Harry Rosen brings its personalized in-store experience online

 Harry Rosen brings its personalized in-store experience online

Can a high-end retailer deliver a digital customer experience that matches the personalized service known to be in-store? Can a decade old company go through digital transformation and is it true who they are?

Harry Rosen did just that, with the help of IBM Cloud and Kubernetes.

Founded in 1954, the high-grade Canadian men's clothing retailer is known for its personal experience with expertly trained clothing consultants. “Our consultants are not salespeople. Our consultants are experience producers, ”says Steve Warriner, Harry Rosen's CTO. “They know everything about our products and about our customers. We have invested in a CRM that allows us to meet the needs of our customers.

The founder's grandson, Ian Rosen, has been the driving force behind the move to digitally transform the business. About five years ago, he began to move towards IBM Cloud, moving his marketing analytics database to target the right customers with the right marketing campaigns. He quickly realized the benefits of being in the cloud; With the click of a button, they can spin a new server as needed. So when their legacy systems needed a refresh, they moved away from purchasing new hardware to use IBM Cloud. The plan was to modernize their apps and re-platform their e-commerce site - but then the COVID-19 epidemic hit.

Website traffic increased, but they could not support it. The site was very slow and payment was not always running. At the same time, COVID changed consumer buying behavior - there was more demand for sportswear (and deep discounts) than expensive suits. Ian Rosen decided to fast-track his DX plans to one-year development in six months. “The heartbeat of our e-commerce platform sits in the IBM cloud. We cannot place demands on our CRM, so we started using containers for various microservices within CRM using Kubernetes. As per the demand, we were able to add more containers, ”says Warriner. "As a result, the speed of our website has increased at least 100 times."

The site features extensive advanced search capabilities and, thanks to upgrades to the warehouse management system, can trigger inventory updates in seconds. But Harry Rosen still offers personalization: his new advisory app called Herringbone, which resides on IBM Cloud, allows advisors to create a personalized wardrobe or down laydown for a client directly within the app - what they do Can-Store copy. With the help of IBM, Harry Rosen has gone through a true digital transformation - from the warehouse to the customer's home. "We're in the customer service business," Warriner says. "Online shopping at Harryrosen.com should also be an experience and provide the same level of service that our customers expect."