Laura Ashley, an international lifestyle retailer, has selected Oracle Commerce Cloud to support its growing global online business. With Oracle Commerce Cloud, Laura Ashley is able to create seamless, integrated customer experiences across traditional and digital channels and enhance inventory management to meet growing demand for custom, one-of-a-kind goods online.
Laura Ashley sells custom furniture, home accessories, decorating and fashion products in stores throughout the UK, Ireland and France and franchisees in 29 territories globally. To further extend its growing online business, Laura Ashley began selling custom products online in 2001. With over one million combinations of made-to-order products at any given time, Laura Ashley needed more control over its online store to seamlessly deliver custom products to customers across the world. To manage this complexity and ensure it could deliver the best possible customer experience, Laura Ashley selected Oracle Commerce Cloud.
“Customers can see our products and customize them in store, but a growing number want the option to buy customized items online as well and this was adding significant complexity to our business,” said Colin Rice, chief information officer, Laura Ashley. “With Oracle Commerce Cloud, we have been able to streamline business processes and capitalize on the opportunity to sell custom goods online globally. Oracle Commerce Cloud was the only platform that could accommodate our needs and still give us room to grow.”
With Oracle Commerce Cloud, Laura Ashley has been able to redesign and internationalize its website so each territory can customize its online storefront. By enabling Laura Ashley to seamlessly integrate its inventory system and commerce platform, Oracle Commerce Cloud has provided a flexible platform that allows the company to control its front end, deliver personalized experiences at scale and build on its rapidly expanding online business, which has grown 23% percent in the last three years.
“In our 2018 consumer research study The New Topography of Retail, we discovered that 62 percent of European consumers declared a fast and responsive online experience as a top priority for their brand experience. Laura Ashley was looking for a commerce platform that gave its team the control and creativity to update the look and feel of its online store so it could continue to delight consumers with a seamless shopping experience,” said Dusan Rnic, regional vice president, Oracle Retail. “With the help of Oracle Commerce Cloud, Laura Ashley now owns its front-end experience and has been able to reduce management costs and the time it takes to deploy changes.”
Oracle Commerce Cloud is part of Oracle Customer Experience (CX) Cloud, which empowers organizations to take a smarter approach to customer experience management and business transformation initiatives. By providing a trusted business platform that connects data, experiences and outcomes, Oracle CX Cloud Suite helps customers reduce IT complexity, deliver innovative customer experiences and achieve predictable and tangible business results.