SAN FRANCISCO—While Jins Eyewear’s in-house robotic edger took center stage when the Japanese optical retailer opened its first U.S. store here on April 10, 2015, state-of-the-art technology also plays a starring role behind the scenes to improve the retail experience.

In conjunction with its North American opening, Jins deployed Microsoft Dynamics AX, an all-in-one package that supports the company’s multichannel operations with retail point-of-sale (POS) functionality and keeps track of inventory sales data in real time.


Hitachi Solutions installed Microsoft Dynamics AX Retail at Jins Eyewear to support its
multichannel retail operations and keep track of inventory sales data in real time.

“The installation of AX is making our operations a lot more efficient and contributing to our future business expansion in the U.S.” said Jins’ I.T. and e-commerce director, Mario Arai. “Microsoft Dynamics AX allows our employees to work efficiently and productively and enhances the in-store experience for our customers.”

Jins’s 4,900-square-foot U.S. flagship store in San Francisco’s Union Square shopping mecca displays 1,200 different styles priced from $60 to $120, and a prominently placed robotic edger named Kanna finishes customers’ eyeglasses while they wait, usually in about 30 minutes.

To efficiently manage its current retail operations now and as additional outlets are added in the future, Jins selected Hitachi Solutions to implement the full suite of Microsoft Dynamics AX Retail, providing the company with a solution that will scale to accommodate the organization’s growth and that goes beyond traditional enterprise resource planning capabilities by delivering an end-to-end solution that supports the company’s multichannel retail operations.


Other technology in operation at Jins’ new San Francisco flagship store is
Kanna the robotic edger that finishes eyeglasses in about 30 minutes.

While Jins Eyewear currently operates the one location in San Francisco, the company is planning to launch more in the U.S., and the Microsoft Dynamics AX Retail program will be integrated into new locations as they are opened. Currently, shoppers outside of San Francisco can purchase Jins eyewear from its e-commerce site.

“We are expanding in the U.S. and will use the same POS system because it’s easy to add a new store,” Arai told dba. “It’s almost like copy and pasting one store into another.”

He offered an example of how the Microsoft Dynamics AX system can enhance the customer experience as the company adds retail locations: “In the future we may have smaller stores with fewer frames in inventory. Using the POS system, we can find any item whether it is in the store or not by looking online. If it’s in stock at another location or in the warehouse, we can ship the exact frame to the smaller location.”

Among the benefits the company cites after implementing the Microsoft Dynamics AX Retail solution are an efficient point-of-sale application that enables Jins’ associates to deliver a positive shopping experience, scalability and growth support for future U.S. retail stores, enabling efficient corporate operations with a single data source for all business processes, integrated merchandising processes with instant access to product and category performance for in-store and online sales, and a streamlined supply chain with the ability to optimize inventory levels for both in-store and online sales.