Smart Content Delivery satisfying MUJI's discerning eye
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Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd. which develops and provides branded MUJI products, started internet retailing in 2000. MUJI's internet store's sales kept growing at the rate of around 120% a year, and in 2006, recorded greater sales than those of any of MUJI's other brick-and-mortar shops in Japan. That was when the company faced the problem of a line bandwidth shortage due to the significant growth of online shoppers. After examining cost-effectiveness, the company decided on the introduction of the "Smart Content Delivery" (SCD), which would solve the bandwidth shortage with cache servers. |
Sharp rise in the number of users led to a bandwidth shortage. Cost for upgrading the line presented a challenge.
With the idea of "lower priced for a reason," MUJI products are known for their homely goodness and simple design. Ryohin Keikaku is a company that develops and promotes MUJI products. MUJI, which made its debut as a private brand of Seiyu in 1980, has now grown to be a global brand, providing more than 8,000 products. Right now, it is operating 342 stores nationwide. It also provides products through other stores such as FamilyMarts across the country while managing 98 stores in 16 overseas markets, including the UK, France, and Hong Kong.
Mr. Toshiharu Yasuda |
MUJI's internet store, which was launched in 2000, recorded the greatest sales in 2006, surpassing all other brick-and-mortar stores in Japan. That was when a shortage of bandwidth became a big issue. The company's line bandwidth was 100Mbps, which was on the verge of blowing out due to the growing number of users. There were two alternatives with which to tackle the situation then, as Mr. Toshiharu Yasuda, chief of the operational administrative section who is in charge of information system, recalls.
"One of the choices was to upgrade the line. The other was to install cache servers such as "SCD." We chiefly used time and cost as the criteria with which we made our decision and SCD was clearly the winner in that sense. We had been informed that upgrading the line would cost about 10 million yen as an initial cost. That was because routers and other devices would have to be renewed as well.
Another appeal of adopting SCD was that it would save the company from having to make changes to the internet store system. The company would not have to stop the internet store operation for the adoption either. Installation of SCD was a breeze. In fact, there was not much to remember upon its installation as Mr. Yasuda says.
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