to enable customers to get voice-activated support and product recommendations.

Even the largest eCommerce store from Japan uses headless commerce to offer its products and services to customers. Amazon is the OG of this application architecture. They separate commerce services from the frontend layer on the backend. Because their microservices leverage PIAs, they can extend and scale to different frontends including mobile apps, wearables, websites, PoS handhelds, IoT devices, and shopping carts.

Now, Amazon has thousands of developers and APIs working to manage the many microservices. This is something that smaller businesses and stores cannot do right away, but it’s a great way to start. Those that don’t want to build these things from scratch by themselves can even buy them as a SaaS product and connect them with what they have.

Thanks to headless commerce and microservices, Amazon has become more popular than ever in the world of e-commerce. It currently owns over 39% of the total sales on the online market. People from all around the world buy from this platform because they are masters at improving the site experience, offerings, as well as speed-to-market time.

Companies that have adopted the headless method can enjoy higher SEO ranking because they can create and spread content more efficiently, as well as change the URL formats as the search engines need them to be.

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In addition to this, the headless method allows companies to handle issues almost instantly. Compared to traditional methods, they have the full flexibility to fix performance issues without having to edit both the front- and back-end.

In Japan, businesses are taking great advantage of the innovations in the eCommerce market. More and more companies are starting to adopt new systems such as the highly debated headless commerce. We can only expect to see more of them joining this trend, and learn how it will shape and change the way they sell things online in the near future.

The dynamic landscape of e-commerce is modeled by the subscription model, a crucial force for driving growth and sustainability in the industry. Many brands are adopting the subscription strategy to strengthen relationships with their customers and develop a source of stable income. In part, this technique is in play due to the cost of acquiring clients, so companies have the Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) model value and consumer lifetime value (LTV) as key metrics for establishing the growth of their online business. Founded on Shopify’s e-commerce platform, Loop Subscriptions is an innovative subscription management service that assists DTC agencies in improving experiences for their subscribers, from rewards systems to a reduction in abandonments while generating more revenue.

The Passionate Driver of Loop’s Flourishment

The one responsible for the success of Loop was Piyush Jain, who has a thorough comprehension of the ins and outs of the online commerce field. As a proficient entrepreneur, he was responsible for establishing a variety of platforms, such as LimeTray. Created in 2013, this POS software company was centered around restaurants that strived to gain significant insights into consumer relations management, including loyalty and feedback solutions. Working with an estimated 5,000 eateries, such as Domino’s, Tim Hortons, and Burger King, LimeTray quickly became a multi-million dollar venture.

Jain’s experience with LimeTray and his decade of prowess in the internet universe led to identify and investigate an aperture with the DTC industry’s endeavor to maintain customer retention. He examined challenges with average order value (AOV), LTV, and brand loyalty within the Shopify and DTC areas because he desired to enhance the shopping experience for consumers worldwide.

With the help of Vivek Agarwal, Piyush launched Loop in 2021 to magnify AOV, LTV, and client relationship management. The platform quickly captured the interest of a global audience, reaching about 100 installations within the first three months of its initiation. Its clients, who had positive experiences with the service, publicly shared it and ignited its organic growth, leading to its development and growth of strategic associations.

Sakshi Jain, a catalyst in Loop’s advancement in the subscription arena, became the firm’s Chief Growth Officer to align it for future growth and orient its policies around a constructive subscriber experience. Prior to her role with the platform, she studied at IIM Lucknow with an MBA and at UC Berkeley with a vivid cognition of cultural landscapes. Her academic journey led her to hold an office with Fortune 500 giants, like Nestle and ITC, where she apprehended the fundamentals of FMCG mobility and omnichannel approaches, both of which were critical in fostering a growth formula for Loop.

As the CGO, Jain is responsible for making Loop known worldwide for its scaling strategies and improving subscription services. She has the sole purpose of increasing the visibility of Loop by building alliances with tech firms and exploiting the current broker nexus. Aside from internal operations, Sakshi regularly consults with brands, advising them on how to scale their functions beyond the known realm. Employing her skills with both aspects of the agency, she directs the course of Loop’s viable scaling and newfangled go-to-market procedures.

Industry Penetration and Brisk Evolution

Loop has expanded its horizon over the course of two years with its broad base of about 2,200 marques. Competitors have seen the migration of approximately 400 brands to this company, a noteworthy achievement and a testimony to Loop’s effective schemes and the network of loyal clients it has webbed together. Numerous agencies highly rate Loop’s marketing approach because of its novelty and efficacy.

The Bottom Line

The subscription realm is structured by tactical intuition, effectual cooperatives, and a critical analysis of market necessities. Loop’s venture in this domain indicates how those facets can accelerate business growth. With its priorities on escalating LTV and taking advantage of present connections to evolve, Loop is not only globally amplifying its functions but also renovating e-commerce’s subscription model.