Welcome back to PayPay Professionals, a snapshot into the incredible professionalism of the pros that drive the PayPay group.
This time, we interviewed Shimatani san from the Sales Strategy Department about notable projects and her core values at work.
Honoka Shimatani
Online Promotion Team, Enterprise Promotion Department, Sales Strategy Division
I joined a major e-commerce company as a new graduate in 2018, where I began my career in sales. I joined PayPay in 2021. In the Online Promotion Team, I oversee the operation of promotional campaigns and the establishment and improvement of sales flows, including Smart Payment.
Supporting PayPay’s Rapid Growth Through Smooth Sales Flow
Can you tell us about the journey that brought you to join PayPay and the deciding factor?
In my previous job, I was part of the sales department and was also involved in sales promotion such as sending out newsletters to stores. During that time, I started to develop a stronger desire to focus on promotion and planning and decided to explore new opportunities. I chose PayPay because its speedy and IT-oriented culture was similar to my previous job, and I felt it would suit me well. The casual yet non-hierarchical atmosphere and the constantly changing work environment at PayPay seemed like a perfect fit for me.
What is the mission of your department and what are your responsibilities?
The Enterprise Promotion Department’s mission is to establish and improve business flows to expand services for merchants and reduce man-hours in sales activities. We formulate flows from acquiring projects related to new services for merchants, as well as improving flows in response to sales and merchant requests.
Pioneering New Services, Working Tirelessly on Agent Coordination and Sales Promotion
Do you have any particularly memorable projects?
One of the most notable projects was the establishment of the sales flow and sales promotion for Smart Payment. Smart Payment is one of the implementation methods when introducing PayPay for online payments, like in e-commerce. For Web Payment that is currently dominant among online merchants, users typically switch between the merchant’s payment page and PayPay’s page. However, with Smart Payment, there are fewer screen transitions, resulting in shorter in payment time. This not only improves usability, but also improves conversion rates (CVR) and merchant sales.
Although the process of driving sales is ongoing, there have been achievements in reducing payment time, an increase in PayPay payment button CVR (number of successful payments ÷ number of button clicks), and an increase in the number of monthly payments per user. It’s also gratifying that it has led to the acquisition of major clients.
What aspects presented challenges for you?
The most challenging part was coordinating operations with the agents. Most online merchants do not have direct contracts with PayPay and instead go through agents. Typically, planning departments like sales promotion don’t directly interact with external parties, but in this project, we focused on close communication with the agent’s system operators. Since we needed the agents to undertake development on a larger scale of tens of millions yen, we made efforts to ensure smooth progress by confirming detailed requirements through QA tables. We also actively held meetings for matters that were difficult to convey in writing.
We also focused on the initial stages of sales promotion. In order to facilitate sales promotion, I created proposals that summarized the pros and cons of each implementation method and included the actual effects. I also held explanation sessions on a regular basis. Now, it has been projectized within the sales department, and they are actively promoting the expansion of Smart Payment, which I’m grateful for.
What aspects of this job do you find rewarding?
Getting immediate feedback is a big motivator. It is rewarding to receive words of appreciation when our sales support goes well, and it’s also helpful to receive feedback for improvement. There’s always an awareness of improvement not only within the department but also throughout the company; I also feel a sense of fulfillment by constantly pushing myself for improvement.
Can you describe the team atmosphere?
Although we work remotely, we have a relaxed, friendly atmosphere, chit-chatting in between meetings.
We have a culture of helping one another, and a lot of seniors set good examples; you’d never carry everything alone. I believe that newcomers can join us with confidence; we have an environment where anyone can ask questions and seek for advice, whenever necessary.
When I joined PayPay, I was able to quickly resolve any confusion by checking on Slack or the internal wiki, or by asking questions during QA time at team meetings.
Driven by the Conviction in Our Compelling Service
What do you value in your role at PayPay?
What I value in my work at PayPay is captured in the 5 senses, specifically, “Believes in our Product & Team. Enjoy growing together, believing in the product, our teams and that we will be the no.1 Fintech company in the world.”
Regarding Smart Payment, I personally felt it was an excellent service, and I was eager to promote it. Given my previous experience in e-commerce, I understood that improving UI/UX leads to increased conversion rates and contributes to merchant sales.
Moreover, based on my previous experience in sales where I felt the disadvantages of having insufficient means for effective sales promotion, I was convinced that Smart Payment could serve as a powerful weapon in supporting sales promotion efforts. Understanding both the quality of the product and the psychology of sales, I was able to advance with confidence.
Please tell us your goals and visions for the future.
Looking ahead, I continue to focus on promoting the adoption of Smart Payment. Currently, web payments account for 80-90% of online merchants, but I hope that Smart Payment will become the mainstream in the future. Taking feedback from the sales team, we are actively working on making further improvements to the sales flow. Achieving seamless payment would bring satisfaction to both users and merchants, and this is something I look forward to.
A message for our readers please.
PayPay’s 5 senses includes the keyword “speed.” If you enjoy working with a sense of speed and drive, tackling tasks while on the move, PayPay is an excellent environment. Come join us if you relish change and constantly strive for improvement.
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*Job openings and employee affiliations are current as of the time of the interview.