Ca Kidston finds BT knocks spots off rivals

DC13-165 May 22, 2013

Cath Kidston finds BT knocks spots off rivals

BT Expedite & Fresca, BT's multichannel retail specialist business, has signed a deal with Cath Kidston Ltd, the global lifestyle brand, to design and build a new e-commerce website for the company.

BT Expedite & Fresca, which won the contract in competition with six other companies, will design, build, launch and provide service support for the new e-commerce site.

Increased online customer demand, particularly internationally, has driven the need for a new e-commerce platform for Cath Kidston. The company is seeing record online growth outside of the UK, especially in the US and Australia.

Scheduled to go live this summer, the new multichannel platform Expedite & Fresca is building will include a mobile optimised site. It will use a content delivery network, where local content outside the UK is cached via local servers, enabling faster delivery and loading of web pages and rich content for customers.

The website will incorporate some of the next generation FrescaCommerce platform features such as enhanced multilingual functions, making it easier to manage and update languages more quickly, customer ratings and reviews, and an enhanced search function.

The first phase of the build will allow purchases in three currencies - pounds, euros and dollars. The second phase will feature localised content for customers outside the UK and languages including French and German.

Amy Bastow, eCommerce Director, Cath Kidston, said: Expedite & Fresca offered us a single point of accountability for the new website for integration, development and design and that's very important to us. We were impressed by their core selling platform, the fact that we were able to choose from their portfolio of multichannel products and their ability to support high volumes of traffic during trading peaks.

Also important to Cath Kidston in its choice of supplier was that the new platform should have excellent stability and core e-commerce functionality and that its systems were scalable. The company wanted an SEO (search engine optimisation) capability and call centre management integration with its e-commerce system so it could manage orders, returns and cancellations over the phone.

David Grossman, CEO of BT Expedite & Fresca, said: We're very pleased that Cath Kidston chose our people and systems to produce their new website after thoroughly researching us and the competition. We're looking forward to the project and are excited about working with such a rapidly expanding company that has already achieved so much in its 20-year-history.

Cath Kidston's online customers will be able to choose between delivery to their home or collection from the store. BT Expedite & Fresca will be integrating its systems with the Futura POS (point of sale) gift card solution which provides Cath Kidston's current multichannel gift card solution.

Notes to editors

About BT Expedite & Fresca

BT Expedite & Fresca is the retail specialist division within BT. It provides solutions to enable multichannel retailers to compete effectively. BT Expedite spans every area of retailing; planning, sourcing, merchandising, store, sales analytics, CRM, plus network infrastructure, hardware and professional services.

BT Expedite's multichannel capability was reinforced by the acquisition of Fresca in 2008. BT Fresca creates transactional web stores for leading fashion and lifestyle brands in the UK and across the globe.

Customers include: Aurora Fashions (Coast, Oasis and Warehouse), Mothercare, New Look, Pets at Home, Primark, Thomas Pink and WHSmith

For more information, visit www.btexpedite.com

LINK:	http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/Showarticle.cfm?ArticleID=17B66DE3-...
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