3.3. Problem/Opportunity Profile
During the planning stages of the jcrew.com redeployment, Sun Professional Services, Fort Point Partners, and ATG focused on four core goals that needed to be met.
3.3.1. Scalability Limitations
The first goal was to overcome a scalability limitation inherent in the existing architecture. During peak usage times, such as the annual holiday rush. when much of its revenue was generated, the site often came to a complete stop, leaving J.Crew in danger of losing the customers it had worked so hard to acquire. The architecture did not leverage any type of connection pooling to the database, which meant that for each customer session, a new connection was opened up to the database. This put tremendous strain on the database, and as jcrew.com attracted more and more customers, the site simply could not handle the load.
3.3.2. Personalization and Segmentation
J.Crew sought to leverage customer behavior and transactional data to help target merchandise more effectively. It hoped to do so through understanding the impact of the products, pricing, promotions, and inventory management on the actual interests and habits of customer. On the original site, customers could browse through a static, online version of the catalog. J.Crew knew that this was only a small part of what its site could be, however. It wanted to enhance the relationship with its customers by segmenting registered users based on purchasing behavior and by presenting dynamic, personalized content to users based on the products they tended to prefer. Segmenting would also allow anonymous customers to find products more easily by presenting more segments to search. Customers would be able to shop by season, gender, product type, or clothing style (such as casual or business attire).
3.3.3. Cross-Channel Integration Opportunity
J.Crew developed a concept called One Crew, which was designed to leverage its personalization capabilities to create a seamless, cross-channel communications layer that links its brick-and-mortar stores, mail-order house, and online store. Under the One Crew approach to sales, customers could purchase a product online or through the catalog and, if needed, return it to any of J.Crew's retail stores. The products purchased through any of the three channels had a direct impact on the type of special promotions made available to a customer. For example, if a customer logged on to jcrew.com a week after purchasing a pair of khaki pants at a J.Crew store, this information could be used to promote an item that would complement that purchase. This level of integration supports more extensive cross-selling opportunities, providing a robust and convenient shopping environment that can drive sales and revenues. For such channel integration, J.Crew required a flexible IT infrastructure.
In addition, J.Crew knew it needed to enhance the functionality of its site to keep it ahead of increasing competition in the clothing world. Companies were slowly beginning to gain market share by offering customers added convenience through their own sites. J.Crew wanted its site to offer these features and more, including:
Multiple ship-to addresses
Address books for sending gifts
Gift wrapping and messaging
Multilingual support for expansion into foreign markets
| 1995 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial launch of static Web site | 
| |||
| Launch of dynamic, rearchitected Web site by Sun Professional Services | 
| |||
| Deployment of multitier Web site with personalization features | 
| |||
| Internationalization of Web site with Japanese version | 
| |||
| Further internationalization and customization of Web site | 
|