Case Study

BUSINESSHorze is one of the largest retailers of specialty equestrian equipment and clothing in Europe. Part of the Finn-Tack group, it serves customers throughout Europe, Russia and the US.

CHALLENGETo compete with local retailers, Horze needed to provide tailored websites for each country that offer an assortment of local payment methods and promotions. To support this strategy, the company required a more flexible and cost-effective ecommerce platform.

SOLUTIONHorze has used Demandware’s cloud-based ecommerce platform since 2010. The solution supports 22 online store fronts in 15 languages. Seamless integration with back-end systems – such as merchandising and supply chain – and the latest ecommerce features optimise the customer experience.

RESULTS

Better customer loyalty and higher sales conversion rates have contributed to an online growth rate of 75 percent from 2010 to 2012. Horze is now able to continue to grow its business and online offerings with a more scalable and reliable ecommerce platform.

Industry segment

Equestrian Sports

URL

www.horze.com

Scale

150,000 orders processed annually

Horze races ahead with 40 percent growth in online sales

2

BUSINESSEQUESTRIAN EQUIPMENT FOR THE DISCERNING RIDER

Horse-riding enthusiasts across Europe, Russia and the US purchase their equestrian products and supplies from Horze.

As one of the largest equestrian retailers in Europe, Horze sells clothing and equipment for riders of all levels – from novices to professionals. It has 20 stores throughout Northern Europe, the majority of which are in Scandinavia.

Horze started trading in 2003 as a subsidiary of Finn-Tack – a Finnish manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer. The brand is focused on providing high-quality products at affordable prices. Its vision is to become the global market leader.

To achieve its goals for market domination, Horze has developed a culture based on learning, innovation and delivering an exceptional customer experience.

CHALLENGEPROVIDING A LOCAL EXPERIENCE FOR A DIVERSE CUSTOMER BASE

Horze’s key business strategy for competitive differentiation and growth is to offer as many brands as possible on an international scale. Although the company has physical stores only in Northern Europe, it has an online presence in every European country, as well as Russia and the US. This enables the company to reach consumers outside its traditional geography without the capital investment associated with opening physical stores.

Arne Christensen, Chief Technology Office at Horze, comments: “With 30 percent of our revenues derived from online sales, ecommerce represents our biggest growth opportunity. Our online stores enable us to broaden the geographical breadth of our customer base and reach new markets.”

As Horze often competes with local retailers, providing a country-specific look and feel to its online stores is key to the customer experience. “Familiarity conveys confidence and trust, so we need our sites in the native language, with tailored offers and product sets to suit the customer base,” explains Christensen. “We also need to offer local payment options and currencies to simplify the check-out process.”

REINED IN BY TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS

When it launched its first ecommerce sites in 2003, Horze used a homegrown ecommerce solution based on an open-source toolset. While this approach had been successful on a small scale, the solution could not effectively support Horze’s expansion into new countries or its localisation strategy. Development processes had also become increasingly costly and complicated: every time a new website release was launched, the company encountered various issues with country-specific features.

“With an increasing global and online customer base, website performance had become intrinsically linked to the overall success of the business,” comments Christensen. “We needed to be able to

Case Study: Horze

“Inventory quantities are updated every 20 minutes and orders, customer updates and newsletter signups are synchronised every 10 minutes.”

–Arne Christensen

Chief Technology Officer

Horze

3

deliver maximum availability and flexibility with minimum effort and expense – and that meant finding a new ecommerce solution.”

SOLUTION AN INTEGRATED AND SCALABLE PLATFORM SUPPORTING 22 ONLINE STORES

In addition to overcoming its existing challenges, Horze wanted to tap into new opportunities that would drive greater online sales.

To enable continuous innovation and move faster, Horze selected a cloud-based ecommerce platform from Demandware. Christensen comments: “We chose Demandware because it continually invests in developing and enhancing its solution. This means we can take advantage of leading-edge features and functionality that would be financially prohibitive for us to develop for ourselves.”

The platform was implemented in five countries over five months with assistance from Demandware’s partner eCommera. eCommera helped with every aspect of the deployment – from scoping requirements to integrating data feeds – and continues to provide ongoing support.

Two years on, and Horze now has 22 online store fronts in 15 languages running

on the same ecommerce backend. Customers can access more than 5,000 master products via the websites, which in total process around 20,000 orders each month.

Horze has integrated the solution with a number of internal and external business systems to simplify key processes, such as:

• Fulfilling orders

• Processing payments

• Handling support queries

• Conducting direct marketing campaigns

“To avoid disappointing customers with out-of-date information, data is exported from our ERP system seamlessly to Demandware on a daily basis to enable catalogue, price list and availability updates,” explains Christensen. “Inventory quantities are updated every 20 minutes and orders, customer updates and newsletter signups are synchronised every 10 minutes.”

The platform has also recently been integrated with Horze’s new homegrown product review system to enable customers to make more informed purchasing decisions.

Christensen comments: “Recent years have seen a tsunami of developments in ecommerce, but as in all business, it’s still a matter of basics. We will roll up our sleeves and continue to do what we love, with an increased focus on the customer experience.”

“We can respond rapidly to customer demand, local events and climatic conditions to take advantage of the sales potential.”

–Arne Christensen

Chief Technology Officer

Horze

Case Study: Horze

Demandware, Inc. 5 Wall Street Burlington, MA 01803 +1 (781) 425 1400 demandware.com info@demandware.com

RESULTSON TRACK FOR A GREAT FUTURE

Horze’s back to basics approach has proven to be very successful. Since implementing its new ecommerce solution, Horze has experienced annual online sales growth of almost 40 percent in 2011 and 2012.

A richer online experience has been a key factor to enable this growth. Horze customers can now make smarter online buying choices in a shorter timeframe thanks to a number of ecommerce enhancements, including:

• An interactive one-page checkout

• Feature-rich product pages including 360-degree images and videos

• Independent product reviews from fellow equestrian enthusiasts

These and other enhancements have resulted in an increased sales conversion rate from below one percent to more than 3.5 percent in some countries, and a 60 per cent increase in customer loyalty.

The functionality provided by the new ecommerce platform has inspired a new approach to marketing founded on interactive campaigns and local content. “Promotions and offers can be created and published online in just five minutes,” comments Christensen. “This means we can respond rapidly to customer demand, local events and climatic conditions to take advantage of the sales potential.”

Using Demandware Commerce’s built-in analytics, Horze can evaluate the success of such promotions and use these findings to optimise the customer experience. As well as energising its ecommerce frontend, Horze has improved efficiency at the backend. A cloud-based model means developments and updates are seamless and high availability is guaranteed.

”We have eliminated the technical limitations that were holding back our ecommerce ambitions,” comments Christensen. “We can now focus aggressively on driving more traffic and revenue through our online stores.”

ABOUT DEMANDWAREDemandware (NYSE: DWRE) is a leading provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecommerce solutions that enable companies to easily design, implement and manage their own customized ecommerce sites, including websites, mobile applications and other digital storefronts. Customers use our highly scalable and integrated Demandware Commerce platform to more easily launch and manage multiple ecommerce sites, initiate marketing campaigns more quickly, and improve ecommerce traffic.

For more information about Demandware, visit demandware.com,

call 888-553-9216 or email info@demandware.com.

THE BOTTOM LINE

> Greater customer loyalty

> Global reach with a local feel

> Increased sales conversion rate

> Faster and smarter marketing campaigns

> More efficient ecommerce operations