What hey Japan does

STORES Inc. (DBA hey Japan) is a Tokyo-based software company founded in 2012 that provides a modular commerce platform for Japanese small businesses and individual entrepreneurs. Operating under a "Just for Fun" mission, the company targets passion-driven merchants including independent retail shops, cafes, restaurants, service providers, and creative businesses, distributing its platform primarily through self-service online signup at stores.fun without requiring sales engagement or technical expertise from merchants.

The platform is structured around four core commerce products — STORES Online Store, STORES Payments, STORES Reservation, and STORES Register — supplemented by six add-on modules including STORES Branded App, Loyalty, Mobile Order, Analytics, and Business PostPay (BNPL). The company also operates Makitori by STORES, an operations management solution for beauty salons and restaurants that was integrated as a wholly-owned subsidiary in 2026. The technology stack is built primarily on Ruby on Rails with iOS and Android mobile applications using Swift, SwiftUI, Kotlin, and Kotlin Multiplatform, alongside React, GraphQL, Go, and Java. STORES actively contributes to the open-source Ruby ecosystem through projects including the Spinel AOT compiler, ReActionView ERB engine, and Herb Linter, and has deployed an in-house LLM-based AI agent named kuro for internal operational tasks.

Revenue is generated through three primary streams: SaaS subscriptions for platform access, transaction/payment processing fees from STORES Payments, and fees from the Business PostPay BNPL service. Pricing is not publicly disclosed, and the company operates on a quote-based model for some services. The platform is distributed as a horizontal solution targeting Japanese SMBs and individual entrepreneurs, with no disclosed enterprise tier or industry specialization. The company has raised approximately $89M across multiple funding rounds since 2013, including a $66M Series C in 2020 led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, PayPal Ventures, World Innovation Lab, YJ Capital, and Anatole, and has made selective acquisitions including Coubic in 2020 to expand into reservation management and Makitori in 2026 to enter beauty salon and restaurant operations software.

Name

hey Japan

Legal name

STORES 株式会社

Website

https://hey.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

STORES Inc. (DBA hey Japan) is a Tokyo-based SaaS company operating a modular commerce platform for Japanese small businesses and individual entrepreneurs. Its products span e-commerce, payments, reservations, point-of-sale, loyalty, mobile ordering, analytics, and BNPL, distributed via a self-serve model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. SaaS Platform Subscriptions: STORES generates revenue through subscription-based access to its commerce platform services including online store creation, payment processing, reservation management, point-of-sale systems, loyalty programs, and mobile ordering solutions.
2. Transaction/Payment Processing Fees: Revenue from payment processing services provided to merchants on the platform, likely earning a percentage on each transaction processed.
3. Business Post-pay Services: STORES ビジネスあと払い (Business Buy Now Pay Later) service generating revenue through installment payment processing.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

STORES (hey Japan) operates a modular commerce platform enabling small businesses and individual entrepreneurs in Japan to create and operate online stores, accept payments, manage reservations, run point-of-sale systems, deploy branded mobile apps, run loyalty programs, take mobile orders, analyze data, and offer buy-now-pay-later services. The platform is sold on a self-serve SaaS basis targeting passion-driven SMBs across retail, food service, and service industries in Japan.

Product overview

STORES is a comprehensive commerce platform with a modular architecture consisting of core transaction products (STORES E-commerce, STORES Payment, STORES Reservation, STORES Register) and add-on modules (Branded App, Loyalty, Mobile Order, Analytics, Business PostPay) that can be combined to support merchants' retail, dining, and service operations. The platform also includes Makitori by STORES as an operations management sub-brand. The ecosystem is unified under the 'Just for Fun' mission to empower individual sellers and small teams running passion-based businesses.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• STORES ネットショップ: E-commerce platform for online stores
• STORES 決済
• STORES 予約
• STORES レジ
• STORES ブランドアプリ
• STORES ロイヤリティ
• STORES モバイルオーダー
• STORES データ分析
• STORES ビジネスあと払い
• マキトリ by STORES
• STORES Product Blog
• STORES note

Products and services

• STORES 淘寳網 (STORES Online Store) E-commerce platform enabling small businesses and individual sellers in Japan to launch and manage online stores with support for product listings, payments, and order management.
• STORES 決済 (STORES Payment) Payment processing service supporting multiple payment methods, enabling merchants in Japan to accept transactions securely across online and in-store channels.
• STORES 予約 (STORES Reservation) Reservation and appointment booking system for service-based businesses in Japan to manage customer bookings.
• STORES レジ (STORES Register) Point-of-sale register system for physical retail locations in Japan to process in-person sales transactions.
• STORES ブランドアプリ (STORES Branded App) White-label custom-branded mobile application builder allowing businesses to create their own branded customer apps for engagement and transactions.
• STORES ロイヤリティ (STORES Loyalty) Customer loyalty and rewards program solution to help merchants retain and engage customers.
• STORES モバイルオーダー (STORES Mobile Order) Mobile ordering solution for restaurants and retail to enable contactless ordering and payment.
• STORES データ分析 (STORES Analytics) Business intelligence and data analytics dashboard for merchants to gain insights into sales and customer behavior.
• STORES ビジネスあと払い (STORES Business PostPay) Buy now, pay later service for business purchases enabling installment payments for merchants.
• マキトリ by STORES (Makitori by STORES) Operations management solution providing video and PDF manual automatic translation, inventory management, and workflow tools for service businesses such as beauty salons and restaurants.

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• 福岡Rubyist会議05 (Fukuoka Rubyist Meeting 05)minorGTM or Marketing Partner · 28 February 2026STORES served as a sponsor and had one member speak at the Fukuoka Rubyist Meeting 05 held on February 28, 2026 in Fukuoka, Japan.
• RubyKaigi 2026coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2026STORES participated as Nursery Sponsor and Scholarship Sponsor at RubyKaigi 2026 in Hakodate, Hokkaido. The company organized childcare facilities for young Rubyists and provided scholarships. STORES also ran the 'Ruby One-Liner Challenge' game and hosted STORES CAFE for Women events. This marks their 3rd consecutive year as Nursery Sponsor.
• iOSDC Japan 2026minorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2026STORES announced support for students wanting to participate in iOSDC Japan 2026, a mobile developer conference scheduled for September 11-13, 2026 at Tokyo's Ariake Central Tower.
• try! Swift Tokyo 2026minorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2026STORES engineers attended and participated in try! Swift Tokyo 2026, a Swift programming language conference.
• Girls AI Scholarship by STOREScoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2026STORES runs a scholarship program to support women in programming and AI. The program is in its 3rd cohort, aiming to achieve 30%+ female representation in engineering positions by 2030.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• BASE: BASE is the closest direct competitor to STORES in Japan — a self-service e-commerce and payments platform targeting individual sellers and SMBs. Both companies compete head-to-head for the same Japanese micro-merchant segment with overlapping free-tier onboarding and integrated payments.
• Makeshop by GMO: GMO's Makeshop is a major Japanese SMB e-commerce platform competing with STORES ネットワークス in the same domestic market. Both target Japanese small merchants with hosted storefronts and payment processing.

Broad incumbents

• Shopify: Shopify is the global SMB commerce platform incumbent. While STORES differentiates via Japanese localization and an all-in-one module suite, Shopify remains the dominant category leader and the primary share-taker in any geography Shopify enters seriously.
• Block (Square): Square's POS, payments, and online store offerings directly overlap with STORES レジ, STORES 決済, and STORES ネットワークス. Square's aggressive push into Japanese-language support makes it a key competitive threat in the SMB commerce stack.
• Stripe: Stripe competes directly with STORES 決済 in payment processing for Japanese merchants, offering developer-first APIs and global expansion capability. STORES' integrated suite partially insulates it, but merchants seeking global card processing increasingly evaluate Stripe.
• Lightspeed Commerce: Lightspeed offers an integrated commerce platform (POS, e-commerce, payments, loyalty) for retail and restaurant SMBs — mirroring STORES' modular architecture at global scale. Comparison is relevant for understanding category economics and product depth expectations.

Emerging players

• TABLECHECK: TABLECHECK provides reservation and restaurant management software in Japan, overlapping with STORES 予約 and Makitori by STORES' restaurant features. Both serve Japanese SMB service businesses but TABLECHECK specializes deeper in F&B.
• MineralTree / Mindbody (Mindbody): Mindbody is the global SaaS incumbent for service-business operations (salons, spas, fitness) — closely comparable to Makitori by STORES. Useful benchmark for product depth and pricing in the salon/restaurant management vertical.

Regional players

• STORES is also comparable to Korean/Asian SMB commerce platforms: Coupang's Play and Cafe24 (cafe24.com) are Korean SMB e-commerce platforms with similar modular architectures and SMB-targeted onboarding — providing a regional benchmark for STORES' category economics and competitive dynamics outside Japan.

Others

• freee: freee is a Japanese cloud accounting/HR platform serving the same SMB customer base as STORES. While not a direct commerce competitor, freee is a logical cross-sell/ecosystem partner and an indicator of willingness-to-pay among Japanese micro-merchants.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/storesinc_info
• GitHubgithub.com/stores
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@storesinc
• Facebookfacebook.com/storesinc.info
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/heyinc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds6 records

Investors14 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about hey Japan