Victoria’s Secret Direct will adopt a new electronic commerce platform with personalization and interactive features that promise double-digit, top-line sales growth.
Sharen Jester Turney, Victoria’s Secret president and chief executive officer, said the shift from a 15-year-old, home-grown system to a service delivered by n2N Commerce will unburden technology staff, reduce costs and provide access to innovations that bring the merchant closer to shoppers.
Victoria’s Secret Direct is the first customer of n2N Commerce of Cambridge, Mass., a start-up firm that Limited Brands helped launch on Wednesday. Limited Brands Inc., together with General Catalyst Partners of Cambridge, Mass., provided $30 million in financing to n2N Commerce.
“We absolutely see this as an opportunity to fuel the momentum” the brand has seen in the last year, Turney told WWD. She said the enhanced customer experience represents a top-line sales growth opportunity “in the very high teens.”
The initiative, to go live in time for the holiday season, will integrate online, catalogue, call center and order processing at the $1.3 billion consumer direct business unit. With real-time access to cross-channel data, call center agents will better assist shoppers and merchants will be able to create real-time promotions without assistance from the technology staff.
“The concept is ‘software as a service,’ delivered on demand to marketers, merchants and customer service associates,” said n2N ceo Ruben Pinchanski, who served as executive vice president of Limited Brands Direct before he cofounded n2N. The focus, he told WWD, “is on making the customer experience friendlier.”