CRF's Only and Tokyomods used Vexture®, Miva's AI-powered search solution, to turn a predictable seasonal sales dip into sustained growth by improving product discovery and eliminating zero-result searches. Instead of fighting fall slowdowns, they captured more value from existing traffic through intent-based search.
CRF's Only & Tokyomods
Automotive
CRF's Only and Tokyomods are two distinct ecommerce brands operating under the same leadership, each serving passionate motorbike audiences with deep, specialized product catalogs. While the brands focus on different markets, they share a familiar ecommerce challenge.
Every fall, as September turned into October, sales volume and other metrics slowed down by approximately 15 percent. That pattern had existed for several years, so it wasn't unexpected, but it was limiting. Shoppers were still visiting the sites, but they were browsing more and searching less precisely. Traditional keyword search made that moment harder than it needed to be.
The question was whether better product discovery could change that pattern.
Historically, both brands saw the same trend play out year after year:
Seasonality was built into forecasts, but the team wanted more than a smaller dip. What they wanted was obvious, but challenging. They wanted to keep momentum through slower months and enter peak periods from a stronger position.
CRF's Only and Tokyomods implemented Vexture, Miva's AI-powered product discovery solution, to improve how shoppers navigated their catalogs.
Instead of relying on exact keyword matches, Vexture uses natural language understanding to interpret what shoppers mean, even when searches are vague, incomplete, or phrased differently than product titles.
The result was a search experience that felt more satisfying and more intuitive. Shoppers found relevant products faster, and the team no longer needed to constantly adjust search rules behind the scenes.
The impact from Vexture's search was honestly epic. We're used to seeing a predictable slowdown every fall, but instead of fighting a dip, we saw daily average sales triple for several days straight. The search results were spot-on. Customers found what they wanted even when they didn't know exactly how to search for it. It fundamentally changed how our sites perform during seasonality.
Justin Pasquaye |Once Vexture was enabled on both crfsonly.com and tokyomods.com, the long-standing seasonal pattern shifted. Rather than comparing peak months to off-season traffic, the team evaluated performance against their own historical seasonal pattern.
Historically, sales dropped approximately 15 percent during the September to October transition. With Vexture in place, sales held nearly flat at -1 percent. That represents a 14-point swing versus the prior year's seasonal decline.
Historically, sales increased by about 11 percent from October to November. With Vexture, that lift reached 23 percent, more than doubling the typical rebound.
Across the full September through November period, total site-wide sales increased by 15 percent year-over-year. In addition, daily average sales tripled for multiple consecutive days during the transition period.
The biggest change came from how shoppers discovered products. As an example, here's a sample before and after Vexture with a sample search for, "crf footwear".
Because Vexture interpreted intent rather than relying strictly on exact keyword matching, zero-result searches were all but eliminated and both brands captured demand that previously slipped through the cracks. Instead of fighting seasonality and investing in programs to find new audiences, they made better use of the traffic they already had.
Vexture® didn't create demand. It helped CRF's Only and Tokyomods capture demand that was previously lost and helped move beyond managing seasonal dips and start outperforming them.
By improving product discovery and eliminating zero-result searches, CRF's Only and Tokyomods:
Vexture® transformed product discovery from a background utility into a competitive advantage.