SparkOptimus helps fashion group PVH with ecommerce transformation – Consultancy.eu

When PVH wanted to enhance the online experience it provides its customers, the global fashion giant turned to management consulting firm SparkOptimus for guidance.

One of the world’s largest fashion companies, operating in over 40 countries worldwide, PVH is best known for its iconic brands Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. However, as the trend to digitalisation continues to sweep every industry – and the rise of ecommerce continues at pace – even the world’s largest companies need to adapt their offerings.

PVH’s ambition was to transform from a transaction-led fashion wholesaler, into a consumer-led, multichannel fashion player – with a tripled European ecommerce business by 2025.

To turn this ambition into reality, the company determined it needed to connect with its consumers “in the moment” – in other words, being able to serve consumers in real-time, based on their individual needs. For example, providing real-time transparency on delivery and payment status, or promptly providing adequate customer support in the case of an incident.

Together with experts from SparkOptimus, PVH shaped an overall consumer data strategy, then translated this strategy into a blueprint for processes, governance, and data management. The fashion retailer then worked with the consultants to implement the new foundation and way of working.

Speaking on the work SparkOptimus enabled, PVH’s Executive Vice President for Omnichannel, Jesper Waerum, noted, “SparkOptimus has been an instrumental partner in our journey towards real-time customer activations. They are pragmatic and results–oriented, and know how to bring an inspiring vision to life by defining the path, getting things done and breaking down organisational silos.”

Three-step process

Collaborating with PVH, SparkOptimus kicked off the transformation by detailing what the fashion firm’s consumers actually needed, and how to activate them ‘in the moment’. Workshops with around 30 participants from various business teams were deployed to find ideas of how to serve PVH’s consumers better.

SparkOptimus shaped the overall journey towards PVH’s ultimate ambition of becoming a consumer-led fashion player.

Then, the consulting firm designed the required technology and data infrastructure needed to enable real-time data collection and streaming. Initiating the subsequent ‘build’ phase, SparkOptimus deployed a multi-disciplinary way of working between the technology, analytics, and business departments – via structured operational heartbeats, and agile working via development teams.

In parallel, the consultants detailed the prioritised use-cases from the earlier phase, together with business owners by specifying the measurements of success.

Finally, the experts conducted a thorough handover to the PVH team to equip them with the capabilities to run the remainder of the change program independently. This included kicking off the implementation of the first use cases – before increasingly coaching the team rather than directly dealing with things.

Elsewhere, SparkOptimus also defined the necessary in-house team and capabilities for the short, medium, and long term, such as short term job descriptions, to help complete the hand-over.

PVH’s ultimate ambition of tripling its European ecommerce business is still two years away. But the company now has a very clear view of that goal and is – at the time of writing – on target to achieve the objectives.

With the data foundation in place, PVH can activate consumers in real-time by connecting more than 10 different data sources and destinations. The first pilot use case of this was launched in three European countries with promising results.

Meanwhile, PVH now has a structured cross-functional test-and-learn way of working between technology, analytics, business, legal, security, data governance – allowing the firm to ambitiously scale-up the number of active use cases to activate consumers in the moment, improving the experience for customers and creating value for PVH.

Founded in 2010, SparkOptimus was launched by a duo of former McKinsey & Company consultants. The firm has since grown into an award-winning digital strategy consultancy with a headcount of around one hundred professionals.