Cross-border e-com meetup at Shopify DTLA

It’s official: last Thursday, June 6th, 2019, Go-Ride team hosted the first cross-border meetup at Shopify DTLA Location ???? Our clients and partners from LA, Osaka, and Tokyo had joined the event to share their brand stories and talk about expanding the business from Japan to the US with Shopify.

Norman Kerechuk, the GG Retrofitz President opened the event with a unique case about worldwide free media coverage. Norman shared the key instruments the company use to get media attention: originally designed product, high-quality photo and video content, offline events and media-kit page on the Shopify website. GG Retoriftz had a “ready to use” kit for media featuring high-resolution photos, multi-lingual company bio, visual identity guideline, and SNS links. All the efforts resulted in numerous media publications in the USA, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan.

Kazuhiro Takezawa, the Head of the US expansion of Japanese global socks brand TABIO, shared why the global company is choosing a Shopify platform. The company has launched a Shopify website back in 2017. The TABIO USA team wanted to have friendly cms and easily access and modify the website; another reason for choosing Shopify was multi-currency support. Tabio USA is a fully e-com project and the US expansion has a very unique way. Takezawa-san pointed out the importance of offline events for online business: it’s the best way to build and emotional communication with your brand. A case study of the Tabio and EcoPresso events was the closing point of the presentation.

Toyo Hirashima, the CEO of GO RIDE, as an event host has greeted all meetup guests and mentioned he is happy that he was able to arrive from Japan to meet them. Hirashima-san has shared GO RIDE company story: how from a car sharing application created 6 years ago, the company became an international cross-border e-commerce agency with offices in Yokohama and Los Angeles. During the presentation, Hirashima-san shared the importance of 020 marketing. For e-com projects, o2o means creating traffic offline and redirecting them online to complete the purchase. In order to create an o2o funnel, all offline events and activities a company is creating must refer to a web. The easiest way to create this connection for Shopify stores owners is a “promo code” tool. Hirashima-san had demonstrated how to create and customize it and also introduced some 020 case-studies.

Shahrooz Kohan, President of AIMS360, had the most informative closing presentation: “Retailing and Wholesaling: How successful hybrid fashion brands are growing their business through multiple channels”. He has introduces instruments of growing business through wholesale and retail channels. Shahrooz has shared ideas on how AIMS360 solutions help to overcome challenges the most fashion brands are facing: inventory management, costing, pick tickets, EDI, order entry.

Thank you GG Retrofitz, Tabio, Tippsy, Aims360, EcoPresso for sharing your stories and providing your products to create a great atmosphere. Guests got to see a retro-inspired motorcycle designed by GG Retrofitz. ECOpresso gritted everyone with Japanese matcha tea in an edible cup. Tabio gave away socks from the new “Green tea” collection. And Tipsy shared Japanese vibes by sampling the finest Sake. Special thanks to all the guests who made it to the meetup despite the rush hour downtown LA traffic. We didn’t expect to see so many people and it was great to meet you all! We hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did. Check out the event photos in our photo album

GO RIDE Republic, the event host, is a cross-border e-com agency, located in Playa Vista, CA (Silicon Beach) and Yokohama, Japan.

Brands and partners:

TABIO USA A beloved 50-year-old global sock brand. Tabio provides 30 million pairs of premium quality socks a year all over the world through online stores and 270 boutiques in Japan, London, and Paris

GG RETROFITZ An ambitious startup founded by a group of Industrial and Graphic designers in Southern California. GG Retrofitz is creating original retro-inspired body kits and graphic kits for Yamaha R3 motorcycles.

10 SENSE Corporation A Japanese cafeteria management company will present a new innovative eco-project ECOpresso: edible freshly baked matcha/coffee cups

TIPPSYSAKE The largest Sake Platform in the US. Tippsy makes finding good sake easy and fun: 200 products with Unique Tasting Metrics and Pairing Suggestions

AIMS360 A leading fashion ERP software that provides wholesalers and retailers with a seamless solution for inventory management, costing, pick tickets, EDI, order entry & distribution and more for over 35 years.