When WixStore's Native Features Weren't Enough — How a Sports Club Transformed Its Merchandise Sales with Squadbase
Overview
PLAYNEW Inc. operates SHIBUYA CITY FC, a soccer club based in Shibuya aiming for promotion to the J.League.
The club had been using WixStore for its online shop, but the native dashboard couldn't keep up with their unique operational workflows and growing need for sales analysis — leaving staff reliant on manual spreadsheet work. By adopting Squadbase, they unified everything from order management to analytics reporting, achieving both operational efficiency and more sophisticated sales strategy.
We spoke with Masato Fukutomi, the staff member responsible for merchandise operations, about the background behind the adoption, how they use it today, and their plans for the future.
Why They Chose WixStore
Can you tell us about how you came to use WixStore?
Masato Fukutomi
We used to run separate services for our website and our online shop. We started looking for a way to consolidate them into a single platform, and that's when we found that Wix could handle both the website and the EC store in one place — so we decided to go with it.
It was also important that staff could manage things themselves without relying on developers, and Wix fit well in terms of ease of use.
Were you doing any sales analysis from the beginning?
Masato Fukutomi
Honestly, barely at all in the beginning. The numbers were available in Wix's admin panel, but we weren't really paying attention to them.
As the club continued to grow, the need for deeper analysis started to emerge — things like "which age groups are buying jerseys?" or "how often are repeat customers making purchases?" That shift really happened over the past two or three years.
The Limits of Spreadsheet-Based Operations
Can you walk us through your order fulfillment workflow?
Masato Fukutomi
When an order came in through Wix, we would manually copy it into a spreadsheet, then reorganize and re-enter it into another spreadsheet for shipping. It was three or four steps of genuinely inefficient work, one after another.
On top of that, jerseys require outsourcing to a print (heat-press) vendor, so they need to be managed through a completely separate route from regular merchandise. The flow goes: receive order → send to vendor → receive back → ship to customer. That unique workflow simply couldn't be managed within Wix alone.
What were the main pain points of managing things in spreadsheets?
Masato Fukutomi
We were using spreadsheets to keep track of things like whether an order had shipped and what the delivery address was — information that anyone on the team needed to be able to see. But it became very dependent on specific individuals.
We had Slack set up to receive order notifications, but staff had to check Slack, then the spreadsheet, then Wix — everything was fragmented. Every time we handed off responsibilities to a new team member, it was a struggle.
How Squadbase Changed the Workflow
What did you build with Squadbase?
Masato Fukutomi
Two main things. First, an order management and shipping operations screen. Second, a sales analytics report.
In the order management screen, all orders that need to ship that day are displayed in a list, and you can't mark them as shipped until you've checked off each step in sequence. The workflow differs by product type — for jerseys it's "print request → send to vendor → receive at club → ship to customer," while for regular merchandise it's just "confirm shipped" — and the AI automatically built in those conditional branching rules. I was also genuinely surprised when I typed into the chat "can you add something to make progress easier to see?" and a progress bar appeared. I thought, "It can build something like that just from that instruction?"
What do you feel has changed the most?
Masato Fukutomi
Two things: we no longer have to manually copy data into spreadsheets, and more staff members are now able to handle shipping operations.
Before, there was a real knowledge bottleneck — only certain people understood the workflow. Now anyone can look at the progress bar and understand exactly where things stand. From a management perspective, you can instantly see if something hasn't been completed, which has dramatically cut down on the time spent checking up on things.
How about the analytics report side?
Masato Fukutomi
WixStore does let you see sales volume and revenue figures, but it can't tell you what to order next. The sales report we built in Squadbase lets you see monthly bestsellers all on one screen, and the AI even provides suggestions like "this size is likely to sell well next month." That's something we absolutely couldn't have done with Wix alone.
Team Adoption and Future Plans
Are other staff members able to use it as well?
Masato Fukutomi
Yes, since you just type instructions into the chat, there's no barrier to entry. Before, staff had to navigate multiple spreadsheets and memorize a unique set of workflows — every handover led to "you'll have to ask that person." Now, the chat history shows exactly what instructions to use, and the screen itself makes it clear what needs to be done. The difficulty of onboarding has dropped significantly. That sense of things being overly dependent on specific individuals is really starting to fade.
Are there things you'd like to try going forward?
Masato Fukutomi
Quite a few, actually. One idea is to cross-reference data on who's attended home matches with who's actually purchased merchandise, so we can send emails to fans who've come to games but haven't bought anything yet — a kind of CRM approach.
I'd also like to try automating shipping label generation. Right now we choose between Eco Delivery and Yamato Transport depending on package size, but if we could input the order data and automatically generate a label with the optimal carrier already selected, it would save a huge amount of time.
What's great is that when a staff member finds something inconvenient or thinks "it would be useful to have this feature," they can just type it into the chat and the system gets updated. That kind of cycle happens naturally now. That, I think, is Squadbase's biggest strength. Just not having to jump between spreadsheets anymore — honestly, that alone has been more than worth it.
