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Japan’s Factelier starts global shipping, serving the world with quality apparel products

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
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See the original story in Japanese.Kyushu-based fashion e-commerce website Factelier creates made-in-Japan quality apparel products by partnering directly with well-established Japanese factories. By eliminating the middlemen in fashion distribution by working directly with manufacturers, the resulting products can be purchased at a third of the department store prices. See also: Skipping the middleman: Japanese startup goes to the source for high-quality shirts Japanese ecommerce service boasts 70% returning users The website rolled out an English-language interface and started global shipping earlier this week. International users can purchase Factelier’s products on the website and receive them in more than 120 countries by paying the extra flat-rate shipping fee of 2,800 yen (about $22.5). Since before the roll-out of the English-language interface, Factelier has been receiving orders from more than 100 countries including Asian countries like Taiwan, China, Indonesia and Thailand, in addition to the U.S., UK and France. When one visits the website from outside Japan, a language switcher widget will pop up onscreen so that the preferred language (English or Japanese) can be selected. Japan is known globally for its high-level offerings, from customer service to product quality. Living in Los Angeles, I often realize the brand value of made-in-Japan and from-Japan products. So there is a high demand for Japanese apparel products worldwide. Factelier is planning to add more supporting…

factelier_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.
Kyushu-based fashion e-commerce website Factelier creates made-in-Japan quality apparel products by partnering directly with well-established Japanese factories. By eliminating the middlemen in fashion distribution by working directly with manufacturers, the resulting products can be purchased at a third of the department store prices.

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The website rolled out an English-language interface and started global shipping earlier this week. International users can purchase Factelier’s products on the website and receive them in more than 120 countries by paying the extra flat-rate shipping fee of 2,800 yen (about $22.5).

Since before the roll-out of the English-language interface, Factelier has been receiving orders from more than 100 countries including Asian countries like Taiwan, China, Indonesia and Thailand, in addition to the U.S., UK and France. When one visits the website from outside Japan, a language switcher widget will pop up onscreen so that the preferred language (English or Japanese) can be selected.

Japan is known globally for its high-level offerings, from customer service to product quality. Living in Los Angeles, I often realize the brand value of made-in-Japan and from-Japan products. So there is a high demand for Japanese apparel products worldwide.

Factelier is planning to add more supporting languages in the future.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japanese ecommerce service boasts 70% returning users

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
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Japanese fashion e-commerce website Factelier just celebrated its one year anniversary. As we have mentioned in a previous post, Factelier creates made-in-Japan quality apparel products by partnering directly with well-established Japanese factories. By skipping middlemen such as distributors and retailors, these high quality products are made available to consumers at affordable price. To mark its one year anniversary, Factelier shared an impressive statistic: 70% of people using its service are returning users. That’s an amazing number for any type of e-commerce. The company has formed partnerships with five different factories in Japan to date. On the website, there are special contents dedicated to its one year annivesary, where it features the voices of participating factories. Factelier has built its name by collaborating with companies old and new. Back in December of 2012, the startup joined forces with a Japanese factory Kuska, a location three hours away from Kyoto. The beauty of Kusaka’s products is that they are completely hand-made. This time-consuming process only allows a few pattern variations to be produced. However, the resulting high-quality silk ties are one of a kind. Factelier has also made original products in collaboration with Zozotown, and it has opened its first show-room to showcase…

Factelier-1stanniversary

Japanese fashion e-commerce website Factelier just celebrated its one year anniversary. As we have mentioned in a previous post, Factelier creates made-in-Japan quality apparel products by partnering directly with well-established Japanese factories. By skipping middlemen such as distributors and retailors, these high quality products are made available to consumers at affordable price.

To mark its one year anniversary, Factelier shared an impressive statistic: 70% of people using its service are returning users. That’s an amazing number for any type of e-commerce.

The company has formed partnerships with five different factories in Japan to date. On the website, there are special contents dedicated to its one year annivesary, where it features the voices of participating factories.

Factelier has built its name by collaborating with companies old and new. Back in December of 2012, the startup joined forces with a Japanese factory Kuska, a location three hours away from Kyoto. The beauty of Kusaka’s products is that they are completely hand-made. This time-consuming process only allows a few pattern variations to be produced. However, the resulting high-quality silk ties are one of a kind. Factelier has also made original products in collaboration with Zozotown, and it has opened its first show-room to showcase quality apparel products to potential customers.

It will be interesting to see how the company progresses from here, as it continues to connect factories and consumers.

rising-expo-factelier_2
Factelier founder Toshio Yamada

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Skipping the middleman: Japanese startup goes to the source for high-quality shirts

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
SHARE:

The revival of “Made in Japan” products. That is the mission of online fashion commerce startup Factelier. Having launched back in October of 2012, it eliminates the middle-man in fashion distribution by working directly with manufacturing factories. The resulting products can be purchased at one third the price of department stores. At the time of launch, Factelier leveraged Japanese crowdfunding service Campfire, hoping to raise just 300,000 yen (or about $3,000). But eventually it brought in over 1,100,000 yen (about $11,400) from over 70 supporters. The company’s very first partner was a factory in Kumamoto prefecture called Hitoyoshi, which works with over 74 worldwide brands. Factelier is seeing an ever-increasing demand from its customers and continues to add new products every month. The most recent product was a polo shirt selling for 7,350 yen (or about $74). It has an estimated market price of about 13,000 yen (an estimate based on the initial costs, equal to about $130). These shirts are manufactured in collaboration with a factory called Seiko, well-known for its state of the art sewing technology. In recent years, the rate of clothing products made in Japan has dropped by a whopping 45% compared to 1990. There are…

Factelier

The revival of “Made in Japan” products. That is the mission of online fashion commerce startup Factelier. Having launched back in October of 2012, it eliminates the middle-man in fashion distribution by working directly with manufacturing factories. The resulting products can be purchased at one third the price of department stores.

At the time of launch, Factelier leveraged Japanese crowdfunding service Campfire, hoping to raise just 300,000 yen (or about $3,000). But eventually it brought in over 1,100,000 yen (about $11,400) from over 70 supporters. The company’s very first partner was a factory in Kumamoto prefecture called Hitoyoshi, which works with over 74 worldwide brands.

Factelier is seeing an ever-increasing demand from its customers and continues to add new products every month. The most recent product was a polo shirt selling for 7,350 yen (or about $74). It has an estimated market price of about 13,000 yen (an estimate based on the initial costs, equal to about $130). These shirts are manufactured in collaboration with a factory called Seiko, well-known for its state of the art sewing technology.

Factelier-poloshirtIn recent years, the rate of clothing products made in Japan has dropped by a whopping 45% compared to 1990. There are many reasons behind this decline, but the emergence of a low-budget fashion market and the strong yen have definitely had an impact. As a result, the industry is seeing layoffs of highly skilled workers, and many factories are even closing. But by connecting factories directly with consumers at an appropriate price, many of them will be able to secure sales and revenue they would otherwise miss.

The company behind Factelier is Lifestyle Accent, and its founder Toshio Yamada was born into a family business that sold women’s clothes. He grew up with “made in Japan” quality clothes and studied abroad in France. He has experience in working at a luxury brand (Gucci in Paris) and has also worked in the online fashion commerce field. Yamada tells us:

70% of our customers are in their 30s and 40s. People find that our original products, produced in collaboration with [quality] factories, are great for gifts as well. All of our customers have one thing in common: they are looking for high quality products and care less about the brand name. We are doing very well right now and seeing a steady increase in demand.

Factelier supports international shipping using EMS. But currently its website is only available in Japanese.

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