Premium Beauty Retailer SkincareStore Uses NetSuite SuiteCommerce To Replace Four On-Premise Applications To Streamline B2C eCommerce, In-Store and Supply Chain Operations
Melbourne, Australia—10 October 2012—NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP software suites, today announced premium beauty retailer SkincareStore, a subsidiary of US retailer Salu Beauty, Inc (a Walgreens company) operating across Australia and New Zealand, has adopted the new NetSuite SuiteCommerce platform to unify its online and in-store retail operations in the cloud. SkincareStore now uses NetSuite SuiteCommerce to run its B2C eCommerce, in-store sales, financials, warehousing and third-party logistics (3PL), inventory management, order management, customer relationship management, marketing, affiliate program, and other core processes—all without a dedicated IT staff. NetSuite has enabled SkincareStore to streamline its business operations, while delivering a higher quality, easier shopping journey for customers who can now track their orders in real-time and move easily between shopping online or in-store for personalised, professional beauty advice.
Launched in 2007, SkincareStore is one of Australia and New Zealand's most popular high-end online retailers, offering premium products at the guaranteed lowest prices, supported by professional advice, free delivery over $50 and a 30-day no fuss return policy. It sells more than 2,200 products across cosmetics, hair care, skin care and beauty tools, from 200 premium brands including ASAP, Dermalogica, Priori, GHD, EmerginC and other quality brands, mostly online but also in its shop in Rozelle, Sydney.
"SkincareStore launched in this region because no other retailer provides the service and education customers need for premium product purchases," said James Cooper, online marketing manager at SkincareStore. "We're strongly committed to educating our customers about our products because we know that when they spend $70 or more on a serum, they want to know how to use it."
In early 2011 SkincareStore's on-premise IT infrastructure was struggling to cope with its rapid growth, and it began a year-long search for a more flexible, scalable cloud-based solution. The retailer chose NetSuite SuiteCommerce because it offered a complete cloud commerce solution to manage its entire business, including online, in-store and third party supply chain, on multiple touchpoints (such as mobile and POS systems) or online marketplaces (such as eBay) it may add in the future.
"Before NetSuite, we had four software applications for eCommerce, CRM, accounting, and warehousing and stock control, that we manually connected on almost a day to day basis—which was incredibly inefficient," added Mr Cooper. "Switching to SuiteCommerce, we immediately realised efficiency benefits by having everything in one place with, by automating many of our manual processes and by having use of NetSuite's powerful accounting system."
NetSuite's SuiteCommerce platform is at the heart of NetSuite Commerce as a Service (CaaS), and enables businesses to manage interactions with other businesses and directly with consumers via a cloud platform that delivers an enhanced customer experience, on multiple touchpoints (website, smartphone, tablet, in-store, social media site, etc.), directly on the core NetSuite ERP/CRM business management application. This technology transcends the limitations and complexity of first-generation eCommerce systems to deliver new efficiencies for merchants and a superior experience for customers. For more information about SuiteCommerce please visit www.netsuite.com.sg/suitecommerce.
Among its many capabilities, SuiteCommerce Order Management is paramount in enabling commerce transactions regardless of touchpoint or currency. The SuiteCommerce Order Management System (OMS) offers unmatched billing capabilities such as payment capture, refunds, invoiced billing, usage-based, and recurring billing to support any type of desired customer interaction for B2B and B2C environments. In addition, SuiteCommerce OMS provides a robust, rules-based workflow technology to manage the lifecycle of a transaction – order-to-fulfilment-to-payment capture-to-repurchase. It reduces fraudulent orders and the amount of time spent reviewing them by providing intelligent review and exception capabilities that will raise red flags and place a hold on orders. It provides powerful back-office technology such as warehouse management capabilities including bin and lot tracking, pick/pack/ship fulfilment process, support for multiple warehouse locations, and the intelligence to select the appropriate warehouse based on each merchant's business logic. SuiteCommerce is integrated with most major and regional carriers such as Australia Post, DHL, Startrack, Toll, and TNT, and many others, to generate real-time rates, print shipping labels, and automatically send package tracking information to shoppers. And all of these capabilities are delivered with the multi-currency and multi-tax support required to deliver seamless global commerce.
In addition to using NetSuite to run its eCommerce and backend operations, SuiteCommerce gives SkincareStore greater control over product display and merchandising, as well as providing it tools for increasing customer basket value. For instance, shoppers with $100 worth of items in their shopping cart can automatically receive a gift voucher towards additional purchases. An opt-in e-newsletter uses special offers, insider tips and new product announcements to drive repeat visitor traffic. While NetSuite's sophisticated data analytics are able to optimise and even personalise promotional offerings.
The advanced integration capabilities of SuiteCommerce have enabled SkincareStore to fully integrate NetSuite with third party partners and services, for a seamless end-to-end business operation. Integrating its website, call centre and third-party warehouse operations means shoppers can now buy items online and return them to SkincareStore's retail store. They can also call the customer helpline and be easily switched to in-store beauticians for professional advice. SkincareStore also uses the viva9 affiliate marketing network to extend its marketing reach, as well as seven price comparisons and search feed sites, including Google, NexTag, Clixgalore, Shopbot, Myshopping.com.au, Shopping.com and Get Price.
"Switching to SuiteCommerce removes the operational wrinkles of SkincareStore's previous business systems to deliver a smoother retailing experience for customer and partners," said Mark Troselj, managing director for APAC for NetSuite. "It's now positioned to continue revolutionising beauty retailing in this region as its sister brand SkinStore.com did in the US. By providing the best product, price and personalised service across multiple touchpoints, SkincareStore provides consumers with the convenient alternative they increasingly want over single-channel in-store retailers."
NetSuite partner OnlineOne led the SkincareStore SuiteCommerce implementation.
"The flexibility of the new SuiteCommerce development platform allowed us to rapidly build a complete business management solution for SkincareStore that now supports a seamless data flow from its online store to its warehouses and logistics partners and back again," said Don McLean, managing director of OnlineOne. "As SkincareStore continues to grow its market-share, this ensures real-time accuracy at every retailing stage and a high-quality experiential journey for any number of customers and partners, across any number of touchpoints. The SuiteCommerce model is the future of retailing and NetSuite has delivered a winning solution that allows more retailers to realise this."
SuiteCommerce extends NetSuite's history of innovation and leadership in cloud eCommerce. With customers processing more than 250 million online transactions and 1.8 billion page hits in 2011, NetSuite's eCommerce solution is used by thousands of e-tailers and B2B companies in numerous industries, including software, wholesale distribution and manufacturing.
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For more information about NetSuite, please visit www.netsuite.com.sg.
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