Herbs. Aromatherapy. Organic.
While some businesses treat these as passing "booms" to capitalize on, Tree of Life Co., Ltd. is a company that has kept asking about their true value long before these trends ever emerged.
Now celebrating its 70th anniversary, the company brought herbs into Japan in the 1970s, spreading knowledge of how to use them safely while growing the market itself. At its core is an unwavering principle of "sanpo-yoshi"—running a business where customers, employees, and producers all prosper together.
In recent years, the person who has single-handedly led the transformation toward "unified commerce" spanning digital and physical stores—from launching the e-commerce division to integrating it with stores—has been Kao Nakamura, Deputy General Manager of the Marketing Division.
The average LTV of customers who buy only through e-commerce is 1.3. For customers who have visited a store at least once, it's 3.7. For customers who have attended an in-store workshop, it's 5.7. What this data shows is a simple fact: e-commerce is just an entry point.
"E-commerce isn't a place to capture sales—it's a place to maximize convenience." We asked how this long-established brand has pursued its digital transformation, and about the decision-making process and the reality of its e-commerce strategy built around Shopify.
(Kao Nakamura, Deputy General Manager, Marketing Division, Tree of Life Co., Ltd.)
70 Years Since Founding: An Unchanging Core, a Business That Keeps Changing
—— First, could you tell us about Tree of Life's history, from its founding to today?
Kao Nakamura (hereafter, Nakamura) I think the image people have of Tree of Life is strongly tied to herbs and aromatherapy, but the company originally sold pottery.
Our factory is in Mizunami City, Gifu Prefecture, a production area for Mino ware, and even back then the company's concept was selling a lifestyle. But pottery is a business where people only buy again once something breaks, so we looked for something more continuous, discovered herbs in the 1970s, brought them into Japan, and spread the word on how to use them safely.
We're a brand that offers richness of the heart, using nature, health, enjoyment, and the gifts of plants and nature.
—— I believe you joined the company straight out of university. What was your impression when you decided to join?
Nakamura I joined right after graduating and I'm now in about my 13th year, but my impression was that this was an extremely honest company.
For example, if a product suddenly starts selling well and we get more requests from customers wanting more of it, we can't just ask producers to ramp up production overnight, since these are products of nature. That's exactly why we need to keep doing business with producers continuously and maintain good relationships with them over the long term. At the foundation of it all is making sure customers, employees, and producers all properly profit, and that gave me the impression this was a really honest company.
And also, even in a world where technology has developed this much, nature and health are things people fundamentally need at their core, so I had the impression that this was a company that would keep providing universal value.
(Tree of Life Co., Ltd., celebrating its 70th anniversary)
From Cradle to Grave: Designing LTV Alongside Customers
The generation who were elementary schoolers during the herb-and-potpourri boom of 1976 are now Tree of Life's core customers in their 40s and 50s. The company's history is, in effect, the history of its customers. How has a brand that has kept winning support across generations designed its relationship with customers? And how is it now facing the new challenge of reaching a younger generation?
—— Over your long history, have you felt your customer base changing?
Nakamura The first "genesis" of our herb boom happened around 1976, when we introduced herb-based potpourri in Nakayoshi, a manga magazine for girls, and it caught fire with the elementary-school-age readers—herbs spread all at once from there. Actually, our main customer base today is that same generation who were elementary schoolers back then. People in their 40s to 50s are our core now, and their second generation—their children—are joining us too. We're even seeing more employees who say they joined because their mother loved herbs.
On the other hand, we've struggled to reach younger generations through the angle of "herbs and aroma" itself. So instead, we're seeing what feels like a second genesis, where people in their 20s and 30s, regardless of gender, come in through entry points like sleep troubles, hormonal imbalance, or difficulty switching off since the pandemic.
—— How have you protected the brand's trustworthiness?
Nakamura This might not be the nicest way to put it, but herbs and aroma also carry an image of "sketchy leaves" or "sketchy liquids." There have actually been cases where the word "aroma" gets used in some rather odd ways.
Because of that, as a company we've been involved in establishing associations, like the Aromatherapy Certification and the Medical Herb Certification, that let people gain safe and correct knowledge, and we've trained instructors—people who'd be called influencers in today's terms—to make sure aroma herbs get delivered together with proper, correct usage. That's a flow that's continued ever since our first genesis.
—— How did the idea of staying engaged with customers over the long term come about?
Nakamura Even within a single person's life, I think the challenges and concerns they face change with each life stage. For us, it's not just about delivering products—at the root of our company's thinking is the goal of ultimately enriching people's hearts as well.
To give an easy example, we even run projects together with high schoolers in Mizunami City, Gifu Prefecture. It starts with maintaining health during exam season, then people come back to us during child-rearing years for herbal teas recommended before childbirth, and once they're older, they use products that help with mind-and-body care and improving quality of life.
It's not quite "from cradle to grave," but our stance is to keep helping a single customer at every stage of life, with whatever solution best fits that moment, continuously.
—— That's designing from an LTV perspective. What does that look like in actual numbers?
Nakamura Truly, gratefully, LTV is fundamentally high for us, since we have so many repeat customers. Our most frequent customer buys as many as 170 times a year, so I really do feel we're supported by wonderful customers.
Why We Integrated E-Commerce and Stores
(Tree of Life Harajuku Omotesando store)
Tree of Life has run close to 100 stores, mainly in department stores and shopping centers, delivering the brand's world through face-to-face customer service. But as regional department stores closed, business practices and trade areas shifted, leading to a string of scrap-and-build closures, and as the pandemic pushed everything online all at once, the idea that "stores are just billboards" alone stopped being viable.
In 2022, an independent e-commerce division was launched, and Nakamura took the lead at the center of that transformation.
—— How do you think about the respective roles of e-commerce and physical stores?
Nakamura Originally, we held the view that stores were billboards. At our peak, we had close to 140 stores, mainly in department stores and shopping centers. But as the times changed, regional department stores themselves started disappearing in some cases, and the pandemic pushed everything online all at once.
Until then, our main approach had been offline, face-to-face customer service, but with online and digital media developing this much, it became essential to create touchpoints starting with e-commerce, so an independent e-commerce division was formed in 2022.
Before that, our e-commerce site was a jumble of B2C and B2B mixed together, and usability wasn't really considered at all. So we replaced it with Shopify and did a full renewal in 2024. Once purchase data and history started flowing into Shopify through Smaregi, what we could see was the fact that customers themselves were already going omnichannel. When a new scent comes out, they'd try it in-store, and buy heavier items through e-commerce. And it was precisely our highest-LTV customers who were shopping that way.
—— Once the data made customers' cross-channel shopping visible, did that change the organization itself?
Nakamura Originally, e-commerce and stores were separate departments with separate budget targets. So even though the data showed it was simply the same customer buying both in-store and online, from the store staff's perspective it felt like "e-commerce is stealing our sales."
We wanted to deliver the best possible service to the same customer, but internally we couldn't get everyone facing the same direction. So we went ahead and merged e-commerce and stores into a single department. Sharing the same budget, and moving with the customer's convenience as the top priority.
That's when e-commerce's role changed too. We repositioned it not as a place to capture sales, but as a place to maximize convenience—you can buy even while a store is closed, you can get a better deal with a subscription, things like that. E-commerce shifted from being a place that captures sales to a place that supports customer convenience. That's the position it holds now.
—— That sounds like a fairly drastic decision. How did people inside the company react?
Nakamura There was almost constant friction. Naturally, since it was a complete change from how we'd always done things, there was pushback too. But it was clear that continuing the same way wouldn't let us grow, and above all, the data showed us that customers were already shopping across channels.
I persuaded people by focusing on what would be best for the customer. There was pushback internally at first, but there's almost none of that left now.
Since stores can create touchpoints, the more stores grow, the more e-commerce grows too, and vice versa. Now it feels like they complement and support each other. We don't even split things into "store sales" and "e-commerce sales" anymore, and I feel like we've truly become one team, in the real sense of the word.
Meeting Online, Becoming a Fan In Person
(Tree of Life online store)
—— You mentioned earlier that some customers try things in-store and then come to e-commerce. Does the reverse pattern happen too?
Nakamura The reverse happens too. We run our advertising entirely aimed at new customers, so for people who show interest, we approach them through e-commerce.
There's a big difference in LTV between customers who keep buying only through e-commerce, customers who've visited a store once, and customers who've attended a workshop. So for anyone who's bought once through e-commerce, we follow up afterward with thank-you emails and LINE messages, telling them about interesting things they can do in-store, to guide them toward visiting.
—— In running your e-commerce operations, is there a measure you feel was particularly successful?
Nakamura It might sound obvious, but it's not sending information that becomes noise. Since we can segment based on purchase and browsing history—for example, if I shopped at some major clothing brand and then got a push notification for a bra top, I'd think, "no, I'm not buying that." At that point, trust in the brand drops.
If someone bought a lavender product, we'll send segmented, relevant information—like recommending a certain herbal tea for relaxation. LINE messaging fees are also expensive, so segmenting raises open rates and response rates, and it also gives customers the impression that we're actually paying attention to them personally. I think this is something other companies could adopt too.
—— What do you see as Tree of Life's own unique strength?
Nakamura Having physical stores is really a strength. There are various online channels too, like video and TikTok Shop, but talking with someone directly, face to face, and helping them find what's best for them—that's where the power of a store really shows. I think our own unique strength is fusing the advantage of running upwards of 80 stores together with e-commerce.
Even with a 70-year history, Tree of Life keeps updating its organization around data. The decision to reframe stores and e-commerce as "complementary" rather than "competing" was backed by data on how customers actually shop across channels.
How did the move to Shopify change the organization? In Part 2, we ask about the use of RuffRuff apps, the challenge of cross-border e-commerce, and how Nakamura envisions the brand's future.
