Glasses Direct chooses hybris PCM

September 7, 2010

Inline prescription eyewear store investment builds expanded multichannel strategy

Glasses Direct, the world’s largest online prescription eyewear store, has awarded multichannel commerce software vendor, hybris, a contract to supply its hybris Product Content Management (PCM) solution, previously known as Product Information Management, to underpin its new e-commerce strategy.

With expanding sales and a product information management system that was struggling to keep up and support the business, Glasses Direct needed a new PCM system to support a complete revamp of its multichannel sales infrastructure and strategy.

Matthew Pontefract, chief technology officer of Glasses Direct, said: “Our bespoke PCM solution was in many ways holding our business back, it was slow to set-up with new processes and data. In addition, publishing data across our various channels such as catalogue, website and telesales was cumbersome and time intensive, especially given an expanding and fast changing inventory.

In line with vision for growth

“We chose hybris because its PCM solution covered all the bases in terms of where and how we needed to publish data, as well as its ability to scale and integrate with our plans for growth. Other solutions we looked at came from a print background and we didn’t feel they had hybris’ depth of expertise in providing a truly multichannel PCM solution.”

The solution will be implemented by one of hybris’ Platinum UK partners, Portaltech, and will go live in at the end of 2010 as part of the launch of Glasses Direct’s new website.

Speaking about the new contract, Ariel Luedi, chief executive of hybris, said: “Having built our reputation in the PCM space, we are delighted that a leading UK eTailer such as Glasses Direct has chosen our PCM solution. The issue of easy and correct publishing of data is still a huge concern for many businesses, and having a ‘single source of truth’ is something only a market leading solution such as ours can bring to help support an integrated multichannel strategy.”