Client Overview
The client is a pioneering sustainable fashion retailer based in Europe, operating multiple brick-and-mortar stores and a rapidly expanding e-commerce platform. Committed to promoting ethical fashion choices and reducing environmental impact, the company has built a loyal customer base that values sustainability, but its existing systems were unable to support its unique business model effectively.
Challenges:
1. Loyalty Program Limitations:
The client aimed to create a loyalty program that rewarded customers not only for purchases but also for eco-friendly actions, such as recycling clothes. However, Salesforce’s default loyalty tools, including the Loyalty Cloud, were primarily designed for transactional rewards and lacked the flexibility to track non-transactional actions effectively. This limitation hindered their ability to engage customers in their sustainability initiatives.
2. Dynamic Pricing Complexity:
To implement a dynamic pricing model that adjusted product prices based on various factors, including eco-certifications and inventory age. Unfortunately, standard Salesforce pricing tools, such as CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote), did not support the complex logic required for these adjustments. They needed a solution that could automate pricing changes in real-time while considering sustainability metrics.
3. Sustainability Reporting Gaps:
Store managers at the company struggled to obtain comprehensive insights into their sustainability efforts. They needed dashboards that combined data from various sources, including IoT devices for energy consumption and metrics from recycling partners. While Tableau CRM (formerly Einstein Analytics) offered advanced analytics capabilities, it could not fully automate the integration of external data without additional customization.
4. Manual Pre-Order Chaos:
Frequent launches of limited-edition collections that required a pre-order system, but existing tools were inadequate for managing production timelines, reserving inventory, and notifying customers about order statuses. This led to inventory mismatches and customer dissatisfaction, as customers were often left in the dark about their order progress.
Recognizing the need for a more robust solution, the client partnered with us to customize Salesforce into a unified platform that would not only streamline their operations but also align with their core values of sustainability and customer engagement.
Solutions:
1. Hybrid Loyalty Program: Loyalty Cloud and Custom Development
- The experts at Cyntexa implemented Salesforce Loyalty Cloud to manage the core structure of the loyalty program, including points for purchases, tier levels, and standard rewards. This allowed them to leverage the robust features of Loyalty Cloud for transactional rewards, which are essential for customer retention.
- To address the unique requirement of rewarding eco-friendly actions, our skilled developers built a custom object called “Eco-Actions” to track recycling events. This object was linked to customer profiles, allowing them to monitor and reward customers for their sustainable behaviors.
- Apex triggers were used to to automatically award loyalty points when customers engaged in eco-actions, such as recycling a certain number of items. A Lightning Web Component (LWC) was also created to provide customers with a user-friendly interface to view their eco-rewards alongside their standard loyalty points.
2. Dynamic Pricing Engine
- Our team utilized Salesforce’s Price Rules to establish basic discount structures for products based on inventory age. This allowed the client to implement some level of dynamic pricing without extensive customization.
- However, to achieve the desired level of dynamic pricing that considered eco-certifications and other sustainability metrics, we added custom fields to product records, such as “Eco-Score” and “Inventory Age.”
- Furthermore, we also integrated the pricing engine with the company’s ERP system using MuleSoft to pull real-time demand data,
3. Sustainability Dashboard with Tableau CRM and Custom Data Integration
- We deployed Tableau CRM (CRM Analytics) to visualize sales trends, customer demographics, and inventory performance. This allowed them to leverage Tableau’s AI-driven insights for standard retail analytics.
- Also, to track sustainability metrics, we built custom connectors using MuleSoft to integrate IoT sensor data (e.g., store energy consumption) and recycling partner APIs into Tableau CRM. A custom LWC dashboard was embedded directly into Salesforce, displaying real-time KPIs like “Carbon Saved per Store” and “Waste Reduction Progress.”
- Since Tableau CRM couldn’t natively connect to IoT devices or third-party sustainability APIs. thus, these custom integrations bridged this gap, enabling them to unify all sustainability data in one place.
4. Pre-Order Management
- Our team configured Salesforce’s standard Order Management features to track basic pre-order requests and customer details.
- These were some of the customizations that were added by our experts:
- Added custom fields (e.g., “Production Stage,” “Estimated Completion Date”) to Orders for granular tracking.
- Automated customer notifications using Flow Orchestrations (e.g., “Your pre-order is now in production!”).
- Integrated with the company’s ERP via MuleSoft Composer to reserve the inventory and prevent overselling.
The client found that Salesforce’s Order Management Cloud was too cost adverse for its needs. Instead, they used custom fields and flows to create specific functions without the extra licensing costs.
To maximize the effectiveness of custom salesforce solutions, appropriate training and support are essential. Hence we provided a comprehensive training program, featuring workshops, user guides, and resources that cater to the specific needs of the client’s team. Additionally, our experts provided 24/7 support to address inquiries and assist in resolving any challenges that may have arised.
Benefits
The client’s partnership with Cyntexa exemplifies how strategic Salesforce customization can transform a retailer’s operations while staying true to its values. Thus, they were able to see the following benefits:
- There was a significant rise in customer participation and loyalty engagement.
- There was a reduction in unsold stock owing to dynamic pricing.
- The company was able to achieve the desired drop in excessive usage of energy with real-time dashboard monitoring.
- They had fewer inventory mismatches from the solution implementation onwards.
