In this interview series, we invited people to reflect on their life while looking back on their history with Rakuten. This time, we are joined by Yuka Sekiya, a heavy Rakuten user herself. Her sweet potato specialty store, Oimoya, has won the Rakuten Shop of the Year award for 16 consecutive years since 2006. We asked Sekiya, who took over the family business, about her journey from then to now and her future plans.
Almost the same time Rakuten started.
A turning point for a 19-year-old "sweet potato shop daughter".
Rakuten: Let’s start by talking about Rakuten’s 25th anniversary. What were you doing 25 years ago?
Yuka Sekiya: I was 19 years old at the time. I started going to a university in Osaka but quit after six months to return to my parent's house (laughs). My parents ran a sweet potato manufacturing and processing company, so I started helping at home by organizing the paperwork. That was around the time I came into contact with computers and started learning about them.
Rakuten: Did you always want to take over the family business?
Yuka Sekiya: Yes, I did. My parents would make deliveries together, and my grandmother would come to help out during the harvest season. I saw her enjoying her work, so I knew from a young age that I wanted to take over the business someday. There were times when I didn't like being called the "potato shop girl," but I knew that my parents were proud of their work, so I wanted to continue the business.
Rakuten: So that's what led you to the Oimoya of today.
Yuka Sekiya: When I think about it, the turning point may have been 25 years ago. When I returned to my parent's house, I could see some of the hardships I didn’t notice when I was a child.
Rakuten: What led you to launch your online shop?
Yuka Sekiya: My father started the family business. When I returned from Osaka, international products were beginning to appear in the market, and sales were not so good. As a daughter, I had some ideas and wondered if there was anything I could do to help. I learned that I could use the internet to sell products, and in 2001 I set up my own website. I had no knowledge of the internet since it was still in its early days, and with a reference book in hand, I worked frantically to create my online store. I was absolutely thrilled when one of my products sold.
Rakuten: You opened a store on Rakuten Ichiba in 2003. What was your first memorable product?
Yuka Sekiya: We started with three products: dried sweet potatoes, baked sweet potatoes and sweet potato karinto, followed by salt, bittern and other cooking ingredients. I’m ashamed to admit it but at the time, I was selling the products without any particular concept, thinking that anything would sell online. However, I realized this was not a good strategy — the store needed some kind of core value. So I decided to focus on sweet potato products. We focused on selling products like sweet potato daifuku and sweet potato sweets to create the image that Oimoya is the place to go to get all kinds of sweet potato products.
The "Potato Festival" became a store specialty.
Rakuten: What is it about Oimoya's products that you are so particular about?
Yuka Sekiya: We work with local farmers in the Kakegawa area to grow sweet potatoes in our fields, and handle everything from processing to sales. We do not add sugar or additives to our dried sweet potatoes to preserve the flavor of the ingredients. We are also particular about not using discounts to sell our carefully grown products and we strive to sell our dried sweet potatoes ourselves as much as possible.
Rakuten: You’ve been on Rakuten for about 20 years. What products are you particularly attached to?
Yuka Sekiya: First of all there’s "Oimoya's Dried Sweet Potatoes – Second Generation." The first-generation dried sweet potatoes that we sold when we first opened our store were gradually becoming more well-known. However, at the time, dried sweet potatoes had a reputation of being very hard — almost like emergency rations consumed by the elderly. When I came across a new variety of sweet potato, I asked my father to make a new product, and the result was the second generation. It’s a soft, rich, semi-sweet product. When selling it online, we targeted women in their 20s and older and revamped the design accordingly. It has since become a hit product, even more popular than the first generation one.
Rakuten: You also hold unique events, don't you?
Yuka Sekiya: Yes. A truly memorable one is the "Hatake Marugoto Auction.” We started this project in 2005, utilizing Rakuten's former auction function to have people bid for the right to own a field. We would send out a newsletter and blog to inform people about how the field and seedlings were getting along. When the harvest was ready, the owners would come and dig potatoes with the participants. After about 10 years, we decided to change the event's format to allow more people and locals to experience it, which is still going on today.
Rakuten: So that's what the Potato Festival is today.
Yuka Sekiya: It's now a signature event at Oimoya, with 700 to 800 people digging for potatoes and dancing together. In recent years, the event has been held online due to COVID-19, but some people have continued to come since the very first event, and the staff all look forward to it.
Rakuten: It is quite unique to go from selling sweet potatoes to a hands-on event. Where did the idea come from?
Yuka Sekiya: With the arrival of many products from overseas, we started receiving an increasing number of customer inquiries asking whether our products were made abroad. We then consulted with our e-commerce consultant to see if there was anything we could do to communicate that our products are made domestically in Japan. As a result, we decided on a "participatory" approach. I think we were able to reassure many of our customers, including those who had not yet made a purchase, by communicating about our products on our blog and in our email newsletters.
I can’t imagine five or ten years from now,
but I want to grow together with Rakuten’s customers.
Rakuten: Do you still do a lot of online shopping yourself?
Yuka Sekiya: I buy all kinds of products online. I’m a bit proud of the fact that I’m a Rakuten Diamond member and have over 1.3 million Rakuten Points. I'll be able to survive on my points no matter what happens in the future! (laughs) I love Rakuten and my bank, brokerage and my daughter's mobile phone are all Rakuten, of course.
Rakuten: That's great to hear! Are there any new challenges you would like to take on in the future?
Yuka Sekiya: I am not yet a good business manager, and I have made it this far with the help of good timing and great people. But I met customers through Rakuten Ichiba, and the small store my parents started has grown to this size, and my life has changed as well. I can't imagine what it will be like "five years from now." Right now, I am just working on keeping up with Rakuten. That is why I have been able to grow until now, and I would like to continue to work and grow with the help of Rakuten. I think it would be amazing to be able to talk about overseas expansion and business plans that look five to ten years into the future, but I guess that’s not very like me.
Rakuten: Oimoya has won the Rakuten Shop of the Year award for 16 consecutive years since 2006. Do you feel any pressure to keep up the winning streak?
Yuka Sekiya:
Of course there is some pressure, but recently I have become less obsessed with the record. Rather than feeling that I must win, I want to try various things with the involvement of people in the community.
It has been a fast-paced 18 years. Looking back, I believe that our vision is on course, and we will continue to pursue it. At the same time, I think that to increase our brand awareness further, we need to try something new. I would like to try taking different approaches. This may be a good time to stop and think.
Yuka Sekiya was born in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. She grew up as the "sweet potato shop daughter." After training at a local company, she joined Hiramatsu Shoten Ltd., a sweet potato manufacturing and processing company headed by her father, when she was 25 years old. In 2003, she opened a store on Rakuten Ichiba, and in 2007, she established Oimoya Inc. as an independent online store and became its representative. She has won the Rakuten Shop of the Year award for 16 consecutive years and many other awards.
Yuka made her first business card for Oimoya on Rakuten Ichiba. With that business card, she made her first visit to Rakuten, which was located in Meguro at the time. At that store, in addition to business cards, she also bought a stamp to be stamped on messages to customers.
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