CASE STUDY
L’OCCITANE UPDATES RETAIL IT TO MANAGE INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION
L’Occitane, a worldwide brand specialising in pure and natural cosmetics and perfumes, is using Yourcegid Retail software to boost its international expansion and manage its network of stores worldwide
T
oday, more than 1,000 stores in more than 25 countries are equipped with
Yourcegid Retail, the cloud-based retail management system from provider Cegid. The system allows L’Occitane to improve the management of its retail activities, improving merchandising, sales and customer relationship management, as well as unifying the group’s retail processes into a single core model. Founded in 1976, in the town of
Manosque in the Provence region of southeastern France, L’Occitane developed expertise manufacturing cosmetics and wellness products using time-honoured ingredients. Its products are marketed under four brands: L’Occitane en Provence, Melvita, Le Couvent des Minimes and Erborian. Since the beginning of the 1990s, when its international expansion took off, L’Occitane has seen spectacular growth, particularly in Asia. More than 90% of L’Occitane’s sales (€1.04 billion in 2012/13) come from outside France and its retail network is continuing to expand, with more than 2,500 boutiques
50 Spring/Summer 2014
in total (including owned stores and concessions) in approximately 100 countries. To support this rapid expansion,
L’Occitane needed an international technology partner and an end-to-end management solution. In 2010, after studying the solutions available on the market, L’Occitane chose Yourcegid Retail. “Cegid’s international experience and
industry-specific expertise ensured that the solution would be implemented on a large scale across the globe in a secure, well-organised fashion,” said Etienne de Verdelhan, L’Occitane Group process optimisation vice president and chief information officer (CIO). He recalled having been won over by the robust functionality in Yourcegid Retail, as well as by Cegid’s ability to offer retail specific innovations, such as customer relationship management (CRM), omnichannel integration, optimised replenishment and instore mobility. Given L’Occitane’s international
presence, large-scale deployment was required, with real-time access to centralised
servers in each region – Asia-Pacific, Japan, North and South America and Europe – challenging both Cegid’s subsidiaries and local partners. “We had to automate the processes to keep to L’Occitane’s tight deployment schedule,” recalled Sylvain Jauze, director of international operations at Cegid. Beginning in Australia in 2010, Cegid
equipped 35 stores over three months. Then, Yourcegid Retail was deployed in 350 Asian stores (Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Thailand, etc.). In Japan alone, Cegid equipped more than 100 stores with a localised version of the system. In the next step, it was deployed in more than 250 stores in North America. “We finished with 350 stores in Europe,
including 220 stores in eight countries in just one night!” explained de Verdelhan. Although priority was given to L’Occitane’s company-owned stores, over the long term, all its sales outlets will be connected to the new IT system. It is also being deployed in Taiwan, Korea and Brazil, and in the near future, it will be deployed in more countries
www.retailtechnology.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60