Brav's journey towards integrated e-commerce in the sports industry
Caroline Skuland
The sports industry has a unique chance to adapt to change as digitalization keeps transforming retail. The industry has faced big changes in recent years, not only in retail, but also among manufacturers and suppliers. Consumer behavior, online shopping, and sustainability are important factors that affect the industry.
Brav is a big player in sports and outdoor activities, with brands like Swix, Helsport, Ulvang, Lundhags, Toko and Skisporet. They are making new digital goals and major changes in their organization and technology to deal with the market's challenges.
Active strategy for customer interaction
Brav decided to unite all its brands on a single e-commerce platform with a shared login and shopping cart, and thus started a conversation with Evidi and others. For Brav, it was crucial that each online store kept its distinct presentation, information, and storytelling. With this strategy, they aim to boost their position in a changing and competitive market. A key part of fulfilling this ambition is the creation of Brav's digital service platform.
We want to reach out and interact with our customers actively, so we need to take a holistic approach and look at the whole customer journey and treat all customers as part of Brav.
Kenneth Sandvik, CIO, Brav
The path to a comprehensive user experience
The economy is undergoing a massive change due to digitalization, and businesses have to rethink their business models, products, services, and corporate structures. This also affects the sports industry in everyday life. For businesses that want to grow their revenue through digital transformation and better satisfy their target audiences' needs, it is crucial to adopt and enhance the sales process with digital solutions. Brav puts customers at the center of its business by developing a comprehensive digital strategy that emphasizes customer engagement and a smooth user experience. This helps Brav foster customer loyalty and collect useful insights and feedback on products and services.
Working with Noa Ignite Sweden, Omnium AS and Sanity, Evidi has provided a new e-commerce platform called "Brav Connect" since May 2023. Evidi's main role is to offer a digital service platform that supplies all the product information and pictures for the websites. Evidi's services, Connxio, Archeo, and master data (MDC) are essential elements of the new architecture.
The platform "Brav Connect" provides smooth information sharing among the different brands, which is essential for creating a unified user experience. The platform also enables creative development that does not depend on the core infrastructure, serving as a bridge that sends and gets data across the platform.
Using target images and target architecture, Evidi has deployed the Azure IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and "Infrastructure as a Code" infrastructures. The move to a modern data platform lets Brav adjust and respond to new demands, while getting a better understanding of their main operations. Even though ownership and governance still need work, the platform helps Brav stay competitive and allows for more innovation and growth.
— We are moving closer to our goal of enhancing customer engagement with the new digital service platform. We also want to build a more personalized and robust product portfolio for all our brands and improve the efficiency of manual processes.
Growth of the online approach
Brav has already achieved a successful platform change for Ulvang, Swix, Lundhags and Helsport. Furthermore, a new B2B portal was created for the professional market that allows cross-brand activity. This means that these brands and channels will use the same digital platform, which ensures both a consistent user experience and efficient management all year round.
Brav is responding to a tough market, where economic difficulties and significant shifts in consumer behavior are happening. The company is changing its structure, from being based on functions to concentrating on the individual brands. This method combines all the strength of product development and sales in the brands, with the aim of creating a more robust and suitable product portfolio. This change will not only enhance Brav's position, but also set the groundwork for better adjustment and more customized marketing directly to the end user.
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