Transforming Retail

How Eton's Digitization Journey Empowers Wholesale and Direct-to-Consumer Excellence

In today's rapidly evolving retail landscape, delivering a unified and seamless customer experience is paramount. At Eton, we are renowned for our premium to luxury dress shirts and accessories, and we have taken significant strides in this direction. With a rich history dating back to 1928, Eton has established itself as a global leader, embracing sustainability, and continuously pushing boundaries with our dedication to craftsmanship and innovation.

As we expanded our product portfolio and presence across over 1,500 locations worldwide, we faced the challenges of managing a wholesale business offline. The complexities of showcasing collections, handling international visits and meetings, and managing order processes became increasingly arduous. It was at that point we recognized the need for a digitization strategy to streamline our operations, enhance the experience for our team, customers, and business partners, and stay ahead of the game.

Our commitment to innovation and sustainability led us to embrace this technology to drive our transformation. We embarked on a journey to find a comprehensive solution that could unite our wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels seamlessly. After extensive research, we discovered Centra , a headless ecommerce platform that proved to be the perfect fit.

Leveraging Centra's digital showroom, we revolutionized our wholesale operations. The platform's user-friendly interface enabled us and our customers to handle orders effortlessly, significantly reducing the administrative workload. Our sales representatives could focus on building relationships and catering to customer needs rather than expending their energy on mundane tasks. Additionally, the introduction of self-service options empowered our customers to place and edit orders at their convenience, cutting down follow-up time.

“I recognize the vital role of digital tools in empowering our global wholesale customers. These tools enable them to offer excellent end consumer service, transcending geographical barriers and time zones. By embracing these solutions, our wholesale partners can effectively cater to customer needs, ensuring a seamless and satisfying experience in all our markets." – Jacob Dahl, Customer Excellence Director at Eton

Furthermore, we leveraged Centra to enhance our direct-to-consumer business, migrating all commerce operations to a single platform. With Centra as the core foundation, we rebuilt our front end using a headless next.js, which offered an enhanced customer experience. Our endless aisle initiative empowered our sales associates to showcase our entire product range, enabling customers to access a broader assortment and even order customized shirts. By connecting our stores under one platform, we streamlined preorders, reorders, and implemented an efficient cancellation process.

Continuous improvement is ingrained in our mindset. Actively gathering feedback and learning from our customers allows us to deliver enhancements every month. This approach makes our solutions better and better over time, ensuring we meet the evolving needs of our customers." - Carl-Axel Rosendahl, Business Tech Director at Eton

The results of our digitization efforts have been outstanding. Our commitment to innovation placed us ahead of the curve, particularly during the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Our digital showroom provided a seamless way for customers to explore and order from our collection, while reducing our corporate carbon footprint (CCF) of travel and printed materials. The streamlined wholesale processes, cancellation handling, and self-service options have not only increased efficiency but also created new opportunities for up-selling and cross-selling.

By unifying our operations on a single platform, we have achieved remarkable milestones. Our highlights include optimizing wholesale flows, improving the cancellation process, reducing administrative work, enhancing the customer buying experience, and minimizing waste and travel. These achievements have positioned Eton as a trailblazer in the industry, setting new standards for efficiency and sustainability.

"Our digital tools empower wholesale customers to delight end consumers in their stores or websites. The B2B platform enables easy reordering, ensuring products are never out of stock. The Endless Aisle provides real-time inventory for a wide product selection, enhancing the chances of finding desired items. Our digital MTM application reduces custom shirt delivery time exponentially, while providing fabric availability updates to avoid order issues. These tools enable our wholesale customers to deliver a great shopping experience for Eton customers.” - Erik Wilkinson, Chief Sales Officer

As we continue to prioritize our customers and embrace innovative solutions, we remain committed to providing a unified experience that inspires confidence and individuality. By staying ahead of the curve and leveraging technology, we can attest to a solid position as a leader in the luxury menswear market.

To learn more about our innovation journey and our commitment to excellence, connect with Jacob Dahl, Customer Excellence Director at Eton on jacob.dahl@etonshirts.com.