The Sweet Smell of Success

For Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts, Jasmine ii was the answer for bringing a legacy business model into the e-commerce age - but not without continual attention to detail

By James Stewart

Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts was established 14 years ago, just before the Internet began to be even a primitive commerce tool, as a bricks-and-mortar and mail-order company selling up-market shirts and accessories for men and women.

The company has grown from its flagship store on London’s Jermyn Street, home to English shirtmaking since 1740, to become the largest company in England to sell quality shirts through the Internet (www.tyrwhitt.com) and mail order. The shirts themselves combine tailoring perfection with outstanding value, but the unique point with Charles Tyrwhitt is its follow-up service.

The principal business of the company is the sale by mail-order of quality formal shirts, ties, and accessories for men and women. Customers can order products by phone, post, fax, and (since April 1998) the Internet.

The decision to set up an e-commerce site during 1997 was merely an evolution of the existing business, an additional way for customers to order our products (previously by phone, post, and fax only), not an attempt to ride the dot-com wave.

There were, however, integration issues to deal with between the Web site and legacy systems. The company also had to address the new ways of marketing that the Internet presented and integrate these into tried-and-true, traditional, direct marketing methods.

As a mail-order company, Charles Tyrwhitt generates sales by giving periodic offers or promotions to existing and potential customers. It is the perception of these offers in the minds of our customers that maximizes customer recruitment, retention, or reactivation.

The first Web site, launched April 1998, was not living up to its potential. It presented the following problems:

• It could not accurately reflect offers and promotions that the company wished to give customers. As a stopgap measure, the site contained a message stating, “prices will be adjusted at a later stage,” but this message put customers off and resulted in lost sales.

• The Web site was not hosted onsite and Charles Tyrwhitt staff did not have access to it for updating text and images. This would lengthen the time taken for the site to change and also tie up unnecessary time within the Charles Tyrwhitt Web department and that of the hosts. The company was not able to work in Internet time.

• The site was two-dimensional — basically an online brochure. We knew it would be possible to create a site that was more like shopping in the real world than looking through a brochure.

• Marketing to the existing Charles Tyrwhitt database of customers was driving people to the site, but conversion to sales was low; only five percent of visitors made a purchase.

We knew we had to make a change, but what? A chance meeting in late 1998 with a member of Computer Associates’ sales staff at an Internet seminar provided the solution. Computer Associates had just finished developing Jasmine and was looking for clients willing to work with the new and, at that time, little-used technology on the Web.

Discussions started in outline and then became more detailed during early 1999. Initially, we thought we would use Jasmine as a module attached to the existing site, but later decided to implement the new software throughout.

Our site is a fully hosted service providing 24373365 availability. We have a dual 2Mb/s connection to the Internet backbone, and twin multiprocessor NT servers configured for optimum performance hosting the Web site. Other servers in the hosting service provide routing, antivirus, firewall, Web reporting, and facilities for backup and restore. Computer Associates provided a dedicated, secure link to enable the CA-built management site to have a high-speed connection with the Web servers. Both the Web and management site are monitored 2437 by CA’s Unicenter TNG.

FIGURE 1 Jasmine ii application lets shoppers manipulate images in 3D.

FIELD NOTES

Problem: Web site not living up to its potential as a sales channel Environment: Fully hosted servers, 2Mb/s Internet connection, twin multiprocessor NT servers, 2437 monitoring by Unicenter TNG Product used: Jasmine ii Project duration: Three months initially, with ongoing improvements Results: Doubled conversion of promotions to sales

We installed the Jasmine ii database and Master-IT Web traffic analyzer from Computer Associates during the three months leading up to December 5, 1999. During this time, we evaluated scope and conducted workshops, development, testing, and implementation. Charles Tyrwhitt staffmembers were closely involved at all stages, but particularly during the scope phase and design workshops.

The new site looked great; and features such as 3D images and the “tie selector” worked very well. These features gave customers some of the benefits of being in a physical store: They could “pick up” products and turn them around or zoom in on them for close inspection. Then, after they selected a shirt, they could compare its fabric to a series of ties to help them decide on a match.These and other factors resulted in higher conversion to sales. Sales online rose to 14 percent of total sales in January 2000. (Previously, online sales during 1999 accounted for seven percent of total.) Sales from the Internet overtook the shop on Jermyn Street for the first time.

We encountered no unexpected problems during the Web site’s development. However, some high-risk elements required continual management attention:

• 3D scanning of Charles Tyrwhitt shirts and the inclusion of the results into the site

• Ensuring all the good ideas that are inevitably generated throughout the development did not result in scope-creep

• The photographs chosen to represent the shirts complemented the general image of the site and the Charles Tyrwhitt brand (that is, clean, high-quality, and British)

• The underpinning (Jasmine ii) object model fully supported the business model

• The interfaces to the back-office systems. We started these early in the project because generally they are more difficult than first thought (without this interface any cost savings the Internet brings can be lost through manual rekeying and review).

We did not have to bring in additional expertise during development than was originally planned at the beginning. Therefore, HTML programmers, Web artists, technical infrastructure specialists, and project managers all joined the project at the right time. Because Jasmine ii is a development environment in its own right (see www.ca.com/products/jasmine for detailed information) we did not need to procure any third-party products.

On the other hand, there were unexpected benefits. For Computer Associates and Charles Tyrwhitt, I think the partnership approach to the whole deal has helped us focus in a way that we would not be able to in the normal supplier/client relationship. The deal’s concepts are definitely seen as a success, meaning it is a model that will be repeated in the future and should lead to more satisfied clients.

SIDEBAR

BEYOND THE PRODUCT

The partnership between Charles Tyrwhitt and Computer Associates extends beyond the billing approach of sharing risk and revenue. We took steps to ensure that the vision outlined by both companies at the start of the project was seen through to the final version launched on December 5, 1999.

Another important aspect of this implementation is its eye toward the future. Computer Associates staff will be permanently employed on the project, and ideas and new Internet innovations will be included as a matter of course, not as a separate contract. Releases are planned throughout 2000. The latest occurred on May 5 and totally revamped the site, adding a new range of site features built on Jasmine ii, including:

• A less complicated registration and sign-in process, to encourage new registrants

• A “fast-shop,” for those who already know product codes

• A “phone me” feature that prompts the call center to reach customers having problems or questions while browsing

• A “recommend a friend” feature, giving the existing and referred customers both a special offer

• A summer release will include a Neugent, an artificial-intelligence software component, that predicts which customers will respond desirably to targeted promotions. We will also use Neugents to detect fraudulent orders.

It is the intention of Charles Tyrwhitt to maintain a competitive edge on the Web by keeping the site fresh. To keep to this principle, we plan to use the latest technology, but never at the expense of brand image or customer expectations. This technology will include:

• Computer Associates’ work on further integration or replacement of legacy systems

• More use of visualization. The 3D is currently supplied by Viewpoint Digital Inc., a CA subsidiary, using MetaCreations Metastream version 2. The upgrade will take us up to Metastream version 3, which is much more flexible and powerful.

• Multiple languages. By providing Active Server Pages in different languages drawn as required through the Jasmine Infrastructure, these will draw product images and prices from the existing databases and use the current promotions engine to calculate basket prices based on the different offers available to customers.

• Improved customer relationship management (CRM) — further segmentation and targeted mailings, through the use of Neugent technology. The object is to develop and maintain relationships with our customers based on an ongoing one-to-one dialog. This represents a big step forward from the traditional mail-order, mass-marketing approach used at present.