Men’s Wearhouse Adopts IBM’s Smarter Commerce

IBM and Perficient, a technology consulting firm, have teamed to work with US clothes retailer The Men’s Wearhouse to help it better engage customers and improve productivity through a Smarter Commerce approach that puts the clients’ customers at the centre of their operations.

Perficient joined IBM in sharing some of its best practices at the IBM Smarter Commerce Summit 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee, an event targeted at transforming business processes that help companies buy, market, sell and service their products and services and have better engagement with customers.

Customer engagement

As technology continues to infuse all aspects of society, many of today’s consumers have come to expect businesses to engage with them when, where and how they prefer, and they expect to receive a consistent, positive experience across all points of interaction, IBM said.

Moreover, organisations are challenged with improving operational efficiencies while focusing on their customers’ brand engagement.

As a result, Perficient is experiencing an increased demand from clients for help in applying smarter commerce strategies and technology solutions to address these business challenges.

Perficient recently partnered with The Men’s Wearhouse, a men’s dress apparel retailer in the United States, to evolve its e-commerce strategy.

The Men’s Wearhouse had long been a brick and mortar store, but recognised its customers’ growing use of digital channels during the shopping experience. To improve its competitive and customer experience, the retailer increased its online and mobile presence and is now engaging customers across all commerce channels.

“At The Men’s Wearhouse, our number one differentiator is our customer service. Our customers were online, they were mobile, and we needed to quickly transform our systems in order to provide a positive and consistent customer experience across all channels,” said Vlad Kuznetsov, chief technology officer and vice president of engineering for The Men’s Wearhouse, in a statement.

Service enhancement

“In partnership with Perficient,” Kuznetsov said, “we have successfully built a system that provides improved internal productivity and an enhanced level of service our customers have grown accustomed to, meeting them with a consistent experience at all touch points, and maintaining our brand integrity.”

The retailer’s challenge was to transition from its legacy architecture system that required customised support so it could improve productivity and reduce costs.

The company partnered with Perficient to upgrade its WebSphere Commerce platform, which effectively put the customer at the centre of its commerce strategy.

“We are in the era of the empowered customer where the customer expects a certain type of experience and engagement that essentially dictates the way products are sold, sourced and distributed,” said Sameer Peera, principal at Perficient’s National Commerce practice.

“Enterprises are becoming more conscious of the overall customer and brand experience across channels, and the challenges that lie ahead will be maintaining the balance without breaking the bank. Organisations that embark on a path to evolve their commerce strategy and infrastructure to support business agility will continue to maintain a competitive edge in this environment.”

As a result of this shift toward the empowered consumer, Perficient has experienced significant growth in its IBM Smarter Commerce practice, the company said.

Unified experience

Perficient’s commerce practice leverages and extends the capabilities of the IBM Smarter Commerce Portfolio, including WebSphere eCommerce, Sterling Order Management solution, Emptoris, Worklight, Cast Iron and Tealeaf, to deliver a unified commerce experience for its clients.

Perficient’s experts design, develop, implement and integrate secure and scalable IBM Smarter Commerce solutions that integrate with the clients’ business systems and manage business processes. Perficient creates a solution that includes a single view of customers’ buying patterns and preferences across the entire commerce continuum.

This results in the company’s clients garnering better customer insights, creating actionable analytics and delivering targeted promotions.

“The informed customer has caused forward-thinking organisations to seamlessly integrate their buying, selling, marketing and service processes in order to proactively meet a customer’s need and respond quickly to changing demands,” said Ruth Minj, Perficient’s general manager of IBM Industry Solutions, in a statement. “The right tools and technologies create increased transparency, visibility and efficiencies in an organisation’s value chain and also help them adopt new disruptive technologies like social media and mobile. Our expertise in IBM’s Smarter Commerce technologies can help clients evolve their business, leading to enhanced customer loyalty and improved business results.”

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Originally published on eWeek.