Fila is one of the most well-known sports brands in the world. But for the majority of its 110-year history it had only sold its products through wholesale partners.
Recently, the president of Fila North America, Jennifer Estabrook made it her mission to breathe new life into its ecommerce operations. And to do this, Fila looked towards Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
“We partner with everyone from mom-and-pop stores to regional chains and national retailers,” said Kathleen Hachmeyer, director of technological innovation at Fila. “What’s cool about our new commerce platform is that we can focus on self-service ordering while also utilizing different features and functionality to target those diverse B2B buyers.”
During the infamous year of 2020 most sports brands recorded losses and many recorded declines in the double digits. However, Fila went the opposite way and grew its revenue by almost 10%.
In order to achieve this, Fila took advantage of the flexibility and functionality of Salesforce Commerce Cloud and drove it to catch up with its partnership with retailers.
One way in which they did this was to bring simplicity to its operations. When Covid accelerated the shift to digital, Fila had no option but to follow suit. But they were in an excellent position to hone in on ecommerce.
Fila attempted to align its B2B operations with its B2C, so that it could maintain a strong relationship with its retail customers. It created a shopping experience that could provide the flexibility that B2B requires in sales, such as complex shipping functionality, custom product catalogs, and dynamic pricing.
They began working with a consultancy to build out its B2B site on Salesforce Commerce Cloud to keep the consistency and feel of Fila as well as build the ability to make changes at a quick pace without the need to code.
And it was that flexibility that drove Fila’s great digital growth. “Our average order value has increased substantially,” said Kathleen, “and I think a lot of that comes back to the flexibility the Salesforce Platform allows.
“We’ve also seen greater engagement – whether that’s order frequency or time spent on the site. Internally, we’ve seen a huge decrease in the time it takes to launch something new on the site. With our previous system, a new catalog could take weeks to actually get up running, whereas now it takes maybe a day or two.”
Optimization and engagement
With its success recently in ecommerce, Fila set the goal of selling $1 million worth of products a day. And to do that, it needed to continue to tap into the powers of Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
Both marketing and sales teams are able to view trends and run promos thanks to real-time visibility to receive heavier amounts of traffic. Through the platform, Fila are able to create segmented and personalized offers as well as recommendations anchored to the history of customer purchases and the season.
“The reporting is huge,” added Kathleen, “looking at logins, how long it takes for buyers to make a purchase, and whether or not they are driven by promotions. It’s really easy to measure and react to on the B2B side now.”
In addition, Fila streamlines its marketing by merging Salesforce with its digital asset management platform. And this means that both buyers and internal users are able to have simple access to information about products, images, and other assets – all of which help to market and promote new Fila products.
A seamless experience
With retailers navigating the changes quickly among the unpredictably and uncertainty, Fila is able to keep on rising with continued ecommerce growth.
With digital commerce, sales, and services all united behind a single platform now, Fila has a truly connected and powerful place to nurture and grow.
Fila also implement a new ERP – alongside it launch of its new B2B store – which will help to automate processes and give them a better, seamless self-service experience. “The ERP is definitely high on the totem pole, ” said Kathleen, “and knowing how much we rely on it. It made sense to launch them together versus trying to have our B2B site come first.”
And there is more to come as File continues to grapple with the capabilities of Salesforce Commerce Cloud. “We have a lot to do yet,” added Kathleen, “but we’re excited!”
PS: ArganoUV is one of the world’s leading Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud consultancies. Contact us to see how we can work together.
