PUMA India

We've seen tremendous improvement in the speed at which we've been able to add new enhancements, thanks to the stability of the Salesforce platform.”

Jackson Fernandez | Head of Ecommerce, PUMA India
 
 

View a PUMA India session from Salesforce Live: India to learn how Puma.com is responsive, nimble and fast using Commerce Cloud.

 

100%

increase in site’s responsiveness

 

PUMA.com remains ‘Forever Faster’ with Salesforce

PUMA India is showing the Indian sports and activewear market exactly why “small is the new big.”

When the company entered India in 2006, they were a late entrant into a market where Nike, Adidas, and Reebok were already top players. But, by December 2019, PUMA put up earnings of ₹1,413 crore, the second consecutive calendar year in which they have sped past their competitors. In their 13-year journey, PUMA India have grown to operate 375 owned stores, and the brand has also prowled online through Puma.com.

Puma.com is the brand’s largest online store. But what made it so integral to the PUMA ethos?

A new playing field

“In India, we are seeing a growing focus on fitness,” points out Jackson Fernandez, Head of Ecommerce. “We want to further encourage our consumers down this fitness journey by offering them the right products.”

PUMA’s consumers are also a digitally-savvy generation and increasingly shop online. “Mobile traffic to our site has been steadily increasing,” says Fernandez. “This means that every decision we take has to be mobile-first.”

The jumping cat goes digital

The burgeoning mobile traffic needed to be supported by stable site infrastructure to translate into conversions.

“We quickly realised that we had to make enhancements to the platform’s performance to be able to scale,” says Fernandez.

But offering a delightful shopping experience online goes beyond only having a fast and responsive site. “Puma.com is our biggest store and should reflect the true essence of the brand,” explains Fernandez. This means that the site should offer a complete assortment of all that the brand has on offer.

“With no retail store agent to explain the technicalities of the product, helping the consumer find the right product for their needs becomes an essential feature of the site.”

Finally, Fernandez wanted to improve consumer experience on the site by making their entire journey more efficient – from item selection to cart checkout and post purchase support.

Getting the ball rolling

Globally, the company had overhauled and relaunched mobile-first websites in around 24 markets using Salesforce, and the feedback from there had been very encouraging.

“It soon became clear to us that if we had to go ahead, it would have to be with Salesforce,” says Fernandez. “Being on the same platform as our global counterparts would give us the chance to be a part of an ecosystem of continuous product development. Not only was the Salesforce platform very stable, but it also meant that the go-to-market time for features and enhancements would significantly reduce because we could adopt features already tested in other regions.”

Picking up speed and momentum

PUMA India deployed Salesforce Commerce Cloud in August 2019 to enhance the mobile shopping experience for their consumers. With best practices in mobile UX design, merchandising, and technical architecture being built into the solution, they could offer their customers an experience that was seamless and efficient.

“On the new platform, it is fast and easy for customers to use filters, get results in line with what they are looking for, add them to the cart, and pay with the right payment options,” says Fernandez.

Once the site was re-architected to deliver a smooth customer experience, PUMA stepped up their game to build efficiency into every stage of the process.

“We've seen tremendous improvement in the speed at which we've been able to add new enhancements,” details Fernandez.

“We can quickly and easily redesign product pages and make landing pages more responsive.”

PUMA.com now features more responsive landing pages, and more accurate filters. Promotions to incentivise consumers are running smoothly and visitors are shown the right products based on their needs.

Many solutions in the market today allow brands to offer such consumer experiences. So, what makes Commerce Cloud different?

“The primary reason that Commerce Cloud is making us successful is that the platform is robust and can scale,” exclaims Fernandez. “Today, when there is a spike in traffic to the site, we don’t even realise it. It’s that seamless.”

Playing to win

Puma.com today has become a true reflection of the brand’s promise of speed. The site loads 100% faster. With a decrease in webpage load time on both mobile and desktop browsers, the first eventful paint happens at around three seconds.

“Also, the purchase funnel is so smooth that dropouts have reduced. We’ve been able to sell more, and do it faster,” says Fernandez.

The benefits aren’t restricted to the bottomline alone. With the vast volumes of customer data now available, PUMA is able to understand what consumers are buying and market more smartly to them.

Internally, the biggest shift has been in the team’s approach to work. They are focused on bettering product design, growing traffic and optimising content.

Leaping into the future

The next step in the Salesforce and PUMA India journey is greater collaboration to identify business needs and solve them together. “Puma.com is strategic to our growth and we want it to have a significant chunk of our overall business pie,” says Fernandez.

By delivering a speedy and delightful consumer experience, PUMA India is showing that it is truly ‘Forever Faster.’

 

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