Abercrombie & Fitch expands digital retail operations across Asia with Demandware

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Abercrombie & Fitch expands digital retail operations across Asia with Demandware.

Demandware, Inc., provider of enterprise cloud commerce solutions, has announced that specialty retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch Co., is using Demandware Commerce to power global expansion across Asia. The retailer recently launched 10 new ecommerce sites for its Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister brands with the Demandware platform, serving China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. All of the sites are mobile-optimised through responsive web design.

Abercrombie & Fitch is a global specialty retailer of apparel for men, women and kids, and operates nearly 1,000 stores worldwide across the Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie kids, and Hollister Co. and Gilly Hicks brands.

"We selected Demandware because it's a powerful, agile solution that enables us to get into new markets quickly without extensive overhead," said Billy May, GVP of Digital and Direct-to-Consumer, Abercrombie & Fitch. "With Demandware, we gain the speed, agility and operational efficiencies of a cloud platform, with the merchandising control and international capabilities required to deliver a shopping experience that is true to our brands, and appropriately localised for each region."

Demandware provides a central platform for managing multiple sites, enabling the Abercrombie & Fitch corporate ecommerce team to maintain control over the brand experience, while working with regional resources to adapt the sites to the unique requirements of each geography.

"By leveraging our proven cloud infrastructure, Abercrombie & Fitch was able to overcome many technical, operational and regulatory challenges that retailers normally face when expanding into China and other markets across Asia," said Jeffrey Barnett, COO of Demandware. "With the Demandware platform, A&F established a localised digital presence quickly and cost-effectively."

SapientNitro, a Demandware LINK solution partner, led the development effort. In addition, Abercrombie & Fitch leveraged pre-built integrations to third party technologies available through the Demandware LINK Technology Marketplace, including Adyen, Translations.com and Worldpay.