Horze partners with eCommera to take its eCommerce operation global

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Horze, the equestrian retailer, is working with eCommera, provider of intelligent eCommerce trading solutions, on transforming its existing eCommerce platforms to extend its reach to online customers all over the world.

Finn-Tack, the group operating the Horze brand, was founded in 1982 to focus on providing high-quality equestrian clothing and equipment at affordable prices. Horze has set itself the challenge of becoming the leading global supplier of equestrian equipment and clothing. eCommerce is a vital part of its strategy as it enables the company to acquire customers in new markets without the cost of setting up an extensive network of physical stores and to serve its wholesale customers through an innovative white-label model.

In 2009, Horze began investigating alternative options to its on-premise eCommerce platform due to issues with scalability and reliability. Horze needed a partner that could deliver a commerce solution that could support multiple international own-brand, as well as 'white label' webstores, while also delivering high performance at peak trading times.

Solution: going international

eCommera re-built Horze's international webstore, taking it from a single online shop to include 11 international sites supporting five currencies, all supported by a single commerce platform. The webstore is run from a single catalogue, which eases cross-site management while providing the local markets with fully customised local storefronts and multiple promotion and sales campaigns tailored for each territory.

Horze's eCommerce platform now has a number of campaign and promotions mechanisms that were previous unavailable, which it is using to boost sales – traffic that it is now well able to handle.

Rolf Nevanlinna, eCommerce Manager, at Horze said, "With the solution provided by eCommera, Horze has got an innovative, scalable platform where we can give our customers a superb shopping experience and thereby increase conversion. Before, we struggled with performance on peaks, now we can focus on sales instead of dealing with infrastructure and performance issues."

The platform, based on a fully-scalable Software-as-a-Service model, ensures consistent performance and resolves peak trading times stability. Availability is also guaranteed through a full 24/7 technical support for all online commerce technology via a single service level agreement (SLA); so that Horze is free to focus on the business of trading rather than worrying about the technology.

Horze's international websites include the following stores:-

www.horze.com | www.horze.eu |www.horze.ru |  www.horze.de | www.horze.fi | www.horze.nl | www.horze.se | www.horze.no | www.horze.dk | www.horze.fr | www.horze.es | www.horze.it  | www.horze.co.uk | www.travbutiken.net  | www.tomatrav.no  | www.hippotrot.fr  | www.selleriedegrosbois.fr | www.travshop.dk | http://www.dogzhop.com/ |  www.pacesettertack.com | www.tomatrotting.com | www.ravikauppa.fi | www.landfuxx.de

Driving conversion

In order to ensure that Horze enjoys high conversion rates, eCommera has optimised the customer's journey through to final checkout and tailored this to local requirements. All the new sites are integrated with multiple payment gateways, including Global Collect, to support local currency preferences. With Global Collect, Horze can operate in almost any country in the world supporting local cards such as Dankort for Denmark, Carte Bleue for France, and iDEAL for Netherlands.

Horze has integrated two other payment gateways to support invoice payment (Klarna) which is important in Scandinavia and gaining popularity in Germany. Direct Debit has also been implemented in Germany (Telecash).  Rolf Nevanlinna, eCommerce Manager at Horze explains: "All this effort has been worth it considering giving customers the opportunity to pay in their preferred payment method, and thus improve conversion rates."

Branded webstores

More recently Horze worked with eCommera to launch a white label eCommerce solution.

Finn-Tack, the group operating the Horze brand, and a leading manufacturer and wholesaler of horse racing equipment, wanted to increase the demand and awareness of Finn-Tack product line, and has worked with eCommera to improve its offering to its major resellers, by creating and launching 10 transactional white label sites, providing the resellers the ability to serve their retail customers under their own label.

The brand now has over 5,000 products and almost 40,000 SKUs for sale online.  By taking its racing business online, Finn-Tack group has maintained its strong relationships with retailers while also reaching online end users.

White label sites provide successful retailers the opportunity to offer an online service without having to invest in creating the technology and infrastructure or employing dedicated staff, while maintaining brand loyalty and awareness at all times.

Rolf Nevanlinna said: "Our white label expansion has given us a real advantage. We retain our relationships with retailers through our resellers, and by providing them the tools to reach end user customers online, which is vital for Finn-Tack brand building."