Steady Japan Inc. operates the home fitness brand STEADY and the wellness brand RELANESS under the vision of realizing a society where people can live healthy lives in their own way.
The company began using Wellridge Inc. Amazon consulting services in February 2024. As of July 2024, Wellridge supports improvements to product pages that maximize Amazon sales and profit margins, including SEO and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization), as well as Amazon advertising improvements.
We spoke with Chikako Takiguchi, Head of Marketing at Steady Japan, and Yu Arikuni, Online Sales and Business Development Manager in the Business Strategy Division, about why they introduced Wellridge consulting services and what changed afterward.
Overview of Steady Japan Inc.'s Business
What kind of business does Steady Japan Inc. operate?
Ms. Takiguchi
Steady Japan launched the home fitness brand STEADY in 2018, and as of July 1, 2024, we are in our sixth fiscal year. We mainly sell through major e-commerce sites such as Amazon and Rakuten. Our core brand STEADY offers a nearly 360-degree lineup of items in home fitness and body care, including spin bikes, dumbbells, pull-up machines, and complete-nutrition protein, making us one of the few brands in Japan with that breadth. Sales in the previous fiscal year, our fifth, were about 1.5 billion yen. Since 2018, we have grown by about 2,400% and have also achieved No. 1 share on major e-commerce sites in core product categories. In short, you can think of us as a fast-growing D2C venture in the fitness industry.
Reference article: Steady Japan wins the Amazon.co.jp Seller Award for the second consecutive year.
Murohashi
Thank you. In fact, since April 2020 during the pandemic, I started strength training online with a trainer, and before I realized it I had bought and used four STEADY products. I have especially used the STEADY dip stand for many years. Could you tell us again what kinds of customers you mainly have?
Ms. Takiguchi
The home fitness brand STEADY supports people who choose and continue home training through their own willpower, with highly functional products and reliable support. It is often used by men in their late 30s to 50s. Our other wellness brand, RELANESS, also offers items that support home training, but it proposes fitness items that fit into interiors so people can incorporate exercise habits into daily life without greatly changing their current lifestyle. It supports the first step toward the person they want to become. RELANESS is mainly used by women in their 20s to 40s.
Background: Rapid Growth Created Challenges as Internal Systems Struggled to Keep Up
What issues did you have before introducing Wellridge?
Mr. Arikuni
As a fast-growing venture, we felt that our internal systems were not keeping up. While growing the business, we were in a phase where we had to handle immediate work and systematize knowledge at the same time. At that timing, Wellridge did not simply do what was requested; you proposed taking on part of the organizational role and systematizing knowledge. We found that attractive and wanted to work together.
Ms. Takiguchi
STEADY needs players who can move work forward with tremendous speed, but we also need brains. There are not many people who can proactively and actively do both, so we reached out to Wellridge.
Murohashi
The trigger was the reunion of members who had worked together during Anker Japan's rapid-growth period, where I met my former manager Chikako Takiguchi again for the first time in a while. Soon after that, you consulted me about work.
What made you decide to introduce Wellridge's digital customer-acquisition consulting?
Mr. Arikuni
First, I remember being grateful for how you entered the project in the first one to two weeks. When external partners provide support, there is often hesitation or a wait-and-see phase, and sometimes we have to wait one or two months before the output we need appears. Wellridge had no such time lag. You challenged things proactively and worked from the same viewpoint as our internal members, and that feeling has led to us now entrusting you with a broader scope. For brand growth, we appreciate both the ability to push things through thoroughly and the flat external perspective for improvement proposals.
Ms. Takiguchi
Many people who come in as consultants either only consult, or take a passive stance and only do what they are told. Wellridge enters at exactly the right depth, with a good sense of balance and deep D2C experience. I think that balance helped build security and trust quickly.
Mr. Arikuni
It feels like you have been through many tough situations.
Murohashi
Yes, many things.
Results: Planning and Executing Sales Promotion for a New Complete-Nutrition Protein Product, Raising Its Ranking from 127th to 10th
After starting Wellridge's Amazon consulting, did you feel an impact?
Mr. Arikuni
Our sales team was thinking of focusing resources on improving the existing business. In that context, it was good that Wellridge entered the sales-growth project for the new protein business launched at the end of 2023. Even for a product that did not yet have much awareness, you thought about what could be done with a Think Big mindset and then drove it through to execution. That was a major benefit. Because that flow existed, we were able to raise the ranking and inject positive momentum. Creating something from zero to one takes energy, and we are grateful that you did that. With Wellridge, you did not just make proposals; you actually moved the project forward.
Murohashi
Thank you. When I first drank STEADY's complete-nutrition protein, I thought, this is delicious. Because I had continued training since 2020, I had tried many proteins from Japan and overseas, and I felt it was rare to find something this tasty. When I analyzed all Amazon customer reviews with AI, customers were indeed repeatedly writing that it was delicious. STEADY's complete-nutrition protein had the strength of overwhelming deliciousness that did not feel like typical protein. So Wellridge proposed shifting the sales page from a functional appeal around breakfast replacement and complete nutrition to a stronger appeal centered on taste. I asked Nobuko Tabe, my photography mentor, a former dedicated Cookpad photographer and a professional in food photography that lets you see the flavor, to handle the shoot. STEADY also assigned a designer who could create refined creative, and the sales and marketing teams worked together to create creative strongly focused on deliciousness.
Ms. Takiguchi
I am happy that you are trying to use what you have gained from your past experience for STEADY. You keep saying, we can do this too, and that too. In business, it is natural to say that you can only move within a certain budget, but Wellridge's stance is that if investing here will make the client happy and lead to sales, it will create a bigger opportunity later. That advance-investment perspective, and the way you cooperate with STEADY, is valuable to us. As a venture that wants momentum to move forward, your way of adding fuel rather than becoming a stopper is a good work attitude. I think this is very different from other consulting firms and agencies.
Mr. Arikuni
I agree. We really feel that you are devoted to the brand and share without holding back. We also want you to use this as a Wellridge achievement, and I feel we have built a mutually positive relationship.
Ms. Takiguchi
We also talked about how your extremely proactive and active attitude toward understanding products supports trust. When we asked whether we should send protein samples, you had already bought them yourself and tried them. That positive movement toward STEADY products is appreciated as a partner. From the very beginning, your active product understanding led us to feel that you were different from others.
Murohashi
Thank you. Unless a client's product is extremely expensive, I basically try to buy and use it myself first. It saves the client the trouble of sending samples and the waiting time, and I believe true customer understanding requires standing in the customer's position, paying money, receiving the product, and experiencing the purchase. Marketing products that I truly think are good and would buy with my own money is where I can put the most energy into the work.
Ms. Takiguchi
Including the experience you gained in your previous job where we worked together, knowing how chaotic the early D2C phase can be is a real strength. You have experienced how intense the change can be and can move around within that. That is extremely helpful. Someone who can swim in the rough Bering Sea is completely different from someone who can swim in an indoor pool. There are few people who can swim in those rough waters, and even fewer who can be excited by that environment. I think you can support from an external perspective because you understand the venture frontline.
Are there any areas where Wellridge's service could improve?
Ms. Takiguchi
I think you can come further into STEADY's work. Please do not hold back. I would also be happy if Wellridge grows its team and can support us with multiple members.
Mr. Arikuni
Exactly. We would be happy if you came in further and thought together with us at the management level. We would appreciate continued proposals for initiatives guided by your third-party perspective.
Murohashi
We need to move forward with Wellridge hiring.
Thank you very much for sharing your valuable story.
We will continue improving so that Wellridge can contribute to Steady Japan's business growth.