Laura Ashley looking to boost online experience

Home furnishings, fashion and furniture retailer Laura Ashley has selected Oracle Commerce Cloud to enhance its online customer experience.

Laura Ashley tasked Oracle to create a seamless, integrated customer experiences across traditional and digital channels as well as to enhance its inventory management to “meet growing demand for custom, one-of-a-kind goods online”.

The retailer sells custom furniture, home accessories, decorating and fashion products in stores throughout the UK, Ireland and France and franchisees in 29 territories globally, and this move to team up with Oracle is about managing the complexity of its made-to-order products, which it adds there are more than one million combinations.

"Customers can see our products and customise them in store, but a growing number want the option to buy customised items online as well and this was adding significant complexity to our business," said Colin Rice, chief information officer, Laura Ashley in a statement. "With Oracle Commerce Cloud, we have been able to streamline business processes and capitalise 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.”

Using Oracle Commerce Cloud, Laura Ashley has redesigned and internationalise its website so each territory can customise its online storefront, meaning enhanced flexibility to control the front end of its websites and deliver personalised experiences at scale and build on its rapidly expanding online business, which has grown 23 percent in the last three years.

Dusan Rnic, regional vice president, Oracle Retail, added: “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.

"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.”

Image: screenshot of LauraAshley.com