Bluebell Group: Asia’s flexible omnichannel retail group
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Bluebell Group: digital transformation to curate omnichannel brands WRITTEN BY
MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY
KRIS PALMER
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BLUEBELL
Alex Misseri, Head of Digital Transformation and Revenues at Bluebell Group, discusses how the company is using digital transformation to enable cutting edge omnichannel retail experiences
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ince 1954, Bluebell Group has become a name synonymous with Asian retail. Having successfully launched a broad
array of European, American and other global brands in the region, Bluebell has amassed over 150 brand partners with more than 700 online and brick and 04
mortar stores across 10 Asian countries. Responding to the advent of the digital age and the concept of New Retail – the need for retailers to have both an offline and online presence to maximise the prospects of their offering – is an ongoing endeavour that requires dynamism and market expertise to accomplish successfully. “It’s a challenge to conduct a digital transformation with one brand in one country, but it’s quite a different challenge when you have as many brands across as many countries as we do at Bluebell,” says Alex Misseri, Head of Digital Transformation and Revenues at Bluebell. “It’s a bigger challenge, but it’s also a bigger opportunity. The value of being a multi-brand distributor in so many countries is that we have so many points of view and ideas that can be taken into
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BLUEBELL
“It’s a bigger challenge, but it’s also a bigger opportunity” — Alex Misseri, Head of Digital Transformation and Revenues, Bluebell Group 06
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘BLUEBELL, THE BRAND BEHIND THE BRANDS’ 07 account both on a local and group
the last few years we have introduced
level.” Seamless integration of online
a number of new customer-facing
and offline presences, Misseri adds, has
technologies: from handling our brands’
become vital to launching and growing
social media presence to managing
brands in Asian markets. “The mission
ecommerce and customer relationships,”
is to enable the group to curate the
explains Misseri. Emarsys, a leader in
brands we work with in a modern way.
the B2C marketing automation space,
We nurture these brands and help
has provided its state-of-the-art market-
them develop their presence online,
ing software in addition to Bluebell’s
both from a marketing and sales point
customer relationship management
of view.”
(CRM) engine, optimising the group’s
Bluebell has positioned itself to
capacity to leverage data to understand
achieve these aims through constant
its customers and personalise its
evolutions in both its back-end and front-
communications. These solutions
end technological capabilities. “Over
complement the group’s integration of w w w.bl ue be l l gro u p . com
BLUEBELL
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“ Everyone in the company, whatever their role, has acknowledged the need for change and aligned with the vision” — Alex Misseri, Head of Digital Transformation and Revenues, Bluebell Group
its preferred ecommerce platforms, Shopify and Magento, along with other Asia-specific ones. “Most of, it not all of, the consumer-facing tools that we use are in the cloud,” says Misseri. “For back-end applications, however, we manage the hosting by ourselves across various data centres in Asia.” In fact, Bluebell Group has adopted an in-house approach to many facets of its digital transformation, including its overhaul of back-end operations and change management. “We have not engaged a consulting firm to
assist us with the transformation,”
sales and store employees, understand
says Misseri. “We decided to
and embrace the digital transformation.
organise, lead and execute it
Misseri notes that these workshops
completely internally.”
have taken on a collaborative element,
One example of this has been in
enabling staff to share ideas and identify
managing internal culture shifts
areas for adaptation and growth. “We
involved in the application of new
know that the people serving custom-
technologies. Recognising the
ers – sales people, retail managers,
importance of developing a positive
marketing managers – are those who
change-oriented culture, Bluebell has
can best identify and express the need
conducted a range of workshops to
for change. The workshops between
ensure that staff at all levels, from
the staff and top management create
executives and leadership teams to
a common understanding of what we 09
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Alex Misseri As Head of Digital Transformation and Revenues, Alex Misseri is the lead digital support of Bluebell local business units across Asia. He develops the digital ecosystem of the Group to accelerate the growth of Bluebell Brand Partners, increasing their online presence and sales. Alex has been devoted to building digital businesses and experiences for the past 12 years. First in Shanghai where he founded an eCommerce startup, before moving on to lead eCommerce for French leading female fashion group Etam. He then moved to SapientRazorfish (Publicis Group) as Head of Retail & Commerce for 4.5 years, building the agency’s Omnichannel Commerce practice and supporting major international brands to grow their online sales in China.
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BLUEBELL
USD
$2bn
Approximate revenue
1954
Year founded
10
3,500+
Approximate number of employees
10+
Countries in Asia
150+
Brand partners
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GET YOUR DEMO
“ The next stage of market and customer needs, and how the journey will we believe those needs should be addressed.” Misseri highlights the be scaling the success of this strategy as a key initiatives that component of the wider transformation’s achievements, emphasising how vital it have been piloted remains to the ongoing process. “Every- on specific brands one in the company acknowledges the and territories” need for change and has aligned with perceive to be the evolution of the
the vision,” he says. The most difficult part of a digital transformation is the people aspect. Having people accept
— Alex Misseri, Head of Digital Transformation and Revenues, Bluebell Group
the situation, the need for change, and
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contributing to developing the strategy
through the CRM component, is helping
and to executing it will lead us to where
us to better understand our customers.
we need to be.”
We are also trying to incorporate social
This people-driven attitude perme-
listening based on AI.” Artificial Intelli-
ates Bluebell’s digital transformation
gence is starting to be leveraged in
strategy, with a particular focus on
various parts of the business: “We are
establishing solutions internally that
currently doing a proof of concept with
maximise the value of consumer infor-
Chain of Demand in order to predict
mation and insights. “We are investing
demand for various products based on
more resources and money into
historical primary data and various types
analysing customer data, but are still
of public data, in order to improve what
at the beginning of our journey,” says
we call ‘our buys’: which products, and
Misseri. “We have the main building
in what quantity, we buy from the brands
blocks in place, and have begun ana-
we work with.” The aim, Misseri says, is
lysing data to inform business decisions.
to optimise the merchandising of the
For instance, our work with Emarsys,
stores, both online and offline, based w w w.bl ue be l l gro u p . com
BLUEBELL
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE BLUEBELL CURATED PATH’ 14 on intelligent, data-driven selection conducted by an automated platform. For Bluebell Group, the next steps are focused on taking full advantage of the technologies and strategies that have been put in place so far. “The next stage of the journey will be scaling the initiatives that have been piloted on specific brands and territories,” says Misseri. “This will involve bringing those successful pilots and learnings to our other brands, and making it the default to any new brand we bring onboard in the future.” This measured approach is not stifling the company’s
adaptability, however, with Misseri noting that the landscape demands a constant eye on the latest changes and technologies. “Asia, and retail in Asia, is constantly changing,” he says. “Successful retailers, distributors and brands have to constantly adapt to these changes and reinvent themselves every few years, if not months. Understanding these changes and adapting to them is mission critical.” With its flexible and positive internal culture in place, Bluebell has established an exceptionally stable model for this versatility in the industry and region. Misseri concludes: “To accelerate the growth of our brand partners, we must always acknowledge and understand local cultural diversity whilst creating efficient functions and proficiencies that enable faster roll-outs and seamless operations.”
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Bluebell Group Bluebell Asia Ltd. 21/F, Dorset House Taikoo Place 979 King’s Road Quarry Bay Hong Kong T +852 2968 1188 www.bluebellgroup.com