Brown Thomas goes online and mobile
By Retail Technology | Thursday October 17 2013
Premier Irish lifestyle and fashion store goes multichannel and selects e-commerce platform experts to launch very first online and mobile commerce offering
Brown Thomas, a premier lifestyle and fashion store chain in Ireland and part of the privately owned Selfridges Group, has chosen e-commerce technology specialists Venda and Onstate to launch its first online and mobile commerce sites.
Venda’s platform and Onstate’s expertise will enable Brown Thomas to extend its range of luxury products online and on mobile for the first time. The new website will replace the existing non-transactional site in November and will offer Brown Thomas’s wide range of beauty products, with accessories, fashion, and footwear to follow in the next year.
Translating brand experience online
The addition of e-commerce and m-commerce offerings will also enable consumers to purchase from Brown Thomas’s wide range of luxury brands, with next day delivery across Ireland and access to loyalty schemes. Consumers will also be able to enjoy the high level of customer service and luxury experience they have come to expect in-store through these new channels.
Sam Bain, multichannel director at Brown Thomas, said: “At Brown Thomas we are at the beginning of our multichannel journey, as such we were looking for partners with the right experience and capabilities."
Scalability and performance key
Bain added: "In Venda and Onstate we have found businesses that have fantastic experience with luxury and fashion brands, with a SaaS [software-as-a-service] proposition that provides scalability from a standing start and cost-effectiveness. The strength of the uptime performance of Venda’s platform was also an important factor in our decision, as it takes the pressure off our team and means they can focus on creating great content for our customers.
“Consumers no longer see mobile as simply an add-on anymore, so Venda’s responsive web design capability will ensure our customers have a great experience on their phone or tablet, just as they would online or instore. This will allow us not just to add an e-commerce platform, but to become a truly multichannel luxury retailer.”
