Pandora’s APAC commerce modernization
Global retailers often talk about standardization as if it were the opposite of localization. In practice, the real challenge is not choosing one over the other. It is building a commerce foundation strong enough to scale while staying flexible enough to reflect how regions actually operate. Pandora’s APAC commerce modernization offers a practical example of how to do both.
In APAC, Pandora was dealing with a familiar problem for multinational retailers: a regional e-commerce environment that had evolved around local needs but had become increasingly difficult to maintain. The region was running an outdated Salesforce Commerce RefApp architecture, supported by unique customizations and local flexibility patterns that were costly and labor-intensive to implement. Releases were slow. Updates were complex. And what had once helped the region adapt had started to create friction instead.
This is where many global organizations get stuck. Regional variation becomes the reason to preserve technical complexity, duplicate code and slow delivery cycles. But Pandora’s experience shows that local nuance does not have to mean local sprawl.
Publicis Sapient partnered with Pandora to modernize the APAC commerce environment using an agile delivery approach designed to move quickly without losing sight of long-term maintainability. The work focused on upgrading and optimizing the Salesforce Commerce application while enabling a more common foundation across Pandora’s e-commerce platforms. That meant supporting a common codebase, shared functionality and a more consistent storefront approach, while also dealing directly with the realities of APAC-specific customization.
Rather than simply carrying old complexity forward, the team decoupled the region’s unique custom code and rebuilt it from scratch. This was a critical step. By removing redundant and duplicate code, Pandora gained a cleaner architecture that was easier to maintain, easier to scale and better aligned with the needs of the broader organization. The point was not to erase what made the region distinct. It was to separate true business requirements from legacy technical baggage.
The speed of delivery mattered as much as the architectural outcome. Publicis Sapient deployed the updated Salesforce Commerce application in just over two months. For a retailer operating across multiple markets and channels, that kind of timeline is meaningful. It demonstrated that modernization did not need to become a long, disruptive transformation program before value could be realized. Using agile development processes, the team was able to expedite migration and deployment while keeping the effort grounded in practical business outcomes.
Those outcomes were clear. Pandora cut migration time in half. Release velocity improved from several months to a matter of weeks. After the first successful migration, its e-commerce applications required no additional downtime. What changed was not only the platform itself, but the business’s ability to keep improving it.
That distinction is important. Many commerce programs are judged on launch alone. But for retail leaders, the bigger question is what happens after launch: how quickly teams can release updates, how easily they can maintain regional experiences and how confidently they can support future growth. In APAC, Pandora moved from a model shaped by slow, costly releases to one built for ongoing adaptability.
The transformation also fits into a broader pattern in Pandora’s digital evolution. Across markets, the company was working to reduce fragmentation, improve omnichannel operations and create more unified customer experiences. Publicis Sapient helped remove silos between marketing, commercial operations and technology, using cross-functional ways of working and a test-and-learn approach to make the organization more agile, not just its platform stack. That broader operating model mattered because platform modernization works best when teams can move with the same speed as the technology they are deploying.
In APAC, that agility extended beyond the storefront. Publicis Sapient also helped Pandora strengthen omnichannel fulfillment by modernizing order management with IBM Sterling Order Management on Cloud, with the initial rollout focused on Australia and New Zealand. Before that work, APAC markets faced manual processes, limited inventory reconciliation and outdated customer service tools. The new environment supported consolidated e-commerce fulfillment, real-time inventory visibility, improved ship-to-home services, optimized returns and refunds, and capabilities such as Click-and-Collect and Store Fulfillment.
Taken together, these changes created more than a cleaner commerce stack. They created a stronger operational base for cross-channel retail. Better inventory visibility, improved tools for post-purchase inquiries and reduced friction across fulfillment flows all helped support a more connected customer experience. Just as importantly, the transformation created a foundation that could scale into additional markets over time.
For retail executives, the APAC story offers a valuable lesson. Regional requirements are real. Market maturity differs. Customer expectations vary. Fulfillment models are not identical across geographies. But none of that automatically justifies preserving outdated architectures, duplicate customization or release processes that take months to move. The better approach is to build a shared core that can absorb variation intelligently.
Pandora’s APAC modernization shows what that can look like in practice: a common commerce foundation, local flexibility where it is needed, redundant complexity removed, and delivery speed improved dramatically. It is a model that recognizes localization as a design consideration, not a reason to accept technical debt.
This is also why APAC matters as more than a regional case. It serves as a proof point for global retailers trying to balance platform consistency with market nuance. Standardization does not have to flatten regional relevance. And local flexibility does not have to come at the expense of speed, maintainability or scale.
By modernizing an outdated commerce environment, decoupling unnecessary custom code and accelerating release cycles from months to weeks, Pandora created a more agile retail foundation in APAC. The result was not only a better platform, but a better way to evolve one. For organizations facing similar tensions between global alignment and regional complexity, that may be the most important takeaway of all.