Sumiyoshi Shuhan is a long-established sake shop in Fukuoka. In Part 1, we spoke with Kentai Shojima, who leads the business as its second-generation president, about his stance as a "sake shop that communicates" and the essence of customer service that starts from deep local roots.
In this second part, we dig deeper into the challenges and resolve that accelerated because of the pandemic, along with the e-commerce strategy built around Shopify.
What words, and delivered to whom? What is the system for truly reaching sake lovers across the country that they've built? We take a close look at a sake shop's philosophy, shaped to fit an ever-changing era.
(Sumiyoshi Shuhan Co., Ltd. — President Kentai Shojima)
You can read Part 1 of the interview here.
The Role of E-Commerce: Reaching Deeply, Rather Than Selling Widely
Having come through the pandemic and returned to selling in the store, the true essence of sake and the sake shop came into view. Holding onto the question of who to reach and with what feeling, the form of e-commerce that Sumiyoshi Shuhan aims for turned out not to be a place to simply sell widely, but a mechanism for reaching people deeply.
—— Buying sake online has become fairly common these days. Going forward, how does Sumiyoshi Shuhan plan to put effort into e-commerce?
Kentai Shojima (hereafter "Shojima") In terms of e-commerce potential for us, I think there's actually more upside in "Shuwan" than in the sake itself. After all, it's an original product that only we carry.
—— True, precisely because it's a one-of-a-kind original, its value probably comes across more easily online.
Shojima With sake, there's always the barrier of shipping costs. The Greater Tokyo area in particular is by far the biggest market, and there are plenty of excellent sake shops there. Most labels are already available, so there's no point competing purely on which labels we carry.
In that environment, the people who deliberately choose us are the ones watching our YouTube channel, drawn in by the world of Shuwan — our actual fans. Even with high shipping costs, those are the people who buy anyway, beyond that barrier.
So our e-commerce isn't so much about selling widely as it is a mechanism for reaching our most devoted fans — deepening the fan relationship, you could say. Rather than competing on a nationwide scale, it's a place for the people who genuinely want to buy from us specifically.
—— "Deepening the fan relationship" — that's a phrase that really lands clearly.
Shojima As for Tenshudo, since we now also have a store in Tokyo, we carry the products selected there on e-commerce too, so it may actually be a better fit for online sales.
That said, the cost of cold-chain shipping really is a sticking point. It can add about 2,000 yen extra per bottle. So rather than trying to win on value that outweighs the shipping cost, we run it more with the sense of simply making sure there's a place where people who want to buy can properly do so.
(Sumiyoshi Shuhan's online store, built on Shopify)
Wanting to Go Somewhere I Can't Be Compared — A Turning Point and Resolve Through the Pandemic
—— The pandemic was a turning point for a lot of businesses. What kind of turning point was it for you personally?
Shojima The pandemic was actually good for me. It was tough, of course, but it gave me a reason to think deeply and seriously, and it became the energy that pushed me to take that first step. It felt like I sprinted through ten years' worth of change in just two or three years.
If things had gone on as normal, I don't think I could have changed so abruptly like that. Decisions like pulling out of a business, for instance, or from there, thinking "let's really put Shuwan forward properly" or "what do we need to do to make sake more widely supported" — I might well have kept putting those questions off if the pandemic hadn't happened.
Up until then, thankfully, things had been on a steady upward trend, and sales were doing fine. In a way, I'd gone into a defensive posture — I was aware of certain things, but there were several I just hadn't gotten around to acting on. But once the pandemic came, I felt I could finally tackle all of it. So honestly, I even feel like the pandemic, in a way, helped me.
—— Some people pushed forward during that period, while others had no choice but to stop. Where do you feel that difference comes from?
Shojima For me, it really comes down to not wanting to be compared to anyone. That's been true for as long as I can remember. Being compared to other sake shops on things like sales figures or the products we carry — I genuinely hate it. It's not about winning or losing; it's the fact of being compared at all that I can't stand.
So my driving force is simply: then go somewhere you can't be compared in the first place. I'm probably just someone who hates losing. But it's less that I want to win, and more that I want to move to a different field before the comparison even happens.
—— So it was precisely in the social adversity of the pandemic that you found something to return to.
Shojima Looking back at that time, breweries were really going through a rough period. Restaurants received subsidies, but they often didn't reach the breweries. So I had a really strong feeling that we couldn't afford to let things stop here.
Of course, I can't save the breweries all by myself. But by not stopping and continuing to move forward, maybe it could connect to something for the future of the breweries and of sake itself. That conviction was what drove me.
We don't make sake ourselves. But precisely because we sit in the middle, connecting the maker and the drinker, I believed there had to be something only we could do, and I decided there was nothing left but to act. Being able to make that decision at that particular moment still feels like a really significant thing to me.
(Sumiyoshi Shuhan's theme, "A Life That Smiles Through Sake")
E-Commerce That Connects the Dots, and Sowing the Seeds of Communication
—— Having come through the pandemic, how do you now think about the role expected of e-commerce, and how Sumiyoshi Shuhan should approach it?
Shojima It's nothing grand enough to really call a strategy. But for instance, I do hope that the flow from what we put out on social media and other media into e-commerce can connect more smoothly.
In today's buying behavior, isn't the standard pattern "search, and buy from whatever comes up first"? But if, within the e-commerce experience, we could convey a feeling as if you'd visited the physical shop, even without actually going there, I think that would become a big reason for people to choose us.
—— So it's exactly the feeling of being served face-to-face, even though it's e-commerce.
Shojima Right now we're connected to customers through things like our LINE business account, and I'd love for that connection to link up more naturally with e-commerce. I can picture a future where, the moment someone thinks "let's buy this," they can move straight and intuitively through to the purchase.
When that happens, all the seeds we've sown and everything we've put out through YouTube and social media over the years could come together into one and really show their power. There's a part of me that genuinely believes that. So it's less a strategy than moving in a lot of different directions on the premise that it's bound to come together eventually.
Honestly, though, it's all pretty scattered right now. But I hope that those scattered dots will eventually connect well and make their way to e-commerce.
Choosing Shopify to Build an E-Commerce Site That Truly Communicates
—— Not just Sumiyoshi Shuhan's online store — Tenshudo, which you also run and which sells the new sake vessel "Shuwan," is entirely built on Shopify too, right?
Shojima Yes, that's right. For Tenshudo, we now have a web marketer on board too, and we're pushing forward with various updates and improvements. So personally, I feel like I'm the one being taught something, at this point.
—— Do you plan to keep using Shopify to expand the range of your expression and sales going forward?
Shojima Yes. The reason we chose Shopify really comes down to how much freedom of expression it offers. There's a lot of flexibility in how you present the value embedded in a product or a message.
I think it's a platform that will keep evolving from here, so I want to ride whatever waves we can and actively make use of its features.
—— I understand you used a different service before. About when did you move over to Shopify?
Shojima We used to use BASE. That's already about six or seven years ago now. Back then, we had a somewhat customized site connected with LINE, but it was genuinely hard to properly convey what we wanted to say.
It's more that we couldn't quite adjust the fine details the way we wanted — there were parts where the template inevitably restricted how we could express things.
At the time, we chose BASE because we valued its design quality, and honestly, for that era, it was easy to use and I think it served us well. But from there, it became harder and harder to keep changing things — the flexibility around checkout, the finer points of how things were presented. Overall, my impression was that Shopify was the one with real flexibility.
As the business and the brand kept changing, once we entered a phase where we wanted to communicate more, I felt Shopify could actually give that shape, and that's when I decided to move over.
(The new sake vessel, "Shuwan")
What a Brand Must Have: A Strong Message
Whether in the store or online, Shojima has consistently believed in a value only his company can offer, and has poured everything into delivering it. Every word he speaks carries the resolve of someone who has kept facing the future of the sake industry and the role of the sake shop head-on.
The e-commerce sites for Sumiyoshi Shuhan and Shuwan, built by Shojima on conviction — the words behind them are packed with hints that ask, all over again, what branding really means, whether you're someone about to take on e-commerce or someone rethinking how you currently run things.
—— For people taking on e-commerce going forward, or those looking to rethink their branding, what do you think matters most?
Shojima Hmm... I think if the core message underneath isn't strong, the whole thing ends up feeling hollow. What you might call the management philosophy or the concept. In the end, I believe that's the most important part — how properly you can express that conviction in the space of e-commerce. That's really what it comes down to.
Of course, sometimes a philosophy is so strong that putting it out exactly as is doesn't quite mesh with customers. That's exactly why, without the underlying passion — "what do we want to deliver," "what feeling are we bringing to this product" — there's no real reason for people to choose you. But if that part is strong, I believe the worldview and the way you express it will come through properly.
Having polished looks and functionality matters too, but I think that's the kind of thing you can always fix later. Without the underlying conviction, no matter how you dress it up, it won't resonate.
Fundamentally, e-commerce and a physical store aren't so different — the only difference is whether or not the customer is physically there in front of you; what you're actually doing is the same. That's exactly why, while expression techniques and marketing skill matter, of course, if the core of what you want to deliver as a company and as a brand isn't solid, it won't last.
Whether people come to feel "I love this product" or "I love this world" all depends, I believe, on the strength of that foundation.
Carrying forward a commercial spirit that traces back to its wholesaler days, Sumiyoshi Shuhan has kept challenging the very way it delivers things. Even as it has taken up new tools like e-commerce and social media, underneath it all there has always run a straightforward question — not "how do we deliver it," but "what do we want to deliver."
Centered on a stance of valuing the customer right in front of you, the practice of carefully delivering things from the local to the national — each part of it feels like it points to a way for the sake shop to exist in an age of change.
Behind the words "go somewhere you can't be compared" lived a quiet, powerful resolve.
