Two of the most renowned brands in the Nordics – Tiger of Sweden and By Malene Birger – have taken the next step on their journey towards unified commerce with a huge rollout of Sitoo across 38 stores in six countries that was completed in less than a day.
The two premium brands – who share the same IT department and POS system – were growing increasingly frustrated with their PC-based system and wanted to find a modern solution that would help them deliver unified commerce to their customers and simplify their IT architecture.
They went live across all their 38 stores in six different countries on the same day, and this roll out was made possible by support from Sitoo and completed by the store staff themselves. Both brands are already seeing positive results.
“Our previous system was very expensive and cumbersome,” says Rod Kilgour, CIO at Tiger of Sweden. “I actually worked in one of our stores last Black Friday and the previous system was incredibly clunky to use and not intuitive at all. It’s actually not that old but it felt like it was a system built 30 years ago.”
“Anyone using the old system always had to go through so many steps to do simple things. For example, when we tried to increase our loyalty scheme membership, we had to leave one system, go into another, and it felt like there were about 50 different steps to do something that should just happen. Now, because Sitoo integrates with our customer loyalty platform Voyado straight out of the box, Voyado feels like a seamless part of the POS, and all actions involving loyalty happen seamlessly.
"Another key factor for us was finding a solution that would integrate with Salesforce Commerce Cloud which we use as our eCommerce platform."
When our negotiations began, Sitoo didn’t have a standard integration but they worked with us to develop one so it’s been a win-win for both of us.”
“In comparison with our previous POS, the interface in Sitoo is so easy to use. I actually had to return some jeans I’d bought online to a Nudie Jeans store, who are also a Sitoo customer, and the process of returning them was quick and simple. The user experience is night and day compared with traditional systems. Sitoo is fast to learn and it’s easy to pick up all of the functionality.”
As well as improving IT efficiency and simplifying the IT architecture by being cloud-native, requiring minimal customisation, and having out of the box integrations, Rod adds that Sitoo will also deliver a significant cost saving from an IT perspective.
This is echoed by Cindy Blankley, Head of IT at By Malene Birger, she says:
We were locked into a legacy system and we wanted the power for our brands to think and act in a more omnichannel way. Sitoo gives us the foundation for that.
“Things that were heavy and cumbersome before – and took lots of planning – just get done now because Sitoo is such an intuitive tool. People can easily use it and understand what to do without any training. It allows us to deliver a far more human experience in the store.
“Our frontline tech support used to get so many calls during our onboarding because people didn’t understand how to use the tech in store. These calls will be significantly reduced now when we’re using Sitoo. And, with setting up new stores, it’s a fraction of the work we previously had to do with integrating multiple systems. It saves us time and money.”
But what does this mean for the stores themselves and the customers?
Elin Ekvall, Chief Commercial Officer at By Malene Birger, explains: “Premium customers expect an even higher level of service to what they usually get. We want to build our whole ecosystem around the brand. Everything should look and feel the same wherever the brand is consumed – whether that’s our ecom platform, our retail stores or our social channels. What we had previously wasn’t a connected journey. And we had no visibility of what happened in the different channels. Our physical stores should feel like an extension of our ecom platform and vice versa. This is what Sitoo allows us to do.
"We now also have much greater visibility of our stock so we can see what’s moving, where it’s moving and react accordingly. From a customer experience it feels like a premium, super slick, seamless system and experience.”
“We’re renovating our flagship store here in Copenhagen and a key thing for us is to get rid of the cash desk. It should be a space where people want to be and enjoy spending time in. We want our physical retail spaces to be more like showrooms. It’s not just a space where you come to buy an item; it’s where you come to understand, interact with, and be inspired by the brand.”
Rod adds: “It’s a totally different experience when you walk into a store without a cumbersome cash register. There’s no sign that you’re going to be sold something so it’s all about the customer experience.”
This is the first step on the journey towards unified commerce for Tiger of Sweden and By Malene Birger with exciting plans already in place for 2021 to accelerate this journey.
