[Shopify Merchant Interview Series]
EVERING is a D2C brand delivering an unprecedented experience: a "ring-shaped payment device."
Because it's a truly unique product with no direct competitors, careful explanation of its functions and thoughtful design of the user experience are essential. Beyond simply building an e-commerce site, the brand's philosophy—how to present, communicate, and help customers understand the product—runs consistently through everything they do.
About five years have passed since the service launched in 2021. EVERING has built touchpoints with users across both online and offline channels, valuing qualities like comfort and ease of understanding. How has a product where technology, finance, and design intersect been expressed and delivered through e-commerce? We spoke with Ken Kawada, President and CEO of EVERING Inc.
Ken Kawada, President and CEO of EVERING Inc.
Starting from the Assumption That It Won't Be Understood: EVERING's Structure and Thinking
(EVERING ring-shaped payment device)
—— What kind of product is EVERING?
Ken Kawada (hereafter, Kawada) EVERING is a ring-shaped smart device with payment functionality. It requires no charging and needs minimal app operation—you simply wear it and tap to complete a payment. We created EVERING to bring to life a design that didn't yet exist in the world, aiming for something anyone could experience intuitively.
A product that doesn't yet exist in the market won't be chosen just because it looks convenient. That's exactly why we focus not on functionality but on the experience itself—we care deeply about "how it's used" and "how it feels."
A Brand That Values Attentiveness, Staying Close to the Payment Experience
Kawada We have to deliver the user's comfort and ease of use as part of the product itself. These days, it's important to communicate the whole worldview behind it, not just the product.
What we value most is an "attentive experience." We deliberately don't offer phone support for customer service—we handle everything by email. We first make sure to check, record, and analyze the facts—whether it's a problem with the ring, the store's terminal, or the system—and then deliver the best possible solution. Because payment is a slightly tense moment, we believe a sense of security, smoothness, and warmth matter enormously.
It's the same with the app's UI. Rather than adding more functions, we thoroughly pursue a simplicity that anyone can use intuitively.
—— That sense of security from feeling "understood" seems connected to the sensitive nature of a payment device as a product.
Kawada We've made the app extremely simple so that people can grasp how to use it intuitively. Even with apps that have payment functionality, some have countless buttons lined up, and honestly, it's not clear which one to press.
We've made ours much simpler and more intuitive.
(Simple app screen that's easy to operate intuitively)
Starting from Zero: How to Communicate a Product With No Precedent
—— What has been the biggest challenge in launching a product that never existed in the market before?
Kawada From launch until now, the biggest challenge has been that this is a product that simply can't be understood without explanation.
For example, the act of simply tapping to pay with Visa's contactless payment isn't yet 100% widespread. If we skip past that stage and suddenly say, "This is a ring equipped with Visa contactless payment. It's prepaid, so it's safe. No charging needed," people who don't already know about it end up with three or four question marks popping into their heads. That's exactly why we have to build awareness alongside everything else.
(Can be used for payment in a variety of scenes, such as shopping at a supermarket)
Kawada Even the term "smart ring" itself hadn't taken hold yet when we founded the company. Even now, the perception that "smart ring = healthcare" is strong, so we also need people to understand its existence as a payment ring.
EVERING is issued as a "Visa prepaid card." It works by charging funds from your own credit card. We don't impose restrictions like "you can only charge from Visa"—the app that pairs with the EVERING ring is designed so you can charge from almost any card, including Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, and Diners Club.
Choosing Shopify to Solve the Product's Challenges
For a product like EVERING, where customers need to consider many options and conditions before purchasing, the e-commerce cart needs a user flow that lets customers proceed without confusion. To meet these complex requirements, they chose Shopify, known for its flexibility and agility.
The ability to quickly change information and layout to match the product's characteristics, along with the availability of highly extensible apps, were among the reasons behind this choice.
(EVERING's e-commerce site)
—— Why did you choose Shopify for your e-commerce cart?
Kawada EVERING has a unique challenge: we need to create a customer journey that lets users intuitively understand and purchase the product, even though there's no established awareness of "payment rings."
For example, at the time of purchase, customers have to decide on many things—a one-time purchase or a subscription, choosing the ring size, whether to add loss protection, whether to add engraving, and so on.
To realize that kind of design, having a wide range of options and flexibility was essential. The main reason we chose Shopify was the abundance of apps and the flexibility to write our own code when needed.
—— So given the nature of the product, Shopify's flexibility was well suited to designing the customer journey.
Kawada Because EVERING starts from getting customers to understand the product itself, we continue testing what kind of materials, images, and creative will communicate its appeal most effectively. We're at a phase where we need to keep swapping things out whenever necessary.
If we had to ask our development partner for a fix every single time, we'd lose our agility, so Shopify's flexibility is directly connected to EVERING's philosophy.
(New brand series NEON BUZZ)
—— How are you currently operating your Shopify site?
Kawada The current site wasn't built from full scratch—it's basically built on a theme base. Since we have a number of products and variations, we've made an effort to keep the UI easy to view and easy to browse. Rather than over-engineering it and making operations heavy, we prioritized a certain level of ease, with an eye toward future improvements and expansion.
Another great thing about Shopify is that anyone with a certain level of knowledge can operate it. The initial design and the parts we're particular about do need to be built carefully, but for day-to-day operations—like wanting to change some wording or swap out a banner—being able to do that smoothly is a real help.
Shopify is also adopted by many companies globally, and there are a great many supported themes and apps, so including the operational side, I think it was a really good fit for EVERING.
Choosing Apps That Bring the Product's Philosophy to Life
—— The EVERING site also uses our app, "RuffRuff Order Limits." How has your experience been with it?
Kawada At this point, EVERING is set up so that each user can only purchase one ring, meaning a single person can't own multiple rings. So we first needed to set a limit of "one per person."
Among the many apps available, after actually installing them, we've found RuffRuff to be the easiest to use. Its cost performance is great, and we also feel it's flexible in terms of the wide range of customizable restrictions.
—— Thank you. Beyond the "one per person" limit, you've also set bundling restrictions so that options like loss/exchange protection or engraving can only be purchased together with a ring. This kind of feature is hard to achieve with other apps, so I think it matched well with what EVERING wanted to accomplish.
(Required options such as plan, color, and size are displayed clearly)
Beyond E-Commerce Design: A Philosophy of Delivering Experience
—— Everything you've shared really conveys how much care EVERING puts into addressing its unique challenge—helping customers understand the product and choose it.
Kawada Fundamentally, what we value isn't the e-commerce platform structure itself, but how we communicate the pleasant feeling of paying with the ring.
In EVERING's case, since it's a product customers buy while selecting from various options, we built the e-commerce site's structure so that it could be explained simply and intuitively as well.
In terms of the mode of expression itself, it's less that it had to be Shopify, and more that EVERING's characteristics happened to be a good match for Shopify's flexibility.
Of course, we're nowhere near a perfect score yet, and there are still areas we ourselves want to keep improving. Being a brand that values comfort and a pleasant feeling of use is something we want to keep cherishing, unchanged.
How do you design a user experience for a product that can't be understood without explanation? Since its founding, EVERING has continued to take on that question.
A user journey designed for explanation, ways of presenting choices, optimized creative. And an e-commerce foundation with the flexibility and agility to support all of it. Building their e-commerce site on Shopify was an extension of that design philosophy, and it shaped how the brand reaches its customers.
Staying close to the product's individuality, its mode of expression continues to change flexibly. EVERING points to new possibilities for experience design as technology continues to evolve.
In Part 2 of this interview, we ask about the future EVERING envisions and the shape the brand aims to take.
