CENTRIC DRIVES INNOVATION WITH DIGITAL WEB & E-COMMERCE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

September 8, 2022

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, creating sustainable solutions to accelerate digital growth and improve current and future capabilities is an integral part to a company’s success. Over the past two years, the Centric Brands Information Technology team has made two significant changes to seamlessly support the growing digital needs of Centric’s lifestyle brands and divisions. First, the group made a systematic decision to move to a single website and e-commerce platform, Shopify+, for all current and future digitally-enabled brands. Using a single platform means our fashion brands can share design strategies as well as cutting-edge functionalities.

Second, the team took a bold step by establishing Centric’s Digital Web & E-Commerce Center of Excellence (COE), allowing the transition from using external agencies to creating our own central design, development and data analytics center. This has dramatically improved website deployments and enhancements; processes that took several months now take weeks, providing more time to drive innovation. Today, the COE manages operations for 14 websites – including Herve Leger, Hudson Jeans, Favorite Daughter – and growing!

Launching and managing a successful website requires cross-functional collaboration. The COE partners daily with visual designers, marketing teams, merchandisers, buyers and brand managers across the Company. Blair Rafuse, Director, IT – E-Commerce & Digital, shared everyone has a role to play, “You could build the best website in the world, but if it’s not marketed and made available to people, then it won’t serve its purpose.”

Chief Information Officer Roger Czuchra says, “Data and algorithms are the unseen heroes of Centric’s digital future. They are the heart of customer personalization; they determine what gets seen and doesn’t. I believe algorithms have been influential to the digitization of fashion and have allowed our lifestyle brands to gain traction quickly.”

To win in today’s digitally led marketplace, not only is a strong e-commerce presence critical to a brand’s growth strategy, but to have the resources to efficiently deploy and update those platforms is what sets Centric Brands apart from its competitors.