In this blog post, we'll explore how APG & Co. overcame challenges with its previous legacy platform, the benefits it reaped from adopting commercetools Composable Commerce and Frontend, and the remarkable impact it had on its business operations and customer experience.
Fashion is more than just clothing — it's a statement, a form of self-expression and a reflection of personal style. APG & Co., the powerhouse behind iconic Australian fashion brands Sportscraft, SABA and JAG, understands the essence of fashion and has been curating timeless collections for over 50 years.
However, in the ever-evolving digital landscape, APG & Co. realized the need to transform its online presence to meet the demands of today's digital-savvy consumers. This is where commercetools entered the scene, helping to reshape APG & Co.'s retail landscape and unlocking a new era of success.
Untapped potential
In the ever-evolving world of online fashion retail, agility and continuous innovation are essential for staying ahead of trends. APG & Co. found itself facing significant challenges with its previous legacy eCommerce platform that lacked the adaptability, scalability and flexibility required to thrive in the highly competitive fashion industry.
This meant missed opportunities for APG & Co., hindering its ability to explore new markets, experiment with innovative features and deliver exciting customer experiences. The limitations of the prior platform, including its closed ecosystem, slow spring cycles, high operational costs and restricted developer pool, prevented APG & Co. from proactively exploring new business ideas and features.
Development on a legacy platform was costly and unnecessarily time-consuming. This hindered our ability to experiment or adapt quickly to consumers' behaviors.
Group Head of Technology, APG & Co.
To overcome these challenges and fuel the company's desire to embrace new opportunities and stay competitive, APG & Co. selected Overdose. as its implementation partner and digital commerce agency to bring the retailer's digital vision to life. Together, they knew they needed to find a modern and flexible commerce solution, and sought a platform that would empower its business users, streamline operations and pave the way for future growth.
Embracing composable commerce
APG & Co. set out to find a modern, cloud-native solution that would provide the flexibility and scalability they desired. The company evaluated various options before discovering commercetools through a recommendation by Overdose.
The commercetools Composable Commerce platform offered the perfect tailor-made approach to match APG & Co.'s vision: Independent components — a key trait of composable commerce — and a channel-agnostic approach allowed APG & Co. to leverage best-of-breed platform services, implement a centralized product catalog for all their brands and drive incremental innovation.
When we looked at our objectives and business needs, we did not find a single platform solution that fit the bill. commercetools Composable Commerce offered a solution that met our needs, allowed continuous flexibility for future needs and gave us access to all the best-of-breed platforms for our end-users.
Group Head of Technology, APG & Co.
Additionally, it became evident that commercetools Frontend was the perfect fit for its brand managers, enabling the creation of a visual shopping experience and seamless collaboration between marketing and development teams. The ability to create and publish changes risk-free and without downtime provided marketing and development teams the freedom to work independently and in parallel. It was an easy choice for the APG & Co. team to adopt both commercetools products.
We probably wouldn't have gone headless if we hadn't found commercetools Frontend. This is the solution that makes the headless approach work for our brand managers.
Group Head of Technology, APG & Co.
The migration strategy to composable involved a clean switch, with completely new sites and underlying infrastructure built on commercetools. While managing two sites during migration posed temporary challenges, the overall process was successful, and APG & Co. experienced top wins in terms of internal testing and a smooth transition.
Trendsetting benefits and results
With the adoption of commercetools, APG & Co. experienced a remarkable transformation across various aspects of its business.
Lower total cost of ownership (TCO): commercetools enabled APG & Co. to significantly reduce its technology expenses while improving operational efficiencies. By simplifying the tech stack and carefully selecting vendors, the company achieved up to a 35% reduction in technology operating costs. The transition to commercetools also led to a substantial decrease of up to 60% in operational technical support time, freeing up resources for more strategic initiatives.
Superior customer experience: commercetools Composable Commerce empowered APG & Co.'s business users to take control and experiment with the digital storefront. Without relying on technical support, they could optimize merchandising, improve the user experience and create personalized customer journeys across all brands. The live preview functionality made the shopping experience creation tangible for marketing and eCommerce management, enabling parallel work between marketing and development teams.
Centralized platform for multi-brand agility: commercetools provided APG & Co. with a centralized platform to manage its multi-brand environment efficiently. Thanks to this efficiency, APG & Co. was able to replatform all three of its brands in Australia and New Zealand. The same platform supports all its business models, allowing the company to potentially explore new regions, launch new stores and expand its touchpoints.
Fashioning future possibilities
Although APG & Co.'s journey with commercetools is still relatively new, they have already begun to witness positive outcomes: The brand has observed reduced time to market, increased development efficiency and improved stability. With reduced costs and improved support, APG & Co. can focus on its growth strategy, explore new markets and offer an unparalleled customer experience.
Read the top tips from B2C retailers and brands about composable commerce in our white paper How to Compose Your Commerce in 2023.