Capgemini's Lyons Consulting Group helps Claire's with digital transformation

Lyons Consulting Group has helped Claire’s digitally transform its business by implementing Salesforce Commerce Cloud. The fashion retailer worked with the Capgemini-owned consultancy to launch six new sites for its brands across the US, Canada, UK and France, with an emphasis on the replication of the company’s ‘in-store’ experience.

Earlier in Autumn, Lyons Consulting Group was purchased by the global professional services firm Capgemini for an undisclosed fee. At the time, Rich Lyons, CEO and Co-Founder of Lyons, emphasised that the deal gave the group a major opportunity to, “strengthen and expand our services for clients around the world.” Since then, the consultancy has been engaged in several high-profile Salesforce implementation projects. Lyons Consulting Group boasts significant expertise in the implementation of the innovative technology, and was named as ‘2017 Salesforce Commerce Cloud Global Delivery Partner of the Year’ for best-in-class client implementations and levels of support.

Lyons clients looking to utilise Salesforce have included leading retail and B2B brands such as GoPro, Titleist/FootJoy, Timex, Charlotte Russe, Vince, and Bayou Steel. Recently, this also involved the provision of an innovative new website for the Build-A-Bear group, as the toy-retail firm aimed to adapt to a digitised retail environment. The new websites were built by Lyons for the toy retailer on Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and featured new, seamless interactive applications designed to complement in-store experiences.

Now, Lyons has revealed news of its latest engagement, which saw the group assist specialty retailer Claire’s to put into practice a new eCommerce strategy. As one of the world’s leading retailers of fashionable jewelry and accessories for young people, Claire’s owns more than 2,500 stores spread across 47 countries. The company offers a wide-range of affordable products, and continues to draw a global customer base of 900 million globally. Icing, meanwhile, is an extension of the Claire’s brand, catering to a wider demographic with over 350 stores across the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Lyons provided design, implementation, and support services to Claire’s, launching six new sites for the Claire’s and Icing brands in the US, Canada, UK and France. The sites feature a mobile-first digital experience, aimed – as with Lyons’ Build-a-Bear solution – at emulating the instore experience at the heart of the Claire’s and Icing brands. This includes customisable illustrations, designed to better engage with the group’s young, fashion-forward customers. The consulting firm built the sites on the Salesforce Commerce Cloud within a four-month timeframe, in order to meet Claire’s aggressive schedule. The sites also leverage architecture which enables Claire’s to manage multiple digital properties from a central console.

Since launching, Claire’s has seen a 20% increase in checkout completion on mobile devices – with centralisation and streamlining being a key part of prominent digital transformations offered by the digital arms of the consulting industry more generally. This is something also exemplified by Accenture Interactive’s recent overhaul of both the Pearson publishing group, and the Vatican.

Kristen Taganashi, Vice President Global Ecommerce at Claire’s, said, “LYONSCG was incredibly responsive to our needs. This was a complex project on a very aggressive schedule and the team delivered on time and under budget, without compromising quality and creativity. Our new sites are a huge step forward and we are already seeing great results.”

Danny Rippon, the UK Director of Lyons, added, “Right from the start, Claire’s had very clear objectives and our team was fully committed to helping them realize their goals. It’s a great example of our ‘one team’ approach, working side-by-side with the client across regions to ensure the success of the project. The new Claire’s and Icing sites are amazing and we look forward to working with them to further support their growth strategy.”