Breitling takes customer experience to the next level with Fluent Order Management

The organization

Founded in 1884 by Léon Breitling in Saint-Imier, Switzerland, Breitling is a luxury brand known for its precision chronometers designed for aviators. They are one of the only watchmaking houses in the world to use movements that are officially certified as chronometers in all their models. What’s more, they are also one of the few to design and manufacture their own mechanical chronograph movements in their workshops.

Breitling distributes its products through more than 200 stores worldwide, ecommerce and wholesale. Its ecommerce business accounts for around 8% of total sales and up to 15% in key markets.

The challenge

Breitling sells through multiple channels globally. This includes their own website, stores, and through different resellers. Given each country and entity can have their own specific business rules, distribution is complex.

What’s more, at the heart of their strategy, is customer experience (CX). As a luxury brand, Breitling needs to meet the high expectations of the luxury consumer. So they continuously strive to improve their CX.

As a result, Breitling needed an order management solution that would give them precise control over order processing. One that provided the flexibility and extensibility needed to fit their specific requirements.

The solution

Breitling chose Fluent Order Management to enhance their omnichannel strategy and uplift their customer experience. Why Fluent Order Management? It provided the best solution that let them:

• See a single view of inventory across their worldwide network of locations
• Coordinate the fulfillment process from all customer touchpoints
• Configure and extend the order orchestration rules to fit their business
• Integrate seamlessly with their existing SAP ERP
• Integrate directly with existing IT environment — including a custom-developed e-commerce platform
• Support an agile and MVP rollout approach

The decision-making process was deliberately short and simple. They appointed an empowered product owner to work in close collaboration with the technical and delivery team.

The rollout

Ayata Commerce was the implementation partner chosen to deploy Fluent Order Management. Using an agile methodology and DevOps approach, the Phase 1 rollout of Switzerland took less than four months. This included the integration with their SAP ERP. Once complete, they began working on the Phase 2 requirements for the United States and Canada.

Ayata Commerce has very strong capabilities on Fluent Order Management but also a clear and practical understanding of omnichannel, e-commerce and online operations store. And the full support of the Fluent Commerce team of experts since the start of the project has helped us with the design and architecture of the solution.

Breitling

Two factors were key contributors to project success. Firstly, Breitling appointed a product owner to work closely with the project’s technical and delivery team. Secondly, they trained their store staff and actively involved them during key stages of the project. Especially the critical phase of user acceptance testing.

Results

• Phase 1 delivered in 4 months: Switzerland was rolled out in 4 months, quickly followed by the U.S. and Canada. Breitling plans to roll out this feature globally within the next 6 months.
• Increased sales by 20%: Fluent Order Management helped to increase online sales by 20% within 3 months after go live.
• Elevated customer experience: Breitling customers now have more delivery options. This includes home delivery (from the warehouse or from points of sale) and click and collect. They can also choose when they want to receive their order. Customer experience is consistent and seamless at every point of contact.

Future focused

In the near future, Breitling will extend their Fluent Order Management rollout globally. They also plan to add new storage locations, including franchise stores.