Reducing onlinecart abandonmentand improving

customer satisfaction

for a national retailer

Client Success Story

Retail Industry Business Risk Services

CHALLENGE

Helping a retailer keep pace with technology

This U.S. specialty retailer had a growing presence with online shoppers, but their infrastructure wasn’t keeping pace. As their web traffic grew by volume and geo-graphic coverage, their customers increasingly experi-enced slow page loads which translated to frustrated shoppers and high cart abandonment rates.

Their brand reputation, customer retention, and revenue were all at risk. They knew they had to do something about it — which is where Essextec, an IBM Premier Business Partner, entered the picture in 2009.

“Any company is going to experience these issues if they are conducting business online,” states Todd Murray, Account Manager at Essextec. “At the time, this client was considering deploying multiple data centers and increasing their infrastructure to support their grow-ing web presence. But that would have meant a signifi-cant investment for them.”

In addition, as networks became faster and smart-phones and tablets led to higher expectations on the part of the consumer, the client was looking to keep its capability up to date for mobile, smartphone, and tablet users.

Smart Partners: Essextec, IBM, and Akamai

Knowing the situation and the stakes involved for his client, Todd consulted with IBM, with whom Essextec is a Premier Business Partner. He shared the retailer’s need to deploy a solution to support a growing web and mobile customer base. The two solution provid-ers discussed a possible cloud-based alternative and agreed that Akamai would be the perfect fit. Akamai is a leading cloud platform that provides secure, high per-forming user experiences on any device, anywhere. It is one of most respected and widely used platforms to support shopping, music downloads, video, and remote work connections.

A solution was about to take shape.

“Any company is going to experience issues

if they are conducting business online.” - Todd Murray, Account Manager at Essextec

It all starts with collaboration.OVERVIEW

National specialty clothing retailer

In business since 1950, this national retailer has 300 stores in the U.S. and a strong online presence. Fashion industry styles were not the only trends this company needed to stay ahead of; they also needed to keep up with the latest technology solutions and provide their customers with the best possible shopping experience.

CLIENT SUCCESS STORY: RETAIL INDUSTRY BUSINESS RISK SERVICES

SOLUTION

The team takes action

Todd assembled a team from Essextec’s Business Risk Services practice, which delivers Cloud Managed Services as part of its specialty. The Business Risk experts worked with their colleagues at IBM to develop a solution based on Akamai’s Dynamic Site Accelerator — tapping into the global Akamai network of over 30,000 secured servers — to deliver the fastest connection and site experience.

Dynamic Site Accelerator delivers a rich, personalized web experience and can increase a site’s speed by five times its original performance. It ensures the delivery of all the technical elements critical to successful online brands: dynamic content, speed, reliable performance, and high security.

According to Todd, Essextec conferred with IBM and Akamai to explore the best way to make the client’s web user experience better and faster. Essextec worked with the IBM Managed Services team to propose an IBM/Akamai solution as an alternative to a multiple data center style approach. Everything was tied to the Akamai cloud solution.

The beauty of the Akamai solution is that there are no agents that go on the servers. In fact, there’s no additional hardware required at all. Akamai scours the public Internet across all of the different providers and geographies to find the fastest way to get from A to B for web users.

“When you’re on the Internet, if you don’t have a service such as Akamai, you’re basically zig-zagging back and forth, with no direct path. This can slow website performance considerably.” explains Todd. “This can lead to not only frustrated users, but increased online shopping cart abandonment.”

RESULTS

Reduced cart abandonment

The client was able to leverage the IBM/Akamai solution to create a better user experience for its growing online retail sales. They were able to reduce customer cart abandonment and increase global online sales without having to invest in costly infrastructure and data center space. They also increased a favorable brand experience.

In fact, since implementation, the retailer has seen their website performance accelerated by an estimated 175%.

But an optimized shopping experience didn’t end at the desktop. Many factors affect a consumer’s online shopping experience including: device type, location, and software. Plus, faster networks and smartphones have led to high expectations by users. With the explosion of smartphone and tablet usage for shopping, this Essextec client was looking to keep its capability up to date.

In 2011, Essextec again partnered with IBM and Akamai to leverage Akamai’s Aqua Ion Mobile solution — which optimizes the end user experience on today’s latest web browsing consumer devices.

Aqua Ion Mobile is designed to provide optimal mobile web or connected native application experiences. It delivers real-time optimization and useful information about user requests — which benefits retailers through improved site performance, simpler user experience, happier customers, and greater brand loyalty.

“Aqua automatically detects whether the user is on a laptop or wireless device and provides the same benefits in terms of user experience,” states Todd. “Our client can accommodate wireless users with this cloud based solution without having to invest in infrastructure.

Optimum web performance. Seamless brand experience across devices. Satisfied and loyal customers. When the right team comes together, big things can happen.

The retailer has seen their website performanceaccelerated by an estimated 175%

CLIENT SUCCESS STORY: RETAIL INDUSTRY BUSINESS RISK SERVICES

Dynamic Infrastructure l Data Management / Analytics l Business Risk Serviceswww.essextec.com

Learn more about our solutions and how we are helping businesses such as this national retailer.

Visit essextec.com or call our main office at 1-888-519-1518 to learn more or to schedule a consultation.

OUR CUSTOMERS’ SUCCESS IS OUR SUCCESS

Businesses of all sizes and across all industries are discovering the growing impor-tance of connecting IT strategies and solutions with overall business goals and op-portunities. It’s critical that the technology environment be dynamic, scalable, highly available, and secure. Businesses must also ensure the integrity of their data, manage compliance mandates, and continually do more with less.

Our decades of experience, along with our broad portfolio of technology solutions and services, give you the confidence you need to thrive amid today’s business de-mands. With technology constantly evolving, our consultants and certified technical experts stay on top of the latest advances to make sure you can remain competitive. We work with the most respected minds in the technology industry to offer a com-plete portfolio of solutions. We can help you navigate the ever-increasing demands of your business and the technology that powers it — whether your current challenge is:

> Improving website performance and speed

> Managing and protecting your mobile consumers and workforce

> Harnessing your data for sharper, more relevant insights

> Managing governance and regulatory compliance mandates

> Mitigating company-wide risk

> Virtualizing and reducing cost

No matter what your current technology challenge, we can help.