Tag: zozo

  • Japan Billionaire Launches Recruitment for Moon Travel

    Japan Billionaire Launches Recruitment for Moon Travel

    Japnese billionaire entrepreneur Maezawa Yusaku is once again tapping into the public sphere to further his personal pursuits, this time for the recruitment of co-travelers in a trip around the moon.

    Eight crew members will be chosen for a private SpaceX flight around the moon in 2023, according to the founder of Japanese digital retail giant Zozo in a video posted on Twitter.

    Including Maezawa himself, the six-day trip will involve 10 to 12 people in total. Screening of applicants kicks off on March 21 with the final interviews and medical check targeted for May.

    According to Maezawa, the crew members will be selected based on how they use the trip to «push the envelope» in their respective fields and their willingness to support fellow crew members.

    Maezawa added that he was looking for people of all backgrounds and that that he hoped they would make the trip «fun» together.

    This is not the first time that the high-profiled Maezawa has attracted public interest.

    Last year, he randomly selected 1,000 of his Twitter followers to donate more than $9,000 each to test for actual boosts in happiness from monetary gains. In 2017, he paid $110.5 million for 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting Untitled – an amount that broke his last record set in May 2016 for a mother untitled Basquiat valued at $57 million.

  • Japan’s Zozo expects profit fall, cuts outlook

    Japan’s Zozo expects profit fall, cuts outlook

    Online fashion store Zozo reported its firs-ever profit decline since its launch, adding to the announcement that it plans to discontinue its innovative Zozo suit, as it moves away for custom-fit fashion. One of Japan’s fastest-growing start-ups, Zozo said it expects full-year for the fiscal year ending March 2019 to fall 12%, dipping to 17.8 billion yen ($164 million).

    Zozo said it expects full-year operating profit of 26.5 billion yen, down around 19% from a year earlier. It previously forecast profit to rise to 40 billion yen.

    Sales are still predicted to reach double-digit growth, up 20% to 118 billion yen. However, that’s much lower than an initial forecast of 247 billion yen.

    By category, private-brand revenues are forecast to total 3 billion yen, just 15% of the 20-billon yen prediction made last year. Profits at the new apparel brand will also be negative, registering a loss of 12.5 billion yen.

    Zozo holds close to a 50 percent share of Japan’s e-commerce market for mid to high-end fashion. The Tokyo-based retailer had tried to branch out by launching its private brand and a made-to-measure service. Dubbed the ‘Zozosuit’, a black-and-white spotted body suit that allowed user to take and upload personal body measurements, the suit was overhauled after complaints on how long the suits took to arrive, with some customers complaining the suit did not fit, causing more delays.

    “By distributing the ‘Zozosuit’ for free so that people could take measurements, we were hoping to create demand for the Zozotown business, including the private brand. But the impact did not have the scale that we had hoped for,” the company said in a statement.

    Zozo said it now expects to pay a year-end dividend of 10 yen per share instead of an original forecast of 22 yen.

  • Zozo unveils body measurement suit for perfect-fit clothes online

    Zozo unveils body measurement suit for perfect-fit clothes online

    Japanese online fashion retailer Zozo is expanding its offer of tailor-fitted clothing with skin-tight bodysuits that help users upload their measurements online.

    Called the Zozosuit, the garment is covered in polka dots reminiscent of motion-capture leotards. Shoppers don the suit and photograph themselves wearing it, uploading the picture via a smartphone app for Zozo’s software to calculate their exact body shape.

    Zozo, which sells clothes from other brands, envisages bespoke items as being the way forward for online fashions. The platform has already added business suits and formal shirts to its range, which can be tailored to fit customers based on Zozosuit data.

    Zozo CEO Yusaku Maezawa said: “The time where people adapt to clothing is over. This is a new era where clothes adapt to people.”

    The move coincides with Zozo’s potential partnership with clothing manufacturer Shima Seiki, whose whole-garment knit-on-demand technologies can produce seamless items of clothing to order. The firm is also making efforts to expand its business in other countries.

    The company will ship 1 million Zozosuits to customers within the next fortnight.