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Apr 26, 2023 | 6 minute read
written by Meg Purcell
Since its infancy in 2020, Composable Commerce has empowered brands to build and optimize commerce solutions comprised of multiple best-of-breed vendors. The beauty of taking a composable approach is being able to cater to the current needs of your business and having the flexibility to shape and mold your tech stack as the needs of your business evolve. In addition, brands see added benefits, including reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) and accelerating time-to-market.
We recently had the privilege of sitting down with our customer Vivrelle, a members-only club providing access to luxury designer handbags and accessories, to discuss their unique journey to embracing Composable Commerce. In this blog, we’ll summarize our conversation with the Vivrelle team and their digital commerce journey.
Founded in 2018, Vivrelle came onto the scene with a unique business model. Being a members-only club where members can exchange luxury accessories on a rotating basis, it follows a circular business model. While most retailers frown upon returns, Vivrelle loves them! It indicates that their members are using their services, trying out new bags, and leveraging their exclusive membership.
With a unique business model comes unique needs, and that can also come with roadblocks in finding vendors to support your requirements. When they were first starting in 2018, there wasn’t anything in the commerce market that could support their unique requirements, so they opted for a homegrown solution. The homegrown solution served the company well over the coming years, but slowly it inhibited their ability to innovate at scale. Wanting to grow the business, they started the discovery process of looking for an eCommerce vendor.
The Vivrelle team knew they wanted to work with best in-class vendors, so adopting a composable approach was a natural fit. With a composable approach they would gain the control to easily try new things and differentiate their user experience. By partnering with Elastic Path, the team has been introduced to tech partners that will enable them to innovate and continue to give the luxury experience their customers expect.
In a composable architecture, you can think of your digital commerce platform as the hub or brain of your tech stack. Being the core of powering your experience, you must find the “brain” that is right for your business. Select the wrong one, and you’ll pay for it down the road. While a daunting task, Vivrelle embraced it knowing that they were in control of their destiny and how they wanted to move forward. Ultimately, they selected Elastic Path.
Innovations like the Integrations Hub, an instant-on, no code, commerce-enabled library of integrations fully managed and hosted by Elastic Path, made selecting Elastic Path an easy decision. The Integrations Hub will enable the team to test and learn with their digital commerce experience. When asked what their favorite part of the Integrations Hub was, the team was unanimous in optionality. The team found relief knowing they could swap things in and how without risking breaking the entire system.
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When starting the replatforming project the biggest challenge the team wanted to avoid was taking on too much. While there is excitement in a big bang launch, the member experience is an essential part of their business, and it was crucial to the team that they not disrupt that. To avoid that risk, the team is opting for a phased approach.
Replatforming is no small feat, and while the Vivrelle team has had an uneventful experience it can often be fraught with challenges. When asked about what advice they would have to give to retailers on the cusp of replatforming they advise that you have a solid understanding of your list of requirements and what are just the bells and whistles.
Far down in their path to implementation, the team is set to launch this Spring. To date, the team has had a smooth implementation and with the launch date on the horizon, they’ll be surprised if any roadblocks arise. The team attributes the ease of launch to the flexibility of the solution and the teamwork from both the Elastic Path team and their system integrators, BORN Group. Feeling set up for longevity, partnership has played a pivotal role in their integration with the understanding that the partnership doesn’t end on launch date but will continue on as the business continues to evolve.
Click here to access the full fireside chat with Jeff Neil, VP of Engineering and Donna Quinlan, Head of Product at Vivrelle. Interested in learning more about how you can embrace a composable approach? Read our customer stories or reach out to a member of our team today.