Breitling: Digital transformation and the omnichannel experience
Even as the effects of the pandemic fade, retailers understand the world will never go back to the way it was. It’s easy to pin this sort of generational change on a single disruptive event. But the reality is the shift was taking place years before the first lockdowns. Rising costs associated with healthcare, education, and the day-to-day cost of living have collided with new technology-driven opportunities for value creation.?
The pandemic accelerated some retail trends and solidified others into the new normal, repositioning brands’ relationships to their customers.
COVID-19 shook global supply chains and consumer behaviour like a cheap snow globe. However, the economic pressures changing the face of the retail landscape didn’t start with the pandemic. And they didn’t end with it either.?
“Customer expectations have been changing across pretty much every market. Customers today are more demanding. They expect an omni-channel experience. They expect faster responses, and they expect easier returns” — Rajesh Shanmugasundaram, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Breitling
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Breitling up for the challenge
Breitling is no stranger to thriving in challenging times. Company founder, Léon Breitling, opened his first atelier in 1884 – amid the worst years in a long recession – at the age of 24. He went on to develop many of the iconic designs that would establish Breitling as one of the foremost watchmakers in the world. Breitling’s innovations across 140 years have included the modern chronograph and the navigational tool watch. These innovations are combined with a relentless commitment to style, accuracy, and reliability in every timepiece the company produces.?
Today, Breitling faces new challenges in the form of a world defined by economic hardships. Furthermore, it is navigating changing customer expectations, and rapidly evolving technology. Meeting and overcoming these challenges has been a matter of executing a company-wide digital and organisational transformation. This has shifted Breitling’s focus firmly onto the customer.
From a distributor mindset to customer-focused
Breitling was, for almost all of its 140 year history, a traditional family-owned company with a distributor mindset. “They made excellent products in Switzerland and sold them to various markets, treating them as individual entities with limited connection to the overall Breitling brand,”? explains Shanmugasundaram. In 2017 – after CVC acquired a majority stake in the company – Breitling embarked on a multi-phase digital transformation intended to unify all of the company’s different business units under the Breitling brand and drive a shift towards a customer-centric approach. “We wanted to reach our customers directly. And put them at the centre of everything we do, which means new tools and solutions,” says Shanmugasundaram.