Reitmans is a Canadian retailer operating over 900 stores under six banners. It developed five major ecommerce sites using Demandware's commerce platform to deliver a 360-degree shopping experience across its brands and support peaks in online demand. This enabled Reitmans to rapidly expand its online presence, with every brand launching an ecommerce site seeing double digit sales growth. The new platform also allows Reitmans to increase in-store visits and customer loyalty through personalized online features.

1. Case Study
BUSINESS
Reitmans is an apparel retailer operating 900-plus stores and six banners, including
Reitmans, Penningtons, Addition Elle, RW&CO., Smart Set and Thyme Maternity.
It is one of Canada’s largest publicly-owned retail companies with more than
10,000 employees.
CHALLENGE
To deliver a 360-degree shopping experience to customers, Reitmans needed a
flexible, scalable and reliable ecommerce platform. It was vital that the platform
could support peaks in customer demand and multiple brands.
SOLUTION
In the 12 months ending October 2012, the retailer developed five major ecommerce
sites using the Demandware Commerce platform. The solution is integrated with
back-office systems and enables Reitmans to add new online features that enrich
the customer experience.
RESULTS
Reitmans has unlocked a new revenue stream without cannibalizing in-store sales.
The company’s ecommerce sites help increase customer store visits and loyalty and
provide a foundation for future innovation and growth.
Industry segment
Apparel
URL
www.reitmans.com
www.additionelle.com
www.penningtons.com
www.rw-co.com
Scale
900-plus stores
Brooks Runs
Faster with
Demandware
Reitmans
provides a
richer shopping
experience with
Demandware
In partnership with:

2. 2
BUSINESS
AN 80-YEAR PEDIGREE IN APPAREL RETAIL
Reitmans has been selling clothing for more than 80 years. Its retail roots stretch
back to 1926 and a family-owned department store in Montreal.
The company has since expanded significantly to include a number of other brands,
such as Smart Set, RW&CO., Penningtons, Addition Elle and Thyme Maternity, and
more than 900 stores.
Reitmans is now one of Canada’s largest publicly-owned retail companies, with
more than 10,000 employees across the country.
CHALLENGE
DRIVING MORE IN-STORE BUSINESS VIA ECOMMERCE
For Reitmans, its ecommerce operation
is intrinsically linked to the company’s
physical stores. As Diane Randolph, CIO
at Reitmans, explains: “We want our online
services to complement, not conflict,
with those offered in-store, and to deliver
a 360-degree shopping experience to
customers.”
Reitmans has integrated the ecommerce
platform with its customer relationship
management, enterprise resource planning
and order management systems.
With six different divisions, each with
distinct branding and product catalogues,
Reitmans needed to establish individual
sites rather than a single ecommerce
portal. “Each brand has a different audience,
so we couldn’t take a ‘cookie cutter’ approach to the sites,’ adds Randolph.
“Our priority for 2013 is to ensure that all divisions have online shopping capabilities,”
comments Randolph. “Ecommerce will be key to growing our top line in the future.
We want to establish a ‘buy from anywhere, fulfill from anywhere’ retail operation.”
SOLUTION
RAPID ROLL-OUT OF NEW SITES AND ONLINE FEATURES
To support its ecommerce ambitions across multiple divisions, Reitmans needed a
flexible and stable front-end platform that can support peaks in customer demand.
“Since launching
our ecommerce
offerings, we have
experienced double
digit growth year-
on-year in terms of
online sales.”
–Diane Randolph
CIO
Reitmans
Case Study: Reitmans

3. 3
The retailer’s initial entry into the ecommerce arena in late 2007 had been held back
by a lack of flexibility in the former storefront solution. With its flagship brand Reitmans
ready to join the online shopping revolution in 2010, the company needed to move in
a different direction and find a more robust and scalable ecommerce platform.
Reitmans was keen to minimize any additional cost and complexity, which made
Demandware’s cloud-based model an ideal fit with its objectives.
Jaylone Lee, Senior Project Manager at Reitmans, comments: “The ecommerce
marketplace is changing rapidly; we need to ensure we embrace the right trends
and technologies for our business. Demandware and its partners provide us with
both the insight and tools we need to maximize the potential for ecommerce across
our brands.”
Within eight months of selecting the Demandware solution, Reitmans had completed
all the business and IT phases of the project and launched its first two web sites on
the new platform: reitmans.com in English and French.
The company has since migrated three brands onto the Demandware platform
(Penningtons, Addition Elle and RW-CO), completed a re-design of the reitmans.com
site and also completed the build for two additional brands slated for launch in 2013.
To deliver a ‘360-degree’ shopping experience, Reitmans has integrated the
ecommerce platform with its customer relationship management, enterprise resource
planning and order management systems. A ship-to-store option is being introduced
in 2013.
RESULTS
MORE CUSTOMERS, MORE SALES
Reitmans has been able to achieve its objective of launching multiple ecommerce
sites in a shorter timeframe and with lower development costs. The internal teams
have increased capacity to maintain and build new sites while reducing their
dependence on third-party partners.
“The Demandware platform reduces time to market for new
sites and upgrades. It enables us to reuse code and execute
more development in-house,” confirms Lee. “We effectively
completed five major site builds in the space of 12 months,
which was well ahead of our expectations.”
By enabling greater velocity throughout the ecommerce
deployment cycle, Reitmans has been able to take advantage
of new revenue streams more quickly. As Randolph confirms:
“Since launching our ecommerce offerings, every brand that
has launched a transactional site has experienced double digit
growth year-on-year in terms of online sales.”
The ecommerce sites also help to increase in-store business
by providing personalized shopping features. For example,
“The Demandware
platform reduces
time to market. It
enables us to reuse
code and execute
more development
in-house.”
–Jaylone Lee
Senior Project Manager
Reitmans
Case Study: Reitmans

4. Reitmans has introduced an online ‘wish list’ that customers can print out and take to
a store to view different products in person.
“Through ecommerce, we can provide a richer shopping experience, which will
increase customer loyalty and spend,” comments Randolph. “With a stable and
scalable platform in place, we can maximize opportunities for innovation and growth
that will drive greater market share.”
* Reitmans 2012 Annual Report
ABOUT DEMANDWARE
Demandware, a leader in digital commerce, enables the world’s premier retailers to
move faster and grow faster in the changing face of retail. Demandware’s enterprise
cloud platform minimizes the costs and complexities of running global, omni-channel
commerce operations, and empowers retailers to respond with speed and agility to
new market opportunities and continually evolving consumer expectations.
THE BOTTOM LINE
> Stronger revenue
generation and growth
opportunities
> More customer visits
to stores
> Faster time-to-market
for new online features
> Lower ecommerce
development and
implementation costs
© 2013 Demandware, Inc. This document contains archival information which should not be considered current and may no longer be accurate.
Demandware, Inc.
5 Wall Street Burlington, MA 01803 +1 (781) 425 1400 demandware.com
info@demandware.com