Challenge

YAMAP designs and provides various services and experiences, both online and offline, to support customers who regularly enjoy the outdoors. Their rapid expansion into new business areas created increasing payment complexity. In May 2024, the company launched YAMAP Outdoor Insurance, using big data from their platform and establishing a dedicated insurance subsidiary. Through this venture, they offer two mountain climbing insurance products: Sanpo Insurance and Outdoor Leisure Insurance. The company also partnered with the city of Myoko in Niigata Prefecture on a regional revitalization initiative, where visitors pay a mountain admission fee that automatically includes climbing insurance.

This service diversification exposed significant payment infrastructure challenges. Each business line operated with different payment processors, creating a fragmented customer experience. For instance, YAMAP’s premium app subscriptions required separate payment systems for in-app versus web purchases, forcing customers through multiple registration and login processes that threatened conversion rates.

The Myoko partnership presented additional complexity because the mountain admission fees needed to be separately transferred, with the admission portion going to Myoko City and the climbing insurance portion going to the insurance company. This required a sophisticated payment-routing system that YAMAP’s existing infrastructure couldn’t handle efficiently.

Solution

YAMAP found Stripe at the right time, as they were considering payment efficiency improvements with an eye toward the future.

“As soon as we heard about it, we thought it sounded very convenient and immediately decided to switch over. Although there are some restrictions on platforms such as online stores, we are switching to Stripe because migration is so easy,” said Kohei Higuchi, CTO.

The implementation used multiple Stripe products tailored to each business need. YAMAP Premium subscriptions (annual and monthly plans) now use Stripe Billing for automated recurring payments. YAMAP Outdoor Insurance operates on Stripe Payments for one-time transactions. Most importantly, the Myoko partnership runs on Stripe Connect, which automatically splits entrance fees between the city government and YAMAP’s insurance operations through the mobile app.

Stripe’s developer experience proved equally valuable. “The engineers mentioned that the API specifications were easy to understand and that it was easy to integrate with programs because it allows you to obtain detailed information,” Higuchi explains. The comprehensive documentation and clear usage guides enabled smooth implementation across all services. “Without that system, it probably would have taken nearly a month to develop a payment system, but by using Stripe Connect, we were able to shrink the process down to about a week,” says Higuchi.

Results

Stripe delivered immediate improvements across YAMAP’s payment operations. The payment success rate jumped to 95%, while YAMAP Premium subscribers gained a streamlined experience, with a single-screen checkout eliminating the previous multistep registration process.

Operational efficiency improved dramatically through Stripe’s unified Dashboard. The back-office team now relies on Stripe’s interface to access detailed payment and refund histories, significantly streamlining customer support operations. This consolidated view has transformed how YAMAP manages customer inquiries and resolves payment issues.

The unified payment infrastructure also creates new business opportunities. “In the future, we plan to consolidate all payments into Stripe,” says Higuchi. “This consolidation of payment information can help us expand the scope of our promotions. We also hope to launch loyalty promotions for customers who use multiple services.” The company plans to introduce flexible, campaign-specific pricing and cross-service promotions that weren’t possible with their fragmented payment systems.

*YAMAP Outdoor Insurance is the generic name for insurance provided by the YAMAP Group.
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