Benetton Case Study
Movable Type allows Benetton Japan to React Faster to a Changing Marketplace
Using a blog-based eCommerce system, Benetton Japan can react to market changes faster than ever and manage sales items with greater flexibility.
Business Challenge: Renew eCommerce site to permit quicker updates, greater content control, and more flexibility in managing specific sales items.
Results: By using a blog as a simple CMS tool, Benetton Japan:
- Controls their own content, permitting much quicker updates and responses to changing conditions
- Manages short cycle sales items with greater flexibility
- Quickly and easily updates the homepage very frequently to change and test the way items are highlighted - and to keep content looking fresh
- Provides a more personal customer experience in an impersonal online medium
For more information, visit: Benetton Japan
Customer Profile
"We just started using Movable Type as our eCommerce blog in January 2007, but we're already seeing a significant difference." -Koburi Shinichi, Manager Benetton Japan Online Mobile
Benetton Japan, a division of the global apparel giant, Benetton Group, started an eCommerce site in 2002 to showcase - and sell online - its iconic clothing for men, women, and children. In January 2007, the unique challenges and demands of the online market required Benetton Japan to revamp their entire shopping site (www.benetton.jp).
The Challenge
The fashion industry is always changing. New styles and trends arrive nonstop from virtually anywhere in the world. Weather and economics affect sales daily. The Internet has opened up new possibilities - and new challenges - undreamed of just a few years ago. To stay ahead of every curve, Benetton Japan needed an eCommerce solution that could change as quickly as the environment demanded.
Mr. Kobori Shinichi, manager of Benetton Japan's Online Mobile department, says:
"Because fashion has a very fast turnover rate, an online shopping site must be able change quickly. In the past, we had to contact the company responsible for managing our website. Sometimes, it would take a week from contacting them to getting updates reflected."
The Solution
Benetton JP knew that speed and flexibility was essential to their online efforts. Upon researching other eCommerce sites, they realized that what they wanted to do was possible with a blog. They chose Movable Type because it would integrate well with their shopping cart system.
By using Movable Type, Benetton Japan was no longer tied to a website management company to make changes to their site. Instead, they could now internally control the content, resulting in immediate site updates, allowing them to more effectively manage short cycle sales items and ,change and test the way they highlight items, and more effectively present their merchandise to customers.
Mr. Shinichi notes, "We know that our customers view and purchase items highlighted on the homepage, so (with Movable Type) we can now update the homepage very frequently. It's important to keep updating the blog to create a (connection with) our leadership or to keep content looking fresh. If we were still using a third party to update our site, this would not be possible."
Blogging a better customer experience
When customers buy clothes at a store, they get to feel the material, try it on, and judge whether they want to purchase it. This is not possible for online purchasing. How do companies compensate for this disadvantage?
Mr. Kobori says, "(With blogs) we can add information like store employees describing the material, suggesting how to coordinate the clothes, or telling how to match patterns. We also plan to use the blog to share the personal opinions of our store employees."
