BETREND CORPORATION

Business Details

Targets companies operating multiple physical stores in retail, food service, and other service industries as its primary customers, and provides the CRM software platform "betrend"—equipped with customer information management, multichannel distribution, and data analysis functions—on a SaaS basis. Its revenue base is a stock-type business model combining a fixed monthly fee with usage-based charges. The business is composed of three segments: CRM Services (Smart CRM and Email Marketing), Customization Service, and Other Services. The company is in an active growth investment phase under its medium-term management plan covering FY2024 (ending December 2024) through FY2026 (ending December 2026).

Recent Overview

In the first quarter of FY2026 (ending December 2026), net sales declined 7.1%, and the company fell into an operating loss of ¥63 million, mainly due to higher costs

Net sales for the first quarter of FY2026 (ending December 2026) (January–March 2026) were ¥264 million (down 7.1% year on year). Customization Service declined sharply by 38.2% year on year, and CRM Services also declined 1.9%. On the cost side, cost of sales swelled to ¥178,846 thousand (up 23.8% year on year) due to temporary infrastructure costs associated with the renewal of the database server group, and SG&A expenses also rose 9.6% to ¥148,896 thousand due to increased personnel costs. As a result, the company posted an operating loss of ¥62,775 thousand (compared with operating profit of ¥4,815 thousand in the same period last year). There is no change to the full-year earnings forecast (net sales of ¥1,169 million, operating loss of ¥222 million). As a new deal, Smart CRM was adopted for the official app of a community-based department store operating multiple stores.

Key Products

Growth Drivers

• Acquisition of new deals for Smart CRM Service (adopted as the official app of a community-based department store operating multiple stores in the first quarter of FY2026, ending December 2026)
• Accumulation of Smart CRM Service ARR through increases in the number of members and additional option purchases by existing customers (36,929 thousand members, up 6.4% year on year)
• Strengthening sales collaboration with POS vendors, e-commerce cart vendors, and others through the partner program "betrend connect"
• Market expansion into the mid-size/small-size segment through the launch of "betrend Lite," a simplified, no-code, non-customized service
• Expansion of the cloud-based CRM market (¥599.0 billion in fiscal 2024, up 114.9% year on year, projected to exceed ¥1.2 trillion in fiscal 2029)

Risks

• Expansion of growth investment (personnel, development, infrastructure, marketing) is causing expenses to significantly outpace sales growth, and the company forecasts an expanded operating loss of ¥222 million for the full year of FY2026 (ending December 2026) (widening from ¥-82 million in the prior year)
• Temporary costs associated with infrastructure renewal (initial costs for renewing the database server group and costs from overlapping old and new contracts) pushed up cost of sales for the first quarter of FY2026 (ending December 2026) by 23.8% year on year
• Structural decline in Email Marketing Service (ARR down 10.4% year on year and number of contracted companies down 53 companies year on year in the first quarter of FY2026, ending December 2026) is weighing down ARR for CRM Services overall
• The ARR target in the medium-term management plan was revised downward from ¥1.61 billion to ¥1.10 billion, revealing sales challenges as the number of prospective customer acquisitions fell short of the plan
• The number of contracted companies for Smart CRM Service declined slightly from 186 at the end of FY2025 (ending December 2025) to 185 at the end of the first quarter of FY2026, ending December 2026 (though up 4 companies year on year)
• Intensifying competition: an increase in competitors in the marketing SaaS space poses a challenge to maintaining differentiation