Città continues innovative growth with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce

Città is a design company that prides itself on creating beautiful furniture and homewares for every room in the home. Based out of Auckland, New Zealand, they design, import and distribute a comprehensive range of homewares sourced from leading manufacturers around the world.

A forward-looking business, Città were the first retailer in the world to plan their retail business in the cloud on the Microsoft Dynamics platform: providing a foundation for future growth. In 2019, Città recognised the need to move to the next phase and integrate their online presence with Microsoft Dynamics.

Business challenges

Città designs and retails an extensive range of furniture, lighting and homewares across Australia and New Zealand. Operating across wholesale, retail and online, each sales channel presents its own unique opportunities and challenges. The business had already undergone a digital transformation, implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Retail with Finance and Operations in 2016; however, the retailer wanted to continue their operations transformation by replacing their existing eCommerce solution.

A siloed solution that lacked transparency, Città were required to outsource most of the updates on the site through a third party vendor, including adding new stock items, adding new product categories and other brand adjustments - making the business heavily reliant on the third party’s time and capabilities. This dependence caused delays in product promotions/launches, and communications with customers.

Recognising the need to manage their eCommerce portal in-house, as well as improve their customers’ engagement and buying experience, Città worked alongside DXC Eclipse, the Microsoft Practice of DXC Technology, to strategically plan their next transformation.

Solution

Already operating in the cloud on the Microsoft Dynamics platform, Città decided the next phase of digitalising their business included the improvement of their online sales capabilities, regaining control of their eCommerce portal, achieving cross-channel sales transparency and improving customer engagement and communications.

Implemented at the beginning of 2020, Città is one of the first retailers globally to implement Dynamics 365 Commerce as an extension to their existing Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain and Modern Point of Sale solutions – creating a Unified Commerce Platform.

Since implementation, Microsoft Dynamics 365 has given Città a single source of truth across the business. Dynamics 365 Commerce is fully integrated with their existing finance, inventory and supply chain management, providing accurate stock levels and sales transparency across all their retail channels.

Results and outcomes

Live with Dynamics 365 Commerce since April 2020, Città employees have quickly embraced the new eCommerce solution. Città has been fortunate to have their eCommerce site integrated across their entire operations, providing the ability to remain operational and agile in their go to market strategy.

Città has also benefitted from the ability to extend and manage new fulfilment options. Offering more flexibility and convenience to their customers, including improved delivery options, and click and collect from any store.

Considering their go-to-market strategy, Città wanted a solution that could handle their future global expansion. Being a cloud-based solution means that the same platform can be used to underpin the company’s international plans and scale to support the business now and in the future. Città will continue to leverage the Microsoft Stack, which is expected to have a huge impact in identifying customer sentiment and emerging trends that can drive product demand.

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