Wacoal
A Luxurious Fitting Experience for Wacoal
What if...we could help a luxury brand expand from B2B to B2C sales channels to boost revenue and continue to thrive even during a global pandemic?
Wacoal is a manufacturer of women's lingerie and underwear, founded in 1949 in Japan. The company has divisions in North America and Europe, and manufactures the brands Wacoal, b. tempt'd, Elomi, Eveden, Fantasie, Freya, Lively, and Goddess.
Challenge + Opportunity
Partnering for Support
Our relationship with Wacoal began nearly a decade ago when the brand recognized an opportunity to expand its sales channels. It's estimated that 80% of women are wearing the wrong size bra, and it's Wacoal's mission to guarantee the comfort, style, and perfect fit for its customers.
To do so, the company historically operated via a wholesale model, selling through luxury department stores to enable Wacoal consultants to help customers find the "perfect fit" in store. However, as other intimate apparel manufacturers began expanding to sell direct to consumer, Wacoal recognized a unique opportunity to build new business channels.
Wacoal needed a partner with the technical expertise to implement a B2C platform built for scalability and future growth, and the ecommerce business savvy to guide the company in launching and growing a brand new B2C business.
solution highlights
Taking Luxury Online
Wacoal began its ecommerce journey when we implemented HCL Commerce using our proprietary Store In A Box (SIAB) starter accelerator. SIAB provided best-practice ecommerce features and capabilities that allowed Wacoal to get started quickly and accelerate its time to market.
As the company's B2C business began to grow, we continued to provide managed support services and ongoing development services to improve and add new features and functionality.
Over the next few years, Wacoal's direct ecommerce business grew to make up 20% of the company's revenue.
Solution highlights
No Such Thing As a One-Size-Fits-All Solution
When Wacoal made the decision to expand its business into Canada, our strong relationship with company leadership and history as a trusted advisor positioned us to be the best partner to help upgrade Wacoal's commerce platform to the new WebSphere Commerce V8.
We worked with Wacoal's CIO to put prepare a comprehensive value/benefit presentation to justify and position this upgrade as the best path forward for the company.
The project was not just a technology upgrade, as it meant moving Wacoal off SIAB and building a brand-new storefront on WebSphere Commerce Aurora. This would provide Wacoal with additional functionality and flexibility, allowing the brand to rethink and redesign the website to modernize and improve its customer experience.
It was a major undertaking to conduct these transitions in tandem, but it also provided new opportunities to help Wacoal:
- Expand to new payment providers, such as PayPal and Apple Pay
- Explore new email providers with more extensive capabilities
- Continue to maintain and grow the features of the overall site
- Build and launch a retail site for the Canadian market
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Survival of the Best Fit
Every business was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and many companies faced supply chain disruptions and struggled to fulfill orders.
Prior to the pandemic, Wacoal's business was comprised of 80% wholesale and 20% online retail, but when physical stores had to shut down in-person shopping, the wholesale business disappeared and Wacoal's B2C channels became the only ones open for business.
The pandemic bred uncertainty in the retail world. Wacoal, the leading lingerie brand, recognized a need for an innovative solution to continue delivering its trusted in-person bra fittings to customers who could no longer shop in store.
To achieve this, the company asked us to create a digital experience that could replicate an in-person consultant "fitting." We conducted thorough customer research, experience mapping, design, prototyping, and development and applied it all to create the entire mybraFit™ experience from name to logo to design. The AI-powered app was created for both web and mobile applications and allows Wacoal customers to answer four "fit" questions, scan their body, and receive personalized product recommendations within minutes.
solution highlights
An Innovative Virtual Fitting Experience
MybraFit filled the in-store gap and created a more meaningful relationship between Wacoal and its customers.
Wacoal's online orders exploded, and the business recognized record sales every day for six months, surpassing even peak holiday levels. With the future of brick-and-mortar retail uncertain, Wacoal is evolving its business model, restructuring it to focus on digital commerce. The company wants to shift more of its business to the digital channel, with a five-year goal of tripling revenues.
As the company continues on its digital journey, Perficient will be a trusted advisor and partner, helping Wacoal:
- Upgrade HCL Commerce to Version 9 and transition the system to a cloud-based environment
- Build a roadmap to choose and implement new technologies that improve customer relationships and purchasing experiences
- Expand online shopping experiences
At Wacoal, we pride ourselves on being trusted by women for fit, quality, and comfort. Without brick-and-mortar locations, we saw an opportunity to bring the traditional in-person fitting experience to the digital world. The mybraFit™ app is a transformative solution that brings ease to the fit experience, delivering a tailored size assessment within a matter of minutes.Miryha Fantegrossi, Vice President of Merchandising and Design, Wacoal America
Results
key benefits
Measured Results With a Lasting Impact
Since launch, Wacoal's retail site has seen steady growth with revenues doubling year over year. By continuing to commit to and invest in its digital channel over the years, Wacoal was uniquely positioned to survive the financial disruption of COVID-19 that many of its competitors are still struggling to overcome.
