Terranova enters new markets with an international online store

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Well- known for its fresh and sunny image, Terranova is a leading Italian clothes brand, selling easy-to-wear and affordable clothing, primarily to a young adult market. The brand owns franchised stores across 37 countries and opens new stores using a ‘licensing on consignment’ franchising formula. Terranova is part ofTeddy SpA, one of the leading European fashion groups, which has over 550 flagship stores worldwide and achieved a turnover of €341 million in 2010.

Plans for expansion
In line with plans to extend the Terranova brand to all European countries, Terranova was looking to target the remaining European nations in which the brand had very few or no retail franchises. In particular, Terranova wanted to increase its commercial presence in the Northern European market.

“We knew that many of the consumers in our target countries were very accustomed to making online purchases,” said Alessandro Casaccia, Terranova E-store Manager, Teddy SpA. “To expand into these countries, we decided to open an online store that would enable consumers to purchase Terranova products, even in markets where there are currently no Trinova franchises.”

Furthermore, to keep pace with competitors, it was also essential that Terranova should create an online store that would meet the needs of consumers in its more well-established markets.

“In the countries in which we already had a large number of franchises, our principal challenge was to create a synergy between our online and offline stores,” said Casaccia. “We wanted to ensure that greater online traffic would also create more traffic in our offline stores, thereby strengthening our core business.”

Terranova required a solution that would enable the creation and easy management of a unified, cross-European business-to-consumer (B2C) online store, enabling the purchase of products in multiple languages using multiple currencies.

The WebSphere solution
To create a high volume B2C platform, Terranova worked with Teddy Group’s service partner Titantex and IBM Business Partner Tecla.it to implement IBM WebSphere Commerce.

Teddy Group had previously used WebSphere Commerce to create an online business-to-business (B2B) wholesale store for the group’s ‘Rinascimento’ brand. “Our previous experience with WebSphere convinced us that WebSphere Commerce would provide the right solution for the Terranova online store,” said Casaccia.

Terranova also drew upon the expertise of IBM business partner Tecla.it. “Tecla.it was the natural choice for us,” said Casaccia. “Teddy Group and Tecla.it have worked together for many years, and Tecla.it is an industry-leader in the delivery of WebSphere Commerce.”

Before launching the online site, Terranova worked with Tecla.it to create a test site with a limited number of trial users, which ran for a period of three months. This test period enabled Terranova to trial the customer order process and tailor WebSphere Commerce functionalities to meet its exact requirements. Tecla.it also ran a series of training sessions to educate Terranova staff on the full range of functionalities available with the solution.

“With WebSphere Commerce there’s always more to learn, but we’ve really benefited from high-quality training from Tecla.it,” comments Yigit Aktekin, Web Prophet, Teddy SpA.

WebSphere Commerce has been integrated with Terranova’s in-house ERP system to facilitate the management of customer orders and delivery of purchased items. The solution provides catalogue display and order capture functionality, while the ERP system performs inventory management to ensure that the required item is in stock before processing the order. Once the item is shipped, the registered consumer is able to check the order status via the WebSphere-powered online store.

“In marketing terms, WebSphere Commerce is a highly flexible and adaptable solution, which makes it ideally suited to meet Terranova’s needs,” said Carlo Visani, President, Tecla.it. “Terranova’s online store will serve a high number of key markets with diverse marketing campaigns. WebSphere Commerce’s advanced functionalities enable Terranova to tailor country-specific marketing campaigns, giving consumers in each different country a personalised online shopping experience.”

www.terranovastyle.com
WebSphere Commerce has enabled Terranova to roll out its new online store in six European countries and take orders in three different currencies. Consumers in Italy, Germany, UK, Czech Republic, France and Spain are now able to keep up-to-date with weekly new arrivals to Terranova collections, and can purchase women’s and men’s clothing items and accessories directly online via the website: www.terranovastyle.com. Plans are underway to extend the store to an additional twenty countries and to deliver it to consumers in additional languages, including French and German.

In Italy, Terranova has introduced an innovative program allowing customers to reserve items online and then purchase them later at a Terranova franchise. “It’s still early days, but indications show that the reservations offering will be a success, since customers who reserve items online often tend to purchase additional items in-store,” said Aktekin. “The program also helps us achieve our goal of establishing a strong connection between our online and offline stores.”

Future growth
Terranova’s online store has succeeded in giving the brand exposure to consumers in markets in which there are no or very few Terranova franchises. “Our projections are that eventually 2-3 percent of Teddy Group’s annual turnover will be generated by online sales in markets where we have no offline stores,” said Casaccia.

“The official Terranova website had over one million single visits in 2010,” said Casaccia. “We’re hoping to double this figure with the opening of the new online shop. Overall, IBM WebSphere Commerce has given us a very solid foundation to realise our plans for future European growth.”