Frozen Bread & Sweets Importer Ananas Japan Promotes Trade DX via Shippio Platform

**Shippio Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director: Takanori Sato, hereinafter 'Shippio') announces that Ananas Japan Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director: Tsuyoshi Tamaoka, hereinafter 'Ananas Japan'), an import wholesaler of European frozen bread and sweets, has implemented the Shippio Platform services (freight forwarding operation + cloud 'Shippio Forwarding', trade management cloud 'Shippio Cargo'). Along with this, a case study article has been published.** ▶︎**Standardizing black-box trade operations. The trajectory of Trade DX that achieved not just efficiency, but also reduced stockouts through lead-time management**

Background & Challenges: Stockout Risks and Increased Costs Due to Person-Dependent Operations Ananas Japan supplies frozen bread and sweets, which are widely popular in Europe, to domestic hotels and restaurants, making importing the core of their business. As the business rapidly expanded, trade operations became so person-dependent that no one but the predecessor knew the details. Although they attempted to standardize using an in-house system combining spreadsheets and multiple digital tools, they faced new walls: a lack of real-time updates due to manual entry and an increased system load as the business grew. The inability to grasp accurate lead times caused inventory shortages several times a year, leading to concerns about the impact on brand image, in addition to the costs of apologizing for stockouts and additional shipping fees. Therefore, to increase the transparency of trade operations and build a 'stockout-free supply chain' based on data, they decided to introduce the Shippio Platform.

Results: 'Stockout Reduction' and Dramatic Productivity Improvement via Data Analysis - **Achieved 'Reduction in Stockout Response Costs' through Improved Lead Time Management Accuracy** By analyzing highly reliable historical data accumulated on Shippio, precise lead time analysis that factors in local suppliers' long vacations and seasonal variables became possible. They could formulate transport plans with ample leeway, reducing previously unavoidable stockouts.

- **Reduced Trade Document Matching Workload by Approximately 50%** By utilizing the AI invoice matching feature, the verification work for different document formats per manufacturer was auto...