PUBLISHED DATE: 2026-09-10 04:09:49

Digital Commerce Innovators


See how 16 organizations are boosting KPIs with exceptional strategies, experiences, platforms and analytics.

Contents


Introduction: Multiply exposure, excitement, efficiency—and profitability
Commerce Strategy & Experience
Commerce Platforms & Marketplace Services
Supply Chain Optimization & Order Management
Third-Party E-Commerce Optimization

Introduction:

Multiply exposure, excitement, efficiency—and profitability


Digital commerce looks radically different today than it did yesterday and will tomorrow. Plodding ahead with business as usual—same experiences, same channels, same platforms—means falling behind. Whether you sell in brick-and-mortar stores, a digital storefront, or a third-party e-commerce platform, it takes a unified commerce strategy to unlock value and compete in today’s dynamic, competitive landscape.

Success requires bold new visions and expert execution. How will you navigate the transition to direct-to-consumer? Attract attention in a noisy digital marketplace? Connect your digital and physical storefronts? Optimize conversion on your digital shelf? Build a profitable e-commerce marketplace of your own—and stand out on third-party marketplaces?

At Publicis Sapient, we’ve been guiding leading companies on their digital business transformation journeys for decades. Our 360° Digital Commerce offerings help you improve profitability, reduce cost to serve and deliver personalized and frictionless experiences to your customers. We offer end-to-end solutions that span strategy, design, customer experience, implementation and measurement so that you can build new digital commerce capabilities that unlock value quickly.

Read on for the stories of 16 companies across industries that are harnessing the power of digital commerce to improve profitability, personalize experiences and reduce cost to serve.

Our SPEED approach to digital business transformation:

Commerce Strategy & Experience


Solutions and strategy | Channel management | Brand and go-to-market strategy

Where will you place your bets? A different channel strategy? New digital experiences to increase conversion and revenue? Captivating content? Your own business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce marketplace? Whatever your goals, we’ll help you build out a strong value proposition, business case and roadmap to get executive buy-in.

BANG & OLUFSEN

Building a new digital flagship store worthy of a famed luxury brand

Business Impact
B&O’s compelling digital presence amplifies its brand in the competitive luxury market. The new digital storefront integrates with new brick-and-mortar flagships in New York, Paris, Tokyo and London, making B&O a trusted, one-stop shop for world-leading luxury home electronics. In the words of B&O’s e-commerce director: “The digital market is increasingly playing a key role for exclusive products, and we are proud to now give our customers access to digital buying experiences that match their preferences.”

Imperative for Change
Bang & Olufsen (B&O) is known for combining sleek design and superior sound technology to deliver high-end audio products. The company has been a pioneer in innovation since its founding in 1925. Nearly a century later, B&O wanted to extend that reputation to the digital world. The goal: build a digital storefront to complement physical stores, expressing the brand through both channels in one clear voice.

Transformative Solution
We worked with B&O to create a global digital flagship store that engages consumers through story-led content and immersive experiences. We used composable commerce, integrating the existing fulfillment system with other microservices-based e-commerce solutions and a headless (back-end only) content management system.

Services
Industry
By the Numbers

BRITISH GAS, PART OF CENTRICA

Simplifying orders and payment with a mobile app

Business Impact
The app is wildly popular, downloaded by 64 percent of customers. The Energy Saving Trust Group heralded it as “arguably the best of the energy supplier apps.” The Centrica engineering organization now has the skills to iterate the app as commerce continues to evolve. Over the first 18 months, Centrica’s mobile team released an enhanced version monthly, elevating the digital experience with each iteration.

Imperative for Change
A trusted U.K. brand for 200 years, British Gas sells gas and electricity services, in-home repair and maintenance services, insurance and smart connected home solutions. Facing pressures from digital-native competitors and a newly introduced tariff cap, British Gas needed to simplify the process of booking service appointments, ordering services and making payments.

Transformative Solution
The parent company, Centrica, engaged us to help build a mobile app and introduce agile development into its engineering organization. With a glance at the app, customers can now see their energy usage across multiple categories, pay bills via Apple Pay or Google Pay, switch tariffs, book appointments and manage rewards. We launched a fully functioning minimum viable product (MVP) in just 82 days, working in agile sprints to address more than 200 customer pain points.

Services
Industry
By the Numbers

DELTA AIR LINES

Whetting travelers’ appetites for the next adventure via social media

Business Impact
In just the first few months, the SkyMilesLife website brought in $2 million in ticket revenue—a testament to the power of community and social commerce. During that same time, SkyMiles customers redeemed 40 million miles of award travel through the site.

Imperative for Change
To increase bookings, Delta Air Lines wanted to strengthen engagement with its SkyMiles loyalty club members. The strongest connections are emotional—photos and stories that make travelers think, “I want to go there!” What kind of experiences would inspire people to explore new destinations—and make it easy for them to book a flight?

Transformative Solution
To fulfill this vision, we created an engaging search engine on deltaskymileslife.com, enabling customers to search for amazing destinations and experience them vicariously via fellow travelers’ photos. Instagram photos with the #SkyMilesLife hashtag are fed into the website, moderated and tagged with the location, categories and the nearest airport Delta services. To promote the #SkyMilesLife hashtag, 14 influencers were handpicked and flown by Delta to their favorite city to capture content. To encourage travelers to share their own photos, Delta promoted #SkyMilesLife onboard their flights and in airports, launched a video campaign on Instagram and Facebook and shared videos via email and digital channels.

Services
Industries
By the Numbers

NESTLÉ LAB

Engaging consumers directly with a new marketing content strategy

Business Impact
Nestlé Lab successfully changed brand perception with a new digital content strategy and by shifting its marketing focus from the medical community to parents. A survey taken before and after the new engagement model was put in place showed a sharp rise in the portion of people agreeing that the product has high-quality protein (+30 percentage points), that Nestlé is a premium brand (+20 percentage points) and that Nestlé’s product meets their needs (+13 percentage points).

Imperative for Change
Nestlé, the world leader in infant nutrition, saw its market share in China fall by 50 percent over three years. Behind the trend was a shift in parenting culture. More moms and dads preferred to engage directly with the companies making their babies’ food instead of relying on healthcare providers as go-betweens. To meet customers where they were, Nestlé needed captivating campaigns, innovative partnerships and more relevant content in all channels.

Transformative Solution
Nestlé asked us to help imagine a new digital commerce strategy aligned with today’s consumer attitudes and to put in place the needed organization and technology. We spearheaded the building of Nestlé Infant Nutrition Lab, a digital organization with four centers of excellence: communications, health, digital and media. Staffed by 40 specialists, the Lab is transforming commerce with engaging, always-on content (as opposed to one-off campaigns) and innovative partnerships.

Services
Industries
By the Numbers

Commerce Platforms & Marketplace Services


Direct-to-consumer commerce | Digital marketplace

Deliver exceptional shopping experiences at every touchpoint: brick-and-mortar stores, your digital storefront and third-party digital marketplaces. Build a flexible, scalable digital commerce platform that grows with your business. Unlock value faster with composable commerce—blending best-of-breed applications into a platform tailored to your needs.

ADIDAS

Selling on a digital platform as stable and fast as its athletic customers

Business Impact
Revenue bleed has been staunched, thanks to a more stable platform and timely visibility into issues affecting the customer experience. New releases no longer cause service interruptions. And all of this in just one quarter.

Imperative for Change
At adidas, service interruptions were creating negative brand experiences, at an estimated annual cost of €10 million (US$11.1 million) in lost sales. To support projected 30–40 percent annual growth, adidas needed a more reliable platform. And when issues did arise, the company wanted to know right away, for swift remediation.

Transformative Solution
We teamed up with adidas on a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) strategy. Specialized teams identified gaps in architecture, design, monitoring infrastructure and scaling. One team focused specifically on resiliency and observability. We closed those gaps with a combination of technology, new operational processes and a new mindset: “No Order Left Behind.”

Services
Industries
By the Numbers

CARREFOUR

Increasing customer satisfaction and conversion rate by bridging organizational silos

Business Impact
Carrefour’s new e-commerce platform went live just six months after the project kickoff, igniting a massive increase in traffic. Customer satisfaction rose to its highest-ever levels and the conversion rate continues to grow. What’s more, Carrefour now has the processes and tools to enhance the customer experience on a daily basis, leveraging feedback and behavior.

Imperative for Change
Carrefour, a leading grocery and department store chain in France, faced formidable competition from digital-native grocers. The company aspired to have a digital presence as strong as its brand and loyal customer base. As it was, digital assets from different organizations didn’t look the same. They were also managed separately, an impediment to making changes at scale.

Transformative Solution
In January 2018, Carrefour announced a goal of €5 billion in e-commerce sales over five years—20 percent of overall sales. The company engaged us to spearhead its digital commerce strategy. We began by shaping a digital vision to increase e-commerce sales and prepare for a mobile-first future. To put the vision into practice, we introduced a new software delivery model that bridged organizational silos by forming agile teams with members from different parts of the organization.

Services
Industries
By the Numbers

LARGE DOMESTIC RETAILER

Innovating faster by shedding on-premises infrastructure

Business Impact
The modern, cloud-based e-commerce platform sailed through its first holiday shopping experience with zero glitches, effectively handling a $30 million increase in sales. Unburdened from infrastructure management, developers now have more time to innovate. Release frequency is 25 times faster than before, and turnaround time for system enhancements has sped up from five weeks to one.

Imperative for Change
This leading domestic retailer spent so much time maintaining an on-premises e-commerce platform that innovation took a back seat. The retailer wanted a modern, cloud-based e-commerce platform to control costs and free up time for new feature development to increase sales.

Transformative Solution
We migrated the existing e-commerce system to Google Cloud Platform, using a microservices architecture. We took the composable commerce approach, integrating best-of-breed components like Drupal content management system and Apigee API management, both deployed as microservices. Now the retailer can quickly introduce new and improved features because updates to the user interface don’t require changes to back-end services.

Services
Industries
By the Numbers

CARNIVAL CORPORATION

Gaining economies of scale—and deeper insights—with one platform for multiple brands

Business Impact
By bringing all brands onto one e-commerce platform, Carnival now enjoys economies of scale for build, deployment and maintenance. Guests appreciate the streamlined booking experience, which does away with lengthy forms and includes more relevant content and engaging storytelling. The outcome: more guests book travel directly on brand websites, Carnival’s most cost-effective booking channel.

Imperative for Change
Carnival Corporation, the global cruise operator, has two guiding principles: exceed guest expectations and leverage the company’s scale. Leveraging the scale proved tough because Carnival’s different brands—Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises and Seabourne—largely operated like separate businesses. This led to inconsistent booking experiences for guests and redundant technology investments. Company leaders wanted to standardize technology and experiences while still allowing each brand to express itself uniquely.

Transformative Solution
We worked with Carnival to introduce a shared digital experience platform. The different cruise brands now share data, insights and investments while retaining their unique identity for online and onboard experiences. Analytics on data from all brands, not just one, produce more accurate insights, helping Carnival increase bookings across its portfolio.

Services
Industries
Additional Outcomes

Supply Chain Optimization & Order Management


Direct-to-consumer commerce | Digital marketplace

Define a strategy, vision and required capabilities to optimize your supply chain. The payoffs: bridging the customer expectation gap, removing the silos that inhibit innovation and optimizing the cost of servicing your customers. We’ll also help you build a product roadmap and partner with you on go-to-market planning and execution.

EILEEN FISHER

Creating an “endless aisle” with a consolidated inventory system for physical and digital stores

Business Impact
Thanks to the end-to-end supply chain management system, Eileen Fisher customers rarely leave the store disappointed because an item is out of stock. With the mobile app, associates can be where they’re needed most—not necessarily at the checkout counter. The consolidated inventory system has reduced returns and helped increase e-commerce sales by double digits. It also gives physical store managers a snapshot to help them improve capacity management.

Imperative for Change
Eileen Fisher, a women’s clothing retailer with a reputation for sustainable, timeless fashion, wanted to create synergy between its brick-and-mortar locations and digital storefront. As it was, the two channels had separate inventory tracking systems. This led to lost sales when in-store customers wanted an out-of-stock size or color, and the associate didn’t have a way to check where else it might be.

Transformative Solution
Working with IBM, we consolidated Eileen Fisher’s separate inventory management systems into a central order management hub. Powered by IBM Order Management, the hub integrates with the Adobe Commerce (previously Magento) platform. Now sales associates in physical stores can use a mobile app or browser to find out-of-stock items in the customer’s size and preferred color in any store or warehouse and ship directly to the customer’s home. Customers who order online receive orders faster because Eileen Fisher now ships from stores—often located much closer to the customer.

Services
Industries
Additional Outcomes

LEADING CONSUMER PACKAGED GOODS ENTERPRISE

Entering the D2C market with flair

Business Impact
Our work rallied the organization around D2C and helped the workforce understand the risks and rewards. Convinced by the solid business case, the company invested $30 million in technology and $40 million in marketing to launch the D2C channel. The prototypes we developed sped time to market and modernized the supply chain. The D2C organization quickly grew to 90 people and is expected to bring in $60 million in profits over four years.

Imperative for Change
This CPG leader wanted to build direct relationships with consumers to boost sales and brand affinity and get to know individual customers better. But the D2C market is dominated by retailers, and breaking into that world isn’t easy. To create new value for consumers without jeopardizing existing relationships, the company needed a D2C business model and technology to bridge existing technology and supply chain gaps.

Transformative Solution
We built multiple prototypes of D2C business models, testing them with users and assessing their financial viability. We presented a detailed business case of the winning model to the company’s executive committee, including technology and data requirements, a full D2C operating model, a data-driven marketing plan and KPIs.

Services
Industry
By the Numbers

GLOBAL JEWELRY RETAILER

Polishing up order management and fulfillment for a shimmering customer experience

Business Impact
Improvements were immediate, including enhanced supply chain visibility across channels, optimized processes and stronger relationships with shipping partners. The combination enabled the retailer to introduce appealing new e-commerce services like “click-and-collect” store fulfillment and better support for shoppers’ post-purchase inquiries and returns.

Imperative for Change
This retailer designs, manufactures and markets jewelry to shoppers in more than 100 countries. The order management system (OMS) in the APAC region kept causing problems. The retailer wanted to make sure that shoppers anywhere in the world enjoyed consistently great shopping experiences in the digital storefront and physical stores.

Transformative Solution
Teaming up with IBM, we conducted workshops with employees to understand the issues. These included error-prone and time-consuming manual processes, limited inventory reconciliation and outdated customer service tools that negatively affected shopping experiences. To overcome these problems, we migrated the jeweler’s operations to IBM Sterling Order Management on Cloud, starting with two target markets in the APAC region. Innovations included improved ship-to-home services, real-time inventory visibility and an optimized return/refund process.

Services
Industries
Additional Outcomes

TOP INTERNATIONAL GROCERY AND MERCHANDISE RETAILER

Expanding internationally and optimizing the supply chain

Business Impact
The retailer has seen outstanding growth in its online grocery and general merchandise stores. Company leaders credit rapid onboarding of new stores with more than $400 million in revenue. Our ongoing support for branding, digital marketing and engineering initiatives has provided continuity throughout the digital business transformation journey.

Imperative for Change
A top-five global retailer wanted to scale its online grocery platform, domestically and internationally. To deliver a consistent purchasing experience for all products, the company decided to expand the e-commerce platform to include nonfood items, like apparel. Previously, nonfood items were sold only on a third-party marketplace.

Transformative Solution
We’ve been partnering with the retailer on its digital business transformation journey since 2010. A major milestone was replacing the legacy monolithic architecture for the e-commerce platform with a modern microservices architecture. As a result, new grocery stores anywhere in the world can quickly onboard to the digital commerce platform, earning revenue sooner. Customers can purchase nonfood items from the same online store, increasing average basket size. We also helped the retailer adopt data-driven pricing, optimize the supply chain to handle large orders and introduce scan-and-go in physical stores.

Services
Industry
By the Numbers

Third-Party E-Commerce Optimization


E-commerce content marketing | Intelligent digital shelf

Build a D2C channel that increases revenue from day one—or increase sales on your existing e-commerce marketplace. Execute a winning content marketing strategy to capture attention on third-party marketplaces. Optimize conversion on your digital shelf with analytics.

BAYER

Boosting Amazon sales by listening to the data

Business Impact
Sales grew. For example, our recommendation to enhance the foot-care cream product page with videos and enhanced images and copy increased conversion on the digital shelf by 17 percent. Insight into another product’s out-of-stock conditions spurred Bayer to talk to Amazon about offering larger product bundles, increasing profitability.

Imperative for Change
Bayer’s Consumer Health division markets more than 170 brands worldwide, including recognized household brands like Alka-Seltzer, Claritin and Bayer-brand aspirin. Three years after becoming an Amazon seller, Bayer decided to look for ways to increase conversion on the digital shelf, accelerating sales growth. But with its large product portfolio, the company needed strategic guidance on where to focus and how to pick the right opportunities.

Transformative Solution
We teamed up with Bayer to optimize Amazon sales by using traffic and conversion data to identify products with potential for increased sales. For example, one of the most clicked-on products, a foot care cream, had the lowest conversion rate. Another product had declining traffic and conversion rates because it was often out of stock. We made recommendations to capitalize on these opportunities.

Services
Industries
By the Numbers

JENNAIR

Getting a luxury brand in front of the right influencers

Business Impact
With a bold marketing campaign and out-of-the-box thinking, we helped JennAir attract the attention of designers and architects. The effort brought significant improvements in market share and sales.

Imperative for Change
JennAir, the luxury appliance brand, pondered how to capture mindshare from a new generation of designers and architects, who recommend appliances to their customers. The company needed a fresh content marketing strategy to reinforce its reputation as a modern brand that brings progress to the kitchen.

Transformative Solution
We started by modernizing JennAir’s brand with eye-catching images and edgy copy. Then we boldly put that brand in front of designers and architects. At tradeshows, we built a labyrinth gallery and hosted parties for top kitchen designers. In videos, we drew a stark contrast between competitors’ plastic-based manufacturing and JennAir’s progressive glass-and-metal designs. We reinvigorated showrooms, created 20 new JennAir retail experiences and established a presence in venues popular with designers. We put social marketing to work, enlisting up-and-coming designers to turn attention toward JennAir through social conversations.

Services
Industries
By the Numbers

JDE PEET’S

Raising search results on Tesco, leading to sales boost

Business Impact
In just one week, a JDE Peet espresso brand rose from the bottom of page one to the number one position in Tesco organic search results. A ristretto brand moved from the bottom of page three to the top half of page one. Boosted search rankings led to a 12 percent increase in weekly sales without any promotions.

Imperative for Change
JDE Peet’s (formerly JDE) owns some of the world’s oldest and most established coffee and tea brands, prominent on store shelves throughout Europe and elsewhere. But translating that dominance to third-party marketplaces proved challenging. Some of JDE’s best-selling products ranked low in tesco.com search results, leading to lost sales opportunities.

Transformative Solution
We helped JDE identify all products that did not appear in the top 10 search results or on the first page of Tesco’s search results. Then we explored why. We discovered that certain highly searched keywords, like “coffee pods” and “coffee capsules,” did not appear in product names. JDE worked with Tesco’s search team to add the relevant keywords to the backend code.

Services
Industries
By the Numbers

SMARTYPANTS VITAMINS

Capturing the top spot in Amazon search rankings with SEO and “competitor conquesting”

Business Impact
SmartyPants captured significant market share from the get-go, thanks to a strong product page, targeted ads that won over competitor’s customers and parent education on Amazon DSP. The reimagined product page helped the company seize the top spot in search rankings. Now the business is applying lessons learned to other products.

Imperative for Change
A trusted health and wellness leader, SmartyPants Vitamins planned to add its first-ever baby multivitamin to the adult and kid supplements sold on Amazon. To compete with the established category leader, the company had to educate parents on the benefits of baby vitamins, still a relatively young category.

Transformative Solution
We began by helping SmartyPants identify the top-searched keywords in the category. Embedding these terms into the product detail page (PDP) boosted the product’s organic search ranking. Next, we conducted in-depth research on competitors, identifying a keyword variant for multivitamins that boosted traffic when added to the product page. Ads targeted to a competitor’s customers caught their attention, a strategy called competitor conquesting. We also advised SmartyPants to use Amazon DSP, a demand-side platform, to educate parents on Vitamin D supplements.

Services
Industries
By the Numbers

WHY PUBLICIS SAPIENT


Publicis Sapient is a digital transformation partner helping established organizations get to their future, digitally enabled state, both in the way they work and the way they serve their customers. We help unlock value by applying a startup mindset and modern methods, fusing strategy, consulting and customer experience with agile engineering and creative problem-solving. Digital pioneers with 20,000 people and 53 offices around the globe, our experience in technology, data sciences, consulting and customer obsession—combined with our culture of curiosity and relentlessness—enables us to accelerate our clients’ businesses by designing the products and services their customers truly value. Publicis Sapient is the digital business transformation hub of Publicis Groupe. For more information, visit publicissapient.com.