Sonak Group boosts year-on-year revenue growth by 70% with Einstein 1
Einstein 1 has contributed to 70% year-on-year revenue growth for three years in a row, and MuleSoft has increased speed to market by 66%
About the Company:
The Challenge
Navigating inefficiency in traditional retail
Before its digital transformation, Sonak Group’s reliance on manual processes presented opportunities for improvement in growth and efficiency. Processes like inventory management, sales reconciliation, and customer interactions were largely paper-based, which could lead to delays and inconsistencies.
For example, delayed inventory updates across Sonak Group's wide network of retail stores contributed to discrepancies between actual stock levels and reported data. This resulted in overstocking or stockouts, and customers might occasionally find items unavailable in-store despite being listed as in stock.
Manually reconciling sales data from various stores and ecommerce platforms was time-consuming and prone to human error. This hindered the company's ability to efficiently track sales performance and make well-informed business decisions.
Customer service operations were managed independently by each store and lacked a centralised view of customer interactions and history. This made it challenging to offer fully personalised customer experiences and missed opportunities to enhance customer loyalty.
The company's marketing activities were also largely manual and lacked the sophistication needed to engage modern consumers effectively.
Finally, Sonak Group’s early ecommerce strategy focused on straightforward catalogue sites. The initial separation between online and offline channels occasionally posed challenges in delivering a seamless shopping experience across platforms.
Overall, this lack of integration limited Sonak Group's ability to scale its operations and adapt to the growing demand for a unified omni-channel presence.
How Salesforce Helps
Unifying customer service with Service Cloud
Sonak Group implemented Salesforce Service Cloud to consolidate customer communications from various channels into a single, unified platform. This integration marks a significant departure from the fragmented systems of the past.
Service Cloud enables Sonak Group to streamline its customer support processes by providing a complete view of each customer's history across all interaction points. That means whether a customer reaches out via WhatsApp, Facebook, email, or directly in-store, all interactions are now logged in the same system.
This comprehensive 360-degree customer view now allows customer service representatives to access relevant information quickly, and improve the quality and speed of their responses.
For example, if a customer enquiries about a product online and later visits a physical store, the in-store representative can now access the customer's history and provide personalised assistance. This level of integration eliminates the frustrating gaps that often occurred when different parts of the company operated in silos.
Service Cloud also facilitates better management of customer service cases. By centralising all customer enquiries, Sonak Group is now able to track and resolve issues more efficiently. This has reduced response times and enhanced overall customer satisfaction.
As a result, customer satisfaction rates have seen a notable increase, reflected in increases in positive reviews on platforms like Google.
Enhancing marketing capabilities with Marketing Cloud
Marketing Cloud enables Sonak Group to automate and personalise its marketing campaigns to improve the relevancy, effectiveness and engagement of marketing communications.
The company now uses Marketing Cloud Engagement to create targeted customer journeys, such as automated reminders for abandoned carts and re-engagement campaigns for customers who have not made a purchase in several months.
For example, if a customer abandons an online shopping cart, Marketing Cloud automatically sends a reminder email encouraging them to complete their purchase. If the customer still does not convert after the initial reminder, additional follow-up emails are activated to incentivise the sale.
These automated campaigns significantly reduced the manual workload for Sonak Group's marketing team and have improved conversion rates.
The integration of Marketing Cloud with Service Cloud via the Einstein 1 Platform also ensures that marketing efforts are aligned with customer service strategies to provide a cohesive experience across all customer touchpoints.
By leveraging data from Service Cloud, Sonak Group can segment their customer base to identify high-value customers, frequent shoppers, or those with specific interests, and target them with personalised offers and promotions through Marketing Cloud.
This more seamless omnichannel approach has improved conversion rates by an average of approximately 10% across all stores, with some stores experiencing an increase in conversion rate of up to 25%.
Reinventing ecommerce with Commerce Cloud
The deployment of Salesforce Commerce Cloud was a pivotal step in enhancing Sonak Group's ecommerce operations. Commerce Cloud provides the robust infrastructure needed to support the company's growing online presence and integrate it seamlessly with physical store operations.
Commerce Cloud enables Sonak Group to manage multiple ecommerce websites from a single platform, simplifying the management of its diverse retail brands. The platform's capabilities extend to real-time inventory management that ensures stock levels are accurately reflected online and reduces the risk of overselling or stockouts.
This integration has contributed to a more cohesive omnichannel experience for customers. For example, a customer can now start a purchase online, select the option to pick up the item in-store, and have their order ready when they arrive.
Commerce Cloud also supports advanced features like AI-assisted product recommendations. Einstein Product Recommendations in Commerce AI analyses customer behaviour and purchase history to provide personalised product suggestions that enhance the customer’s shopping experience and increase the likelihood of conversion.
Commerce Cloud integration with Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud has created a unified ecosystem where data flows seamlessly between systems. This connectivity enables Sonak Group to leverage customer insights across various touchpoints to enhance the overall customer experience and drive sales.
Commerce Cloud integration with Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud has contributed to 70% year-on-year growth in e-commerce revenue for three years in a row.
Integrating operations with MuleSoft automation
MuleSoft has been instrumental in automating Sonak Group's backend processes. The integration of APIs through MuleSoft has connected various systems, enables real-time data synchronisation, and reduces the need for manual intervention.
Significantly, MuleSoft has automated the flow of data between Sonak Group's point-of-sales (POS) systems and its enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. This integration has enabled real-time updates of inventory levels, sales data, and goods movements across all stores. Instead of manually entering data into the ERP, the system now automatically reconciles sales and inventory information.
For instance, if a product is sold in a store, the POS system now immediately updates the central ERP with the sale and adjusts inventory levels accordingly. This automation ensures that all data is accurate and up-to-date, reduces discrepancies, and improves overall efficiency.
MuleSoft also plays a crucial role in integrating customer data from various ecommerce channels into a unified CRM. Sonak Group can now maintain a single, accurate view of each customer's interactions and purchase history, regardless of where the transaction occurred.
MuleSoft APIs also enable Sonak Group to launch ecommerce sites much faster. Development time is down from around six months to just two months, which represents a 66% improvement in speed to market.
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