A 61% Drop in Inquiries: Alpen's EC Growth Strategy

Alpen Co., Ltd.

Retail / E-Commerce (Sporting Goods)·1,001+ employees·Customer Support

Alpen is one of Japan's largest sporting-goods retailers, with a loyalty program approaching 15 million members and a medium-term plan to more than double owned-EC revenue. But as orders grew, inquiries grew in lockstep — and unlike marketplace selling, Alpen handles every payment, shipping, and navigation question in-house.

The Challenge

The only self-service tool was a text FAQ with basic browser keyword search that customers clearly weren't reading, and every edit required an external vendor request.

Why Helpfeel

After a year evaluating chatbots without conviction, the team pivoted to AI-powered FAQ. Across competing AI-FAQ tools, Helpfeel's search precision — reliably guiding customers to the correct answer — was the decisive factor, with leadership satisfied by the ROI case.

What They Did

Made inquiry rate the primary KPI and fed customer feedback into FAQ content continuously.

Strategically removed direct inquiry-form links from product pages, replacing them with links into the Helpfeel FAQ.

Embedded FAQ links throughout the journey — product pages, cart screen — to resolve questions on the spot without cluttering the buying flow.

Pinned a "Shopping Guide" category (payment, shipping, cancellations) in the first visible area.

Ran monthly Customer Success meetings to interpret analytics and brief internal stakeholders.

Results

Form inquiries fell 61% and self-resolvable inquiries fell 78% — a number so dramatic the team initially suspected a measurement error. Combined with cost restructuring, support operating costs dropped ~10%, while FAQ page views rose, confirming active usage.

“Helpfeel is the essential platform for taking the customer experience one step further. Its high-precision search builds trust in the Alpen brand and lays the foundation for long-term customer relationships.”

— Hiromitsu Okumura, EC Business Division