ITOCHU Forms Capital Tie-Up with ABEJA to Participate in In-Store Analytics Business Using AI

March 3, 2017

ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has formed a capital tie-up with ABEJA, Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yosuke Okada, President & CEO; hereinafter “ABEJA”), which provides a retail in-store analytics tool using artificial intelligence (AI) as SaaS, to participate in the in-store analytics business.

To date, online stores have improved their websites by analyzing numerical data, including visitor numbers, viewing hours and conversion rates. Physical stores have not acquired such numerical data to date, however, and it is common for them to depend on onsite staff’s intuition and experience in the optimization of stores.

“ABEJA Platform for Retail,” which ABEJA provides, analyzes the count of visitors to stores, distinguishes the ages and genders of visitors to stores, and the excursion patterns and shopping times of visitors to stores based on numerous kinds of data obtained from camera sensors and other means through unique image analysis solutions using deep learning, the latest AI technology, and visualizing these aspects quantitatively. In particular, this method in collaboration with POS data is a groundbreaking solution that enables conversion rates to be grasped quantitatively, which is the norm with the Internet, and also enables the optimization of stores to be improved on the basis of quantitative data.

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ITOCHU will actively support tens of thousands of stores, including its group’s retailers both in Japan and overseas, by introducing ABEJA Platform for Retail to further strengthen its presence in the area of non-resources. It will also consider applying ABEJA’s deep learning technologies to other sectors, such as manufacturing and medicine, for the joint development of services.

ITOCHU, which is committed to actively promoting investments in venture capitals both in Japan and overseas, regards the area of AI as one of its priority areas and will contribute to achieving greater efficiency in the retail market through investments in companies that create advanced services using the latest AI, like the recent project. ITOCHU will also promote Japanese technologies and services globally by utilizing its global networks.

Overview of ABEJA, Inc.

Company name ABEJA, Inc.
Head office Tanakayama Building 10F, 4-1-20 Toranomon Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001, Japan
Representative Yosuke Okada
Website https://www.abeja.asia/en/