Noguchi Knit has a long history as a knitting factory. Since starting its own brand out of its subcontracting business in 2012, it has steadily built up a loyal following — but behind that growth lies constant trial and error in reconciling "outward-facing initiatives" like social media and advertising with the "internal realities" of the production floor.
In this second part of the store interview, we ask about the realities of running sales operations centered on Shopify, the background behind the decision to start advertising, and the brand's stance on engaging with the manufacturing floor.
Read Part 1 of the interview, where we asked in detail about the shift from OEM to establishing an in-house brand, here.
(Noguchi Knit Co., Ltd. — Yuko Kamitsubo)
The Golden Rule: "Spend Money Only After You've Sold"
—— As you took your own-brand e-commerce into full-scale operation, how did you approach customer acquisition, which is key to e-commerce?
Kamitsubo At first it was Instagram. But regular posts didn't grow sales the way we hoped. Honestly, I still feel a bit uneasy about social media even now (laughs). Even when I post, it's hard to gauge the response, and I often wonder, "is this actually reaching anyone?" That said, Instagram Live is the one thing that visibly boosts sales, and I still feel its effect today.
Because social media wasn't working out, I may have realized the importance of advertising earlier than I otherwise would have. Meta ads in particular worked really well for us, and we were able to acquire customers efficiently.
—— Is there anything you pay particular attention to when running social media or ads?
Kamitsubo With Meta ads, we run them focused on the winter season when demand rises, and we notify customers who've signed up about lucky bags and new colors via LINE and email newsletters. We're always conscious of building a path that gets people to "buy again."
Because you can see the numbers with ads, once you connect them with Shopify you can track which product page a sale came from, so we shifted to the approach of "putting ad spend behind pages that are already selling."
At first, even running ads felt scary, but by putting spend behind pages we already knew were selling, we gradually reduced our fear of "spending money up front." Our policy had always been "spend money only after something sells," so with ads, the money goes out first, which is nerve-wracking.
In the end, we've expanded little by little without breaking from our own approach of "testing whether something sells before spending money on it."
Reviews Are Our Biggest Driver of Sales
Kamitsubo There's one more thing — we put a lot of effort into our review strategy. We use the Shopify app "Judge.me" to make sure reviews properly accumulate on each product page. The more reviews a product has, the more it seems to sell.
Reviews build trust with customers. The voices of people who've actually bought the product carry far more weight than anything I could say myself. I feel that very strongly.
—— Gathering reviews also requires a relationship with customers. In your day-to-day operations, what do you value in customer service and relationship-building?
Kamitsubo We sold on minne and Creema for a long time, and both of those platforms have a chat feature. Once an order comes in, communication with the buyer starts right there. In the early days there was no auto-reply, so I sent every single message by hand, one by one.
That's when I picked up the habit of communicating very carefully. I'd look back through the customer's entire history — what they'd bought before, what they'd said — and imagine, "this person might like this kind of thing," before sending a message.
That habit may have just stuck with me. Even now, I basically handle customer support alone. It's not efficient, but I feel like that's part of what makes it "distinctly Noguchi Knit."
Photography, PR, Learning — All Built on Meeting the Right People
—— On Noguchi Knit's Instagram, the subtle atmosphere between the products and the models is really striking. How do you approach product photography and image shoots?
Kamitsubo At one point, someone told me about the photos we'd been using, "This won't do. You should definitely change it." That's when I started taking it seriously.
When it comes to shooting with models, I really think meeting people in person matters most. Our first model was introduced through an acquaintance, and I asked her directly. For the shoot location, we set things up at a props rental shop. For styling, too, she'd tell us exactly what to get — "please buy clothes in this color from Uniqlo" — even sending reference photos. She arranged everything, and I just followed along and learned as I went.
—— So finding models was also something you built up gradually as you learned?
Kamitsubo After that, I followed hashtags like "Kansai Saromo" (a term for salon models in the Kansai region) on Instagram to find models from shoot posts. I'd follow anyone who caught my eye, one after another, and from their Stories I'd discover yet another model — that's how I gradually expanded my network.
It's the same with photographers. I'd find someone interesting from salon-related posts, then trace the models who'd been their subjects. Even if a post doesn't credit a name, it often shows up in their Stories, so I'd check there and search from that angle.
I searched steadily like that, and reached out to each person carefully, one at a time. Of course, some people weren't a good fit, and some relationships turned out to be one-off. But even a single piece of advice or a single shoot could completely change our direction going forward. That's why I've placed so much importance on "going to meet good people" and "going to learn from them."
Protecting the Brand by Making "Not Selling Too Much" the Right Answer
—— How did your sales change after moving to your own Shopify site?
Kamitsubo Up until around 2019, annual sales were in the range of a few million yen. Then in 2020, our masks became a hit and sales jumped sharply, continuing to grow through 2021 and 2022, and reaching the tens of millions of yen by 2023. About 70% of that comes from our own Shopify site. Originally it was mostly organic traffic from word of mouth and Instagram, and honestly it was a continuous process of trial and error, but I now feel we've been able to design our own paths to sales.
We only started running ads seriously in the past two years or so, and being able to spend on advertising has made a big difference. Our approach is to put ad spend behind pages that are already selling, adjusting while watching CPA (cost per acquisition). We're not trying to go viral — if anything, going viral would overwhelm the shop floor. That's why being able to control our traffic through advertising suits a small brand like ours so well.
—— So it's really about using ads to control customer acquisition?
Kamitsubo Advertising tends to be seen as a way to boost sales all at once, but we use it as "a way to fine-tune sales to a level the floor can handle without burning out."
We do mid-volume production, so we can't suddenly make more if orders spike. If production can't keep up, we end up making customers wait, which leads to complaints. So we adjust our ads while watching CPA, deciding week by week: "let's hold back here," "let's try running ads this week."
Only by Staying True to Our Own Size, Without Overreaching, Can We Make Things with a Human Face
—— What kind of brand do you want Noguchi Knit to become going forward?
Kamitsubo I'd like us to become a brand that's more "discoverable." We're still not very well known, but the people who do find us often end up really loving what we do.
When someone tells us, "I never imagined a brand like this existed nearby," it makes me really happy, and I naturally start thinking, "so how do we make ourselves a bit easier to find?"
But rather than forcing ourselves to grow bigger than we really are, I want to keep valuing our current pace and "grow it properly, little by little." That's an attitude I don't want to change.
—— What does "being distinctly Noguchi Knit" mean to you?
Kamitsubo I suppose it's manufacturing where you can genuinely "see the face" behind it.
I myself didn't start out with some grand philosophy — it began out of a sense of crisis, feeling that we had to build a business that didn't depend on another company. But as a result, we've ended up carefully making things together with our staff and delivering them to the people who need them, over and over. I feel like that repetition is what has shaped the brand we have today.
Rather than a brand carefully designed by a team, it's more like a lone house standing quietly on its own that my husband and I have kept building bit by bit. But I think that might be exactly what makes us who we are.
Without overreaching, staying true to our own size, delivering each piece carefully, one at a time.
Choosing Shopify Requires Careful Judgment
—— Do you have a message for people who are just starting out in e-commerce or considering Shopify?
Kamitsubo We've used a variety of services — STORES, minne, Creema — and eventually arrived at Shopify. It's true that Shopify is feature-rich and strong when it comes to advertising and third-party integrations, but I don't think you need to force yourself to choose it.
I think it's enough to figure out which platform fits your own scale and way of working, and switch when you actually need to. There are plenty of people making tens of millions of yen a year on BASE, and that's a wonderful way to do it too.
If you're aiming for a certain scale and want to control your site structure and sales flow yourselves, I think Shopify is a really good platform.
We place great importance on being able to adjust our own sales fluctuations and production load ourselves, and in that sense, I really feel now that Shopify was the right fit for us.
In this second part of our interview with Ms. Kamitsubo of Noguchi Knit, we heard real, grounded stories about running an e-commerce business without losing sight of the brand's core — from advertising and review design to how the company engages with its manufacturing floor. We felt that this commitment to delivering things without strain, at their own pace, is exactly what has driven the business's growth.
"Selling isn't the goal" — "make things with a genuine, visible human face." Built on that conviction, Noguchi Knit has kept accumulating, day by day. All eyes remain on how they'll continue to move forward in their own way.
