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Helpfeel

70% Fewer Inquiries at Peak Season: The CX Strategy Behind MUJI's Growth

Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd. (MUJI)

Retail / E-Commerce1,001+ employeesCustomer Support

Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd. (MUJI)

At a glance

  • Inquiries cut 70% during peak months
  • Online active users grew to 150%+ year-over-year, with inquiry volume held flat
  • FAQ publishing time cut from up to 2 weeks → instant

MUJI sells everything from a $0.50 eraser to furniture, apparel, and food across 1,300+ stores worldwide. As omnichannel sales grew, inquiry volume outpaced what a human-staffed support team could absorb, and many online shoppers who wanted to self-serve were still forced to call.

The Challenge

The legacy FAQ was owned by a separate EC division, so updates took up to two weeks to go live and routinely missed the seasonal moments customers needed them. Search returned articles in reverse-chronological order, burying the most relevant answers. Staff couldn't trust it either, driving repeated escalations to product managers.

Why Helpfeel

A cross-functional review with the EC and IT teams set two non-negotiables: the Customer Relations Office had to manage the FAQ independently (no engineering tickets), and search had to reliably surface the right answer. Helpfeel met both.

What They Did

Built a unified content guideline and rewrote every article to a consistent standard during migration.

Prioritized new articles by sales volume and inquiry frequency, starting with the highest-traffic categories.

Embedded FAQ links directly on high-velocity product pages (e.g. health & beauty).

Enabled real-time seasonal content: sunscreen FAQs surfaced in early spring, live the same day instead of two weeks later.

Results

During the October "MUJI Week" member campaign (historically a period of sharp inquiry spikes), sales grew while inquiries stayed suppressed, eliminating a long-standing timeliness problem. FAQ bounce rate fell, new-hire onboarding accelerated (new staff resolve inquiries by referencing the FAQ directly), and the Customer Relations Office's internal profile rose sharply.

Looking Ahead

MUJI's north star is zero inquiries (letting customers shop without ever needing to stop and ask), plus FAQ experiences customers return to proactively for genuine added value.

“Our perception of what an FAQ can be has fundamentally changed. It used to feel like a supporting role in customer service. Now we see it as equally important as phone and email, and as something worth continuously improving.”

— Mami Masumoto, CX Promotion Division