Over the past year, island-inspired brand Tommy Bahama has developed an extensive roadmap for digital growth.
A five-year plan focusing on omnichannel capabilities, international expansion and online growth led Tommy Bahama to install a new e-Commerce platform, rather than retool its legacy environment.
Tommy Bahama conducted an extensive evaluation of e-Commerce platforms and is currently building the new site on hybris, according to Lisa Atwood, SVP of e-Commerce for the retailer. Acquity Group, a hybris partner, helped the retailer throughout the implementation process.
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“Omnichannel is one of our company’s major initiatives,” Atwood said. “There is a steering team focused on defining and driving opportunities to support cross-channel programs and capabilities. We have dedicated resources to define what omnichannel means to our brand and our guests. These insights will drive our business and development priorities, which will support the evolution of our omnichannel experiences.”
The new site, which is expected to launch in 2014, will tie into a variety of the retailer’s other communication and commerce strategies. For example, the e-Commerce site will seamlessly integrate with an “endless aisle” model that empowers shoppers to order items through a self-serve kiosk if they are not available in the store. Currently in more than 100 stores, the kiosks marked the beginning of Tommy Bahama’s multichannel and omnichannel initiatives, according to Atwood.
“Because our stores have limited real estate for product, they were not able to showcase the breadth of our product offerings,” Atwood said. “The kiosk allows them the ability to showcase and sell anything, utilizing both e-Commerce and available inventory from our warehouse.”
Additional plans also have been established to help “further enhance and develop capabilities, allowing our guest to shop and engage with us in every channel and every way.”The new hybris-powered site also will integrate with an existing Adobe Experience Manager solution. As a result, Tommy Bahama will be equipped to deliver an improved, end-to-end user experience across all channels, and keep up with trends.
“Tommy Bahama has highly engaged, loyal customers who interact with us not only in a store and online, but eat in our restaurant and shop our brand at wholesale partners,” Atwood explained. “We have a very complex brand with many business initiatives that need to be supported in a new digital age. It is very important to have a solution that is capable of keeping up with leading-edge digital need and trends.”
