In November 2024, Matsuya Ginza became the first department store in Japan to offer click-and-collect to a global audience. Shoppers can now browse, purchase, and collect in-store with a duty-free tax refund, concierge appointment booking, and white-gloved valet service on arrival. For a store with 150 years of history defining luxury retail in Tokyo, its unparalleled aesthetics and cutting-edge technological features further enhance the customer experience, ushering in a new era for luxury shopping in Japan.

The opportunity

Matsuya Ginza draws customers from across Japan and around the world. Locals, Chinese tourists, and global shoppers plan their visits to Tokyo with the iconic departure store as a key destination. Their previous website served as a digital brochure: floor plans, brand listings, and history. It couldn't take an order, fulfil a purchase, or support a customer who wanted to buy online and excitedly collect their valued item  in-store, accompanied by champagne and white-gloved valet service for premium purchases.

The opportunity was significant, but so was the complexity. A luxury department store hosts dozens of brands, each managing its own stock. Physical fulfilment processes didn't exist yet. Everything, the technology, the workflows, and the pick-and-pack processes, had to be designed and built in tandem. The solution and the operation had to grow together.

What we built

We built matsuyaginza.com on a headless BigCommerce platform, using Aligent's Takeflight PWA as the frontend. The result is a fast, premium digital experience that reflects the quality of the store itself, optimised for mobile, designed for a global audience, and capable of handling the complexity of multi-brand luxury retail.

Basic product information was never going to be sufficient for the luxury shopping experience, so we turned to Storyblok and Akeneo to enrich the online content and catalog capabilities, augmented with sophisticated workflows across multiple languages and enforcing strict brand restrictions from demanding suppliers.

This customer-centric digital platform further elevates the services offered by Matsuya Ginza. New products, brand insights, concierge shopping appointments and in-store pickup are all designed to provide 360-degree support by seamlessly integrating communication, information sharing, and sales into a single, user-friendly platform.

Headless BigCommerce + Takeflight PWA

A fast, premium frontend built for global shoppers, optimised for mobile and localised for Japanese, Chinese and international audiences

Fluent Commerce OMS

Central order management and single source of truth for fulfilment, covering in-store, warehouse, and brand-direct stock

Akeneo PIM

Structured, consistent product data across a broad and complex multi-brand catalogue

Storyblok + Crownpeak

Content management and digital experience platform giving the team control over editorial and campaign content

Dotdigital

Customer communications and marketing automation for a global, multilingual audience

Inventory that scales without the complexity

Rather than modelling individual brand stock locations, which would have been unmanageable at scale, we built an inventory pool model. Each brand is represented by just two locations: stock that can be fulfilled quickly for same-week collection, and stock available for orders with more flexible timelines. This keeps brand management simple while giving customers the reliability they expect from a luxury experience.

A private salon experience, booked before you land

For customers travelling to Tokyo, click-and-collect is the beginning of an in-store experience. We built an appointment booking flow that lets luxury shoppers schedule their collection visit in advance. On arrival, their items are waiting. They are greeted with champagne, guided to a private salon, and given the space and time to try everything before they decide. It is the kind of service Matsuya Ginza has always offered in person. The appointment flow makes it something a customer can count on before they even board the plane.

The result

Matsuya Ginza launched matsuyaginza.com in November 2024 as a fully integrated eCommerce platform serving local Japanese customers, visiting tourists, and global shoppers for the first time in the store's 150-year history.

• Japan's first department store click-and-collect, with in-store tax refund, a genuine industry leader

• Seamless fulfilment across three sources: the department store, its warehouse, and brand-direct locations

• Consolidated click-and-collect enabling customers to order from multiple brands and collect in a single visit

• Concierge appointment booking, giving international shoppers a personalised, private collection experience on arrival.

• Direct shipping available from the store or brands, with flexible lead-time options

• A scalable multi-brand inventory model that keeps management simple as the range grows

Key takeaways

#1 Technology and process have to grow together

There were no existing fulfilment processes to map to. Building the physical workflows and the platform in tandem was a genuine complexity and a genuine success.

#2 Multi-brand inventory doesn't have to be complicated

An inventory pool model with two locations per brand kept management simple at scale without sacrificing the reliability customers expect.

#3 Headless architecture justifies its complexity

A headless BigCommerce and Takeflight PWA setup gave the team the flexibility to build a genuinely premium, globally optimised experience without being constrained by a monolithic platform.

#4 Digital transformation is a business transformation

Moving from an informational website to a fully integrated eCommerce platform didn't just open a new channel. It redefined how Matsuya Ginza serves its customers, locally and globally.