Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo
Seminar Summary - Fujiyo Ishiguro, Netyear

Enhancing Website User Experience to Boost Sales
July 2005

On July 5, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Netyear Group Corporation, Fujiyo Ishiguro, spoke to EA-Tokyo members at the City Club of Tokyo about the advantages of using the Internet to achieve higher work productivity and competitiveness.

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Japan's ranking in competitiveness survey offered potential
Netyear Group provides SIPS (Strategic Internet Professional Services) − that is integrated Internet-based consulting and website development based on the fusion of business strategy, technology and information design. In concert with the above customized range of services, the company is able to satisfy the needs of its clients thanks mainly to the diversity of their 80 staff members. Ninety percent of Netyear's clients are TSE listed companies including KDDI, Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank, Toshiba, NEC, Secom and GAP.

Netyear was a new challenge for Ishiguro because it was the first time that she had been involved in a pre-IPO company. However, the opportunity presented itself as, according to a 1999 IMD Business School’s survey that appeared in the “World Competitiveness Year Book”, Japan scored low rankings in several of the categories essential to running a business.

The survey covered 47 developed and developing countries and highlighted that:
• Japan was at the bottom of the group in terms of entrepreneurship, creation of firms and immigration laws.
• Japan ranked 46th in transparency of financial institutions and cost of living.

Findings of a report prepared by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in 2000, showed that:
• Almost 65% of all Internet users were male.
• Only 35% of users were female.
• Japanese women used the Internet much less than American men and women. In the U.S., 50% of users were females.
• Considering that women have strong purchasing power and drove the growth of the Internet in the States, there were prospects for future growth in Japan.

Based on this data, Ishiguro felt her country was behind the pack and that there was a significant business opportunity − this was an occasion for Netyear to provide unique services and raise Japan’s status in the business world.

Monitor user’s experience, formulate business goals
The key to Netyear’s successful approach is to monitor the user’s Internet experience and formulate business goals with corporate clients. A comprehensive plan is then created. This plan may involve adapting website content design, the structure of information and user interface design.

Ishiguro illustrated how valuable user eXperience (UXD) - a system of potential user experiences and methods of delivery aimed at changing users' attitudes to the point where the business goal is achieved - can be to a retail business with 30,000 users accessing its website to shop online. Without User eXperience system designs in place, users may be forced to wait while the top page finishes loading, or they may find it difficult to navigate around the site to obtain product information. Lengthy online application forms that are troublesome to fill out only compound the problem and can lead to fewer users completing their purchases. This, of course, results in lower revenue for the client.

These process inefficiencies are where User eXperience design can make a real difference since the process can ensure that the website has adequate file sizes, an opening movie and appealing visual design, easy-to-fill-in application forms, and other tools to improve user experience—and ultimately boost sales.

Netyear has employed these strategic designs and assisted many large corporations to modify their corporate websites to grow profits.

Two key examples include:
• Uniqlo, the most popular brand in the casual apparel industry in Japan. Netyear managed the clothing company’s website resulting in the sale of a significant number of products a day, which at the time made it the most accessed stand-alone e-commerce site.
• Suntory’s e-wine site offers about 900 labels. With Netyear’s help, e-commerce and editorial content features operate seamlessly.

Ishiguro provided three demonstrations showing how user eXperience design can assist businesses.

First, she selected a publisher selling a paper guidebook. The publisher could attract more readers by setting up a travel site to shorten the time users spent flipping through the pages. Netyear’s solution was to track the user eXperience and information related to users’ access of online area maps at the same time. In addition, two maps were included with zoom functions to provide more details and exact locations of hotels and restaurants at street level.

Secondly, music websites can also benefit from Netyear’s services. Let’s suppose that user’s download music with an MP3player. To make it easier for users, a database of artists can be created, songs can be previewed with a jukebox player, and downloading carried out by dragging the song title to the jukebox player.

Finally, Ishiguro illustrated how enhancements can be made to online rental video services. For this type of business, a unique search engine can be created with categories arranged according to movie genres. Organizing information in this way allows users to select movies based on their mood at the time.

The overall emphasis of Ishiguro’s presentation was that Netyear is not only a market Web integrator but also a marketing strategy provider. Corporate websites can be designed with more interactive features to enable businesses to more efficiently monitor their users needs. www.netyear.net

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Text: Natasha Thompson.

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