Hero Interview: homeal Inc. — "Wholeheartedly addressing each customer's concerns like a best friend is the key to everything"

homeal provides delicious toddler meals that parents can feel safe giving their children. Their online toddler food sales business is growing rapidly as their core offering. We spoke with founder Kikai about the story behind founding the company, his vision, and the secrets to growing the business.

— First, could you tell us a bit about your business? What inspired you to start homeal?

Let me start with the name. "homeal" is a coined word — a combination of "home" and "meal," meaning food eaten at home.

The reason I started this business goes back to when my child was around one year old and developed infant eczema and atopy. As I researched ways to improve the condition, I realized how important diet and nutrition are for a child's health. Right around the time my son turned one, I learned that after baby food (for ages 0–1) comes a stage called toddler food (ages 1–6). As a parent, independent of any business ambitions, I became genuinely interested in this topic. (Note: Baby food covers ages 0–1; toddler food covers ages 1–6.)

There are already many services for baby food, but very few for toddler food. From a child's perspective, there are so many uncertainties — how strong should the flavors be? How firm should the texture be? If children in the toddler food age range suddenly jump to adult meals, the food can be hard to chew or too strongly seasoned. That's why it's necessary to serve meals tailored to children — reducing sodium, adjusting texture for easier chewing, and so on.

On top of that, there are countless worries around children's eating: picky eating, food preferences, solo parenting, allergies. Parents are constantly shadowed by a sense of guilt that they're not doing enough.

I personally struggled with all of these issues, and when I looked around, there simply wasn't a service to solve them. That's what ultimately drove me to build one myself — that was the very first spark behind founding the company.

So I founded the company with three core offerings: online sales of toddler food, a community for parents struggling with toddler meals, and a LINE consultation service so parents can get advice anytime — since children's food-related concerns change day by day.

— What led you to choose Shopify when building your e-commerce site?

When we first launched, we had no engineers, so we opened our store on BASE for its ease of use and speed. Shortly after, the COVID pandemic hit and schools closed, leading to a sharp increase in consultations from parents worried about their children's meals.

We felt that a diagnostic tool for children's nutritional balance could help resolve many of those concerns, and we also wanted a LINE-based consultation feature to make it easier for people to reach out. However, we couldn't envision fitting all those features into BASE, so we started researching how to build a site that could implement the diagnostic tool.

Right around that time, I met Kurose (CEO of StoreHero) at an acquaintance's event. I was drawn to Shopify's potential, so we had a meeting and migrated to Shopify in a short period of about three months.

— After migrating to Shopify, did you incorporate any other features?

After the migration, we introduced three major features: subscription purchasing, the diagnostic tool, and LINE consultation. All implemented using Shopify and Shopify apps. Shopify's flexibility is outstanding — before using it, I had no idea it was this powerful. I'm truly glad we chose Shopify over other platforms.

— Among all the initiatives you've tried, what has been most impactful for growth?

I believe incorporating the diagnostic feature into our site has contributed the most to business growth. It created a seamless loop: customers can diagnose their concerns, we receive that data, and we can use it to make tailored recommendations. That entire flow became very smooth.

After customers register through the diagnostic tool, we send them a newsletter — and that became one of the pillars of our early revenue. Building an email list is no easy feat, but because we had the diagnostic and consultation features, we were able to accumulate contacts steadily, and that regular touchpoint via newsletter has been hugely valuable. Kurose (StoreHero CEO) always emphasizes how important email marketing is, and once we got started, we truly felt it firsthand. We have specialists write high-quality content — the kind you'd normally pay for — and our customers' response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Another thing we consciously focus on is what I'd call friendship — cultivating a sense of genuine connection with customers. In e-commerce, trust must be made visible online for people to feel comfortable making a purchase, so we place enormous importance on engaging with customers as if we were making friends with them.

When a LINE consultation comes in, our customer support team puts in real effort to respond as though talking to a dear friend. The same mindset guides our community management as well.

A characteristic of our product is that children naturally have days when they simply won't eat — even a curry they loved last time might get rejected today. We believe no food exists that a child will eat 100% of the time. But in fact, this issue can often be addressed through communication with the child and the conversation around mealtime.

So we see it as part of our service not just to improve product quality, but also to support parents struggling with their children's nutrition and meals — including guidance on how to engage with their children. We have in-house specialists such as nursery school nutritionists who share tips on how to communicate with children to encourage them to eat.

— You must have a large membership base now, but how did you handle customer acquisition in the early days?

We ran almost no advertising — just the bare minimum in keyword-based search listings. The rest was gifting. Through gifting, we've found that many people discover us via Instagram. Twitter users also regularly post word-of-mouth reviews, which brings in new customers. In the beginning, we really didn't do any promotion — most discovery came through word of mouth. And interestingly, that word of mouth felt more like it spread offline than online.

— You've grown the business while building careful relationships with customers. How do you balance driving sales with cultivating customer relationships?

We see diagnostics and consultations as important steps toward turning customers into loyal fans. First, we want them to love homeal — to associate it with positive emotions. Creating many triggers that evoke that attraction is what matters most. If we can deliver on that, people become fans naturally, and sales follow organically.

homeal is a problem-solving product. We address the everyday concerns of parents who care deeply about their children. Parenting isn't all picture-perfect moments — that's reality. But when we can offer products that make parents think, "I'm so glad I had this," we believe that creates a level of satisfaction that goes beyond expectation and becomes genuine delight. Keeping that in mind is what has led to sales growth.

Many of our team members, myself included, are raising children, so we constantly incorporate their perspectives as we search for what truly serves parents best and work to enhance the experience value. Our customers are dear friends, and that consciousness — treating each one with care — has always been at our core and will continue to be.

— Running a store day-to-day must be challenging. Do you have any tips for keeping things moving smoothly?

D2C is often compared to mixed martial arts — and from day one, my stance has always been to be able to handle everything yourself, at least at a basic level. You don't need deep expertise in every area, but knowing who to turn to when a problem arises is crucial. I personally love developing new products and hearing new ideas from customers, so I focus my energy there. Anything that can be systematized gets systematized, and I delegate the things I'm not good at to team members who excel in those areas.

— How do you go about creating delicious products?

Childcare professionals, registered dietitians, and chefs work together as a team, sharing information closely, carefully selecting ingredients, and choosing the right cooking methods — crafting each product with care. We repeat prototyping over time during development, and the whole team tastes the samples together.

Since we currently sell primarily frozen foods, we focus not only on how the food tastes when freshly made, but also on how it tastes after being thawed at home from a frozen state. Freezing and thawing changes texture and other qualities, so we also have frozen food specialists and quality control experts thoroughly review every product.

Above all, we put time, effort, and heart into every product we make.

— Are there any challenges you'd like to take on going forward?

I feel we've built a solid foundation for getting people to discover homeal. Recently, KADOKAWA published a toddler food recipe book by homeal. Many people struggle with their children's diet and nutrition, yet there are still so many who have never heard the term "toddler food" or the name homeal. I hope this book reaches those people and helps ease even some of their worries.

We also believe we need to go beyond digital and e-commerce to promote in real-world offline settings like nursery schools. We'll continue strengthening our PR efforts, reaching out to media to expand awareness.

Going forward, we want to remain a team that never gives up on children's nutrition and meals and keeps pushing forward.

Raising children is one of Japan's most important responsibilities. With declining birth rates, it's hard for any nation to thrive, so we want to become a brand that supports the idea that having and raising children is both personally fulfilling and vital for the country.

— Is there anything you've found particularly valuable about working with us?

You were the gateway that introduced me to Shopify, and I genuinely believe there's no other company doing Shopify-based growth support at this level of specialization — so I'm truly glad we partnered together. StoreHero feels very different from other Shopify partners.

The way homeal values treating customers like friends aligned perfectly with the philosophy StoreHero holds dear — that match was incredibly meaningful.

Many support firms push hard for paid advertising as the go-to growth strategy. But our cost of goods is high, so we couldn't allocate a large budget to ads. When I first consulted on how to grow within those constraints, StoreHero gave us thoughtful advice on the best strategies for organic growth and has supported us through all manner of detailed store improvements — for which I'm deeply grateful.

Beyond the know-how and tactical guidance, what mattered most was the underlying philosophy. Among the many possible strategies, our way of thinking about how we wanted to grow aligned with StoreHero's approach. That shared philosophy was systematized and translated into real growth. If I were to build a new product from scratch again, I would take the same path.

— Thank you so much for sharing such valuable insights today! It reinforced my conviction that anyone struggling with feeding a young child should absolutely try homeal. We look forward to continuing to support your growth.