What does your company do?
Greenlight Commerce is a growth architect; a systems integrator taking off-the-shelf platforms and making them work for retailers and their individual digital growth strategies. Since Greenlight Commerce is a certified solutions partners for Demandware and SAP Hybris, its customers can be secure in the knowledge that they’ve chosen an expert in those platforms and the ecosystems that surround them.
What’s your USP?
Technology is very important as an enabler of digital growth but Greenlight Commerce sees its role as more than configuring a solution. It believes that revenue matters, and knowing that a retail client has certain revenue targets, the company ensures that ecommerce can achieve the return that’s been promised to the board.
This can be achieved by increasing revenue while reducing cost through automation and making processes easy and cost effective when it comes time for the retailer to trade the site themselves.
Using the analogy of an iceberg, with one part that’s seen above the waterline and the larger portion below, Greenlight works with retailers in two ways to achieve digital growth returns. Firstly, as part of the wider Greenlight Group, the company has emerged from a digital agency background so understands how ecommerce platforms needs to operate, what can be automated and factors such as how digital marketing could be delivered and run and the control mechanisms that need to be put in place. By partnering with best-in-breed solutions providers it ensures that all the tools are in place to allow retailers to easily trade on the new platform from day one rather than having to go back to them with extra work once the platform is live.
“Have you promised your board double digital growth but have no idea how to achieve it? You need to talk to a digital architect like us.”
It’s one thing for shoppers to be able to find the right products to purchase on an ecommerce site but they also need to be delivered. As the larger part of the iceberg is below the water so effective operations form a large and important part of the retail organisation. Greenlight Commerce works with retail clients to understand their business processes while matching the platform operations to work for functions from loading prices, managing customers and returns refunds.
How would you describe your vision?
Greenlight Commerce sees partnering with retailers as a win/win scenario in which it is very honest and doesn’t automatically say yes to everything that clients ask for. The company is an expert in the platforms and solutions it works with and has experience built up over many years from different retail projects so will share lessons that have been learnt around best practice – and worst case scenarios.
Transparency is key – why say it’s easy and cheap when a replatforming process is going to be hard. Greenlight Commerce is there to hold the client’s hand throughout the project. Having a partnership requires both parties to be very open so Greenlight can get to the core of everything that’s needed of a project and the roadmap to success and the client understands the stepping stones, contingencies, and timings.
Who are your customers?
The majority of Greenlight Commerce’s customers are based in the UK but many have a global reach. RB, whose brands range from Dettol and Air Wick to Scholl and Durex, has operations in 60 countries and websites in many countries from India to the US. Other customers include Liberty, Furniture Village and Maplin.
What do you see as future challenges for the retail industry?
Over the next couple of years, retailers will have challenges with both front and back-end systems and operations. At the front-end, much has been said about personalisation and big data but many retailers haven’t been able to do much about them. Relevancy and context will really come to the fore over the next 18 to 24 months as ecommerce systems are put in place to provide for this retailer and customer need.
Customers want to be engaged in a relevant manner regardless of where they are on their path to purchase and whichever device or channel they are using – be that in store, online, on a tablet, smartphone or watch. We’re seeing the evolution from multichannel or omnichannel to simply commerce.
On the reverse side, it’s about delivery and fulfilment. Retailers need to offer the full experience to the customer and those customers expect more now around how and where they take delivery of their purchases, be that a one-hour delivery or white glove experience. The fact that the customer isn’t standing in store shouldn’t be a barrier to getting their purchase immediately.
There is a lot of work to be done automating processes wherever possible so that everything from credit checking to final delivery scheduling results in the right next steps for efficient operations. Ultimately, this will provide the experience that customers expect.
How are you prepared to meet those challenges?
Greenlight Commerce doesn’t work with every single platform. It has chosen to specialise as a SAP Hybris and Demandware solutions provider so really understands these platforms and the ecosystems of best-in-breed solutions that surround them. It understands how they work today and the roadmaps for future development so by understanding each client’s requirements and their digital roadmap for the next 3 – 5 years they can be matched to the best solutions for their growth strategy. With Greenlight it’s not just implementation, the company takes the leading technology, applies creativity and a deep understanding of each client’s business to create a platform for growth with the best ROI.
Greenlight Commerce is part of the Greenlight group of companies that include Greenlight Digital, OneHydra and Greenlight Power. For further information visit www.greenlightcommerce.com or contact us at info@greenlightcommerce.com.
