[Background] Categorization work for products, which is important in EC business

ASKUL Corporation, Ltd. started its business in 1993 as the ASKUL Corporation Division of PLUS Co., Ltd. with the aim of providing services equivalent to those of large-scale businesses for small businesses. Currently, we are developing a mail-order service for businesses "ASKUL" and a mail-order service for individuals "LOHACO".

The company has built its own distribution system called the ASKUL Corporation model, and uses a simple distribution structure to provide various products to companies and individuals in a short period of time and at low cost. When developing on the EC site, product information is posted after giving categories such as "household goods/kitchen supplies" and "hygiene/medical care/nursing care" to each product. "Since product registration is complete and sales only begin, speeding up product registration is important for business. The automatic assignment of categories also plays a role," explains Technostics Headquarters. Hironobu Kosakai, General Manager of EC Data Creation Search Data Management Department. The basic categorization work is outsourced to an external BPO, and it is a very important process in the company's business, which handles millions of cases annually.

[Issues] Speeding up product registration work and personalizing categorization work are issues

Among them, in the "ASKUL" service, which handles many essential items for various industries, it is difficult to determine the category of MRO at first glance, such as tools, jigs, and maintenance supplies that are indispensable for maintenance, repair, and operation. We also handle many specialized products such as merchandise. Therefore, there was a demand for speeding up the process of assigning categories. “Because MRO products are very specialized, we outsource the categorization work to a BPO company with special knowledge. It can take weeks to be ready for sale with manual work, so we wanted to categorize as quickly as possible to maximize business opportunities.” and Mr. Reiji Kamiyama, who belongs to EC Data Creation Search Data Management at the same headquarters, explains the challenges.

In addition, since it is a highly specialized field, improvements were required from the perspective of business continuity. “When someone with specialized knowledge retires, we have to look for a new BPO partner. We felt a sense of urgency about this process, and we continued to challenge ourselves to find a way to not rely on people even a little. That's it," said Mr. Kosakai. There was a demand for creating a mechanism for speeding up categorization and avoiding the risk of personalization.

In order to solve this problem, we initially relied on the product numbers in the electronic catalogs provided by the suppliers and registered them in a dictionary. It took a lot of time and effort, and I judged that the benefits were small. In addition, after consulting with a team that is strong in internal technology, they tried a mechanism for automatically assigning categories using AI, but they were not able to sufficiently achieve the KPI related to accuracy that was initially set. .

【選定】海外での実績と精度に対するKPIの達成により導入を決断

While facing such challenges, Kamiyama came across CrowdANALYTIX, a fully customized AI platform provided by Macnica, at an exhibition. "AI use has progressed in various fields compared to before, so I went to the exhibition hoping to get some hints on how to apply advanced technology in my work, and at Macnica booth...

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