Surf and snow gear brand manufacturer and retailer Quiksilver is switching all its global e-commerce sites from several separate on-premise e-commerce platforms to web-based e-commerce software from Demandware Inc. Quiksilver says the Demandware platform, which some of its sites have already switched to, is enabling it to make changes to its site more quickly and provide a unified look and feel across global markets.
Quiksilver began the process in Europe with its Quiksilver, Roxy and DC Shoes brands in 2013, completed the move for U.S. and Russia last year, and will make the transition for Brazil later this year. It plans to make the switch for its Asia-Pacific e-commerce operations in 2016, starting with Japan and Australia. The Demandware sites share one code base that internal teams can update and tweak for country-specific sites as they wish. For example, it sends search engine product feeds in Russia to Yandex and to Google in the U.S.
With its old platform, Quiksilver had to request changes by the vendor, and it was time-consuming and expensive to make even a simple change, says Nicolas Foulet, senior vice president of global digital for Quiksilver. Quiksilver is No. 658 in the Internet Retailer 2014 Second 500 Guide.
Demandware in 2013 moved its 60 sites across Europe onto Demandware and says sales increased 65% that year compared with a year earlier.
“To succeed in today’s dynamic retail environment, we must prioritize the customer shopping experience,” says Foulet. “Demandware enables us to deliver a highly branded and integrated content and commerce experience that is contributing to the growth of our online sales.”
The e-commerce sites that have moved to Demandware use responsive design. That means they are designed with one set of code that changes the way a site is displayed based on the screen size on the device the visitor is using. The re-launched sites offer detailed product information and reviews, rich images, and videos. The Quiksilver and Roxy sites feature blogs that highlight surf and snow stories, how-tos, and tips with action images and videos. They also provide quick links to purchase products and allow consumers to shop by categories, such as activity or collection.
“We’ve seen a big improvement in terms of fast progression to make changes,” Foulet says. “We can easily change the look of the home page, of the navigation menus and product descriptions. Before, it was slower and expensive. We had to put in a request for a change and it could take one to two weeks because we weren’t the only customer. Now we are very agile, we can make a change today and it will be live tomorrow.”
With the move, Foulet says Quiksilver has also shifted its internal I.T. team responsibilities. Before the Demandware switch, technology staffers’ main duty was to make sure the servers were running and the site was loading fast and working properly. Now, he has replaced that staff with developers and designers who brainstorm ideas and make changes to improve the user interface and look and feel of the site.
“We now can spend our time concentrating more on the user experience,” Foulet says. He says the team recently decided to create a rotating social media carousel that includes a feed of posts such as videos and photos from the brand and its followers on social networks that link to products featured or mentioned in the post. The team was able to make the change in one night and it is slated to go live on the site shortly.