INTERVIEW 社員インタビュー

Why I'm at Commerce Media

I joined Japan's largest media company specializing in the EC industry as a new graduate. I applied to Commerce Media because I felt that the company had an environment where I could get a bird's-eye view of the EC industry as a whole and could experience almost everything related to EC, rather than just a partial marketing strategy. In this article, I will explain why I thought I could experience almost everything about EC, based on my own analysis of the industry, and why I chose Commerce Media.

Joined Japan's largest e-commerce industry media company as a new graduate

Before I talk about the industry, I'll talk about my time as a new graduate. I was a worrier, so when I was a student, I was looking for a job because I thought that I needed essential skills to be able to accomplish something in order to survive in the future . That's why, as a student, I joined a media company specializing in the EC industry, thinking that I could input various knowledge in an industry that was growing.

When I first joined the company, I had no idea about the system or mechanisms behind e-commerce, but due to the nature of the media, we have connections with all kinds of service providers in the e-commerce industry and conducted a considerable number of interviews, so I gained a lot of knowledge.
Furthermore, the media company also had a subsidiary that ran a mail-order company, so I was able to get to see various things from people on the ground, and I thought I had a certain understanding of what the e-commerce world was like.
I worked hard in that environment for a few years, but I couldn't stop wanting to learn more about EC and become a professional. And before I knew it, the goal of "becoming an EC consultant" naturally emerged. My goal had been to acquire essential skills since my student days, so I felt like I was right on the money.

The final deciding factor for me to change jobs was that I felt the barrier of being a media person. Even though I was working in the media, compared to people who were actually active in the EC field, my knowledge was still coarse, and when I thought about whether I could succeed in the EC business on my own, I couldn't imagine it at all.

Thankfully, the CEO also thought that this was a good time to strengthen the quality of the media, and he cooperated with me in various ways to help me grow, but since my main business is media, the pace is inevitably slow. However, I felt that if I missed this opportunity, my growth would stop, so I decided to change jobs to an EC consulting company or an EC management agency, and decided on my retirement date early to cut off my escape route.

Consulting company attributes

Even though there are e-commerce consulting companies and management agency companies, I believe that there are more than 100 of them in Japan in a broad sense, and since it is not possible to speak to all of them, I first used my existing knowledge to do my own analysis of the industry to determine what kind of company I would like to join.

In my opinion, consulting and management agency companies can be broadly divided into two groups: those that are strong in malls and those that are strong in company websites. I feel that these groups are further divided into those that are strong in marketing and sales promotion and those that are strong in store management, so I have divided the industry into four groups.

Based on this diagram, I thought a lot about what I wanted to do, and I came to the conclusion that "rather than just providing partial support, I want to understand the entire e-commerce business and guide the business in the right direction."

To put it simply, I want to do everything related to e-commerce.

Because we thought that it would be possible to anticipate various halations, create organizational structures, and improve the profitability of the entire business because we had a grasp of the whole picture, we thought that the ideal company would be one that is strong in both the mall and its own website, has the function of acting as an operating agent, and has as wide a range of support as possible.In addition, we thought that the ideal company would be one that handles logistics and customer support (CS), and does not limit the number of products it handles.
Large e-commerce and mail-order support companies may handle everything related to e-commerce, but the larger the company becomes, the more divided the organization becomes, and in a vertical organization with departments such as operations, customer service, and logistics, there is a high chance that it will not suit my focus.
After setting these criteria, it was easy to narrow down the candidates. In the first place, there are very few companies that have such a wide range of options with a select few, so it was only natural that we ended up with Commerce Media.

Commerce Media Positions

We can say with confidence that Commerce Media is strong in running its own e-commerce sites and malls, and is a rare support company that also creates logistics systems and handles customer satisfaction.

During the interview, he also talked about the idea of ​​getting 100 points in every area to get an overall score of 120 points, rather than specializing in one area. I felt this was very relatable and intuitively knew this was exactly what I was looking for.
One of their most obvious features is that they also have strengths in back-end operations such as logistics and customer service. They have the know-how to automate normal flows as much as possible, and they have the mechanisms to mitigate irregularities, which I felt were strengths that other management agencies don't have. Furthermore, depending on the client, they even look at the P&L and make suggestions for improvements so that the EC business can remain profitable.

The CEO, Mr. Izawa, has started up an e-commerce company and taken it public, so I felt that his experience was well-utilized and I strongly believed that working under him would enable me to acquire essential skills in e-commerce.

The career I want

I've been talking about idealism up until now, but since I have no experience in EC management, I feel that in order to become an EC consultant, which is my goal, I need to know more about the mechanisms behind the scenes. Therefore, I will start with back-office work, and as I expand the scope of my work, I will be assigned to a team that will allow me to understand the entire EC business.
In addition, I had communicated my goals to the people at Commerce Media even before joining the company, so they actively included me in meetings and even gave me time to provide input, which I am very grateful for.
I know I should say this, but although Commerce Media continues to produce results, we are still in the growth stage. For better or worse, our environment is directly linked to the growth of our employees, so I don't think this is suitable for people who want an easy job. If you are looking to become a true professional in the increasingly competitive EC industry, I would be happy to work with you.