Valtech launches Commerce Accelerator with commercetools, inspired by work with Mars

London, 13th June - Global business transformation agency Valtech has collaborated with the leading composable commerce platform commercetools to launch a composable commerce accelerator for multi-brand companies, inspired by the tried-and-proven commerce model it created for the multi-brand FMCG organization, Mars. Known as ‘LEAP’, the accelerator presents a solution for multi-brand direct-to-consumer (DTC) and B2C commerce strategy as they modernize and differentiate their customer experiences across their brands and channels.

“LEAP is designed to empower multi-brand enterprises in a competitive marketplace driven by fast-paced technology adoption and innovation in commerce,”

said Casper Aagaard Rasmussen, Group SVP of Technology at Valtech.

“As multi-brand businesses move from a siloed and inflexible organizational structure to become digital enterprises, LEAP gets them back into the race. With time of the essence, our new commerce accelerator helps companies act fast in closing the widening gap between their processes and technology that hinders growth. With this gap narrowed, they no longer sacrifice on technology innovation and instead, are better positioned to leapfrog the competition through exceptional customer experiences. We’re excited to lead the way in commerce with Mars and commercetools and for other brands to take advantage of this offering.”

LEAP allows multi-brand businesses to compose, manage, and scale their desired digital capabilities under one unified system. The composable commerce infrastructure gives them the necessary flexibility to meet the expectations of today’s customers in an omnichannel world, with 84% of customers regarding their experience as equally important to the products or services on offer (Statista). By transitioning multi-brand businesses to a composable solution, the accelerator can boost time to value by 35% as businesses avoid getting stuck in technology upgrade cycles, which many are spending 50% of their budget on according to the MACH^® Alliance. They can therefore refocus their resources on value-generating activity, such as differentiating their customer experience.

A recent Gartner study concluded that organizations which adopt an intelligent, composable approach in their tech stack will outpace competitors by 80% next year. This nimble approach is key for multi-brand businesses who are tasked with managing multiple brands, in multiple markets, across multiple channels to multiple audiences. For example, multi-brand FMCG and multi-brand retailers in fashion, DIY, electronics, and many more are the ideal candidates for this approach as they take on new partnerships and revenue streams to meet customers’ needs. It allows them to spin up/down digital capabilities and switch in/out components where needed to capitalize on new revenue opportunities.

“We have built a ‘commerce launcher’ that provides reliability across the stack at scale. It aims to have 60% of the usual D2C capabilities which everyone has come to expect, allowing our brands to focus on thinking and building differentiation,” said Balki Subramanian, VP Digital Demand at Mars and co-creator of the vision for LEAP.

“We can now also use the commerce launcher to accelerate the customer journey and go-to-market for all brands at Mars. This is a collective vision that we are validating purposefully.”

Originally created for Mars, LEAP is delivered by Valtech – who bring industry-renowned enterprise commerce, customer experience, and MACH^®* expertise – with long-time technology partner, commercetools, one of the founders of MACH^® architecture. The accelerator presents an opportunity for multi-brand businesses to access best-of-breed technology and composable services and know-how.

“We’re in an era where commerce experiences offline and within digital touchpoints have collided – there’s no way around that for consumer-facing brands. This means it’s critical that these businesses have flexible operational structures and technologies that allows for faster adaptation to the market and consumer preferences,” said Kelly Goetsch, Chief Strategy Officer at commercetools.

“Composable is the path to creating differentiated end-to-end shopping experiences thanks to its flexibility, scalability, and ability to facilitate innovation. What’s more is that it’s primed for experimentation, which not only helps to solve today’s challenges, but also shape tomorrow’s opportunities for forming stronger customer relationships.”

*The MACH^® Alliance is a non-profit industry body that advocates for open and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystems. Standing for microservices, API-driven, cloud-native and headless technologies, MACH^® is a set of architectural principles that put flexibility, agility and the pursuit of better business outcomes at the forefront of technical solutions.

About Valtech

Valtech is a global business transformation agency that delivers innovation with purpose. We enable our clients to anticipate tomorrow's trends and connect more directly with consumers in their digital and physical spaces, optimising time to market and return on investment.  
   
Valtech is the preferred strategic business transformation partner for many of the world's best-known brands, including Dolby, L'Oréal, Philips, P&G, Toyota, Volkswagen, and many others. 

Established in 1993, we currently employ more than 6,000 professionals, including experienced designers, marketers, data scientists, creatives, and software engineers across five continents, with more than 60 offices in over 20 countries.  
   
With strong experience in design, technology and marketing, our passion is to address our clients' transformational business challenges. We reimagine the customer journey and build new connected experiences, put data to work for businesses in this new era, and help our clients transform their operations.  
   
Our services include strategic consulting, service design, technology services and optimisation of essential digital platforms for omni-channel marketing and merchandising. 

About commercetools

commercetools founded the headless commerce concept, and is the industry-leading composable commerce platform enabling brands to adapt and lead evolutions in digital commerce. commercetools provides its customers with the agility and tools needed to innovate and iterate on the fly, merge on and off-line channels, take advantage of new markets, drive new and higher revenue generating opportunities, and future-proof their eCommerce business –– without incurring technical and operational risks.

Today, commercetools is trusted by some of the world's most iconic brands including Audi, Danone, Eurorail, NBCUniversal, Sephora and Volkswagen Group, and many more. To learn more, visit commercetools.com.

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