1. Case Study
BUSINESS
vineyard vines is a chain of apparel and lifestyle stores headquartered in, Connecticut,
US. Started by two brothers selling ties on the beach in 1998, the company now has
35 stores, a significant wholesale business and a growing online presence.
CHALLENGE
vineyard vines differentiates itself through its branding and customer experience.
Following rapid growth, the company’s legacy ecommerce solution could no longer
support innovation or an omni-channel strategy.
SOLUTION
The company has transformed its ecommerce capabilities by deploying a
cloud-based digital commerce platform from Demandware, and has been able
to launch new services and drive greater channel integration. For example, online
capabilities have been extended in-store with an ‘endless aisle’ initiative.
RESULTS
The retailer now has the ecommerce foundation it needs to drive growth. In the past
year the company has seen 58 percent growth online, and is planning a range of
innovations that will driver a better customer experience and greater competitive
advantage.
Industry segment
Apparel and lifestyle
URL
www.vineyardvines.com
Scale
35 stores and 500-plus employees
In partnership with:
vineyard vines
boosts growth
and revenue
with new omni-
channel strategy

2. 2
BUSINESS
BRINGING MORE COLOR AND VITALITY TO CLOTHING AND LIFE
vineyard vines started with two brothers selling ties on the beach on Martha’s
Vineyard from the back of a Jeep in 1998. Just over a decade later, the brothers now
have 35 stores throughout the US and more than 500 employees.
Ties are still an important feature of the vineyard vines portfolio, with today’s range
including designs created especially for the National Hockey League, Major League
Baseball, the National Football League and a number of colleges and universities
in the US. The company’s product portfolio has also expanded to include men’s,
women’s and children’s clothing, accessories and lifestyle products.
As well as selling directly to consumers from its network of stores, vineyard vines has
a large wholesale business supplying the likes of Bloomingdale’s, Saks, Fifth Avenue
and Nordstrom. In 2010, vineyard vines launched the “Tied to a Cause” collection.
In the spirit of giving back, vineyard vines regularly partners with different charities to
create custom products and donates all proceeds back to the charity.
CHALLENGE
DIFFERENTIATING THE BRAND
From shirts and ties to handbags and iPhone cases, all vineyard vines’ products reflect
the owners’ outlook on life with vibrant and colorful designs. Its company tagline –
“Every day should feel this good” along with colorful catalog and digital photography
reinforces its effort to bring comfort, fun, and style to the product offering.
This vitality also extends to the company’s brand and messaging, which need to be
consistent across all of its customer channels, including the Internet and direct-order
catalogues. vineyard vines shares the stories of friends, family and customers through
a series of catalog and online profiles, showing how these individuals make vineyard
vines a part of their lifestyle.
While its branding is a key differentiator, the company recognized that to compete
with the larger retailers, it also needed to differentiate through quality of service.
Abu Bakar, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at vineyard
vines, comments: “Product and price are no longer the only differentiators in
the retail market. In order to remain competitive, we need to offer our customers
an innovative, seamless and satisfying experience whether they are in-store,
online or ordering from our catalogue. This enables us to build strong customer
relationships and loyalty.”
vineyard vines’ previous ecommerce platform was no longer able to keep up with the
company’s rapid growth, and had become complex and time-consuming to manage.
Merchandising, changing navigation and search engine optimisation (SEO) were
particularly difficult using the legacy solution.
“It was vital that we find an alternative ecommerce solution that could grow with us.
We explored a number of approaches to this, including both licensed and software-
Case Study: vineyard vines

3. as-a-service models,” comments Bakar. “We came to the conclusion that we
would expand faster if we focused on growing the business and not on growing our
investment in IT infrastructure.”
SOLUTION
RISK-FREE ROLLOUT, RAPID RETURN
To achieve this focus, vineyard vines decided to deploy Demandware’s digital
commerce platform, as it offered the scalability it needed and the flexibility to support
service enhancements.
The cloud-based platform and Demandware’s unique shared success model
appealed to the retailer due to the nature of the vendor-supplier relationship they
encouraged. “Demandware’s success depends upon our success, which means that
it has a vested interest in helping us achieve our goals,” comments Bakar.
vineyard vines worked with Demandware’s partner, Lyons Consulting Group (lyonscg),
to design and integrate the website. David Barr, Executive Vice President at lyonscg,
comments: “We were thrilled to collaborate with vineyard vines and Demandware on
the implementation of the new site. The results speak for themselves with strong sales
performance and an award-winning design. The site is a great example of following
core ecommerce best practices to achieve fantastic results.”
The website was awarded best-in-class for design in both retail and fashion
categories in the 2012 Interactive Media Awards™.
Six months after signing the contract in October 2011, the new site went live.
“Typically platform changes of this magnitude can cause problems, but with the
Demandware platform we have been running without any major hiccups from day
one,” adds Bakar.
vineyard vines’ new website offers a wider selection of products, improved search
functionality and flexibility in product categorization. It also enables customer review
ratings, which are expressed using the company’s whale motif. The company is very
active on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter, which currently help drive 10 percent of
traffic to the website. vineyard vine’s Facebook page, which is integrated with the
eCommerce site, has more than 370,000 fans, and the company connects with
more than 51,000 followers on Twitter, supporting its focus on personalization by
including links to customer stories and photos.
The new ecommerce platform also provides vineyard vines’ staff with additional
features, and will be key to driving the company’s onmi-channel strategy. For
example, the retailer has launched an ‘endless aisle’ initiative, which enables store
associates to order new stock online.
“It no longer matters whether a store is closed or not – we can provide our customers
with access to our products every minute of every day and through every channel and
device,” adds Bakar. The ship-from-store initiative now sends 7 to 10 percent of daily
demand from the web to stores.
Case Study: vineyard vines
THE BOTTOM LINE
> Rapid implementation
> Faster growth
> Better customer
experience
> Stronger channel
integration
> Deeper trending data
> Greater innovation and
competitive advantage
3

4. “It took just eight weeks to roll out the endless aisle initiative, which will increase both
sales and customer satisfaction by ensuring that we have the right stock levels to
meet local needs,” comments Bakar.
RESULTS
DRIVING INNOVATION AND PROFITABLE GROWTH
vineyard vines can now pursue its ambitious plans for the future both in the US and
beyond. The retailer is now focused on delivering its omni-channel strategy for this
year and 2014, including a number of exciting initiatives such as:
• Customer personalization • International shipping
• Live chat • Mobile shopping capabilities
• Additional payment options • Greater social media integration
The company will be able to prioritize its investment in these and other innovations by
analyzing historical customer shopping data.
Regular omni-channel strategy workshops with Demandware have helped the
company define a roadmap that takes advantage of all available channels to
encourage greater growth. “Delivering new and enhanced capabilities enriches
the customer experience and helps us stay ahead of the competition,” comments
Bakar. “Demandware plays a key role in the innovation process and enables us to
continuously improve our ecommerce offerings.”
Demandware’s platform has transformed much more than just the customer
experience; it has also enabled vineyard vines to unlock new go-to-market
opportunities. With optimized performance and the ability to take advantage of
new opportunities, vineyard vines is able to successfully grow and evolve its business.
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.
ABOUT LYONS CONSULTING GROUP
Lyons Consulting Group is the premier digital agency specializing in strategy, ux/
design, development and ongoing support. Its diverse team of experts has decades
of experience in retail strategy, graphic design, platform customisation, development,
backend integration, quality assurance and support.
“We can now
provide our
customers
with access to
our products
every minute of
every day and
through every
channel and
device.”
–Abu Bakar
EVP and CIO,
vineyard vines
Demandware, Inc.
5 Wall Street Burlington, MA 01803 +1 (781) 425 1400 demandware.com
info@demandware.com
© 2013 Demandware, Inc. This document contains archival information which should not be considered current and may no longer be accurate. Approved for unlimited distribution.