Zadig&Voltaire at the forefront of the new generation of retail

Created in 1997 by Thierry Gillier, the luxury ready-to-wear brand Zadig&Voltaire now has a global presence with almost 350 boutiques and department store concessions.

From its birth, Zadig&Voltaire stood out for its knitwear, cashmere in particular, with a rock n’roll style that quickly became synonymous with the brand. With an original focus on women's fashion, it has since diversified into menswear, a children's line, and numerous accessories (handbags, shoes).

In 2008, Zadig&Voltaire expanded into the world of online shopping with the development of an ecommerce site built on Magento Commerce. Ten years later, it decided to overhaul the architecture of its digital infrastructure while migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2. Its objective was to unify the online and offline customer journey. It wanted to  through the standardisation of payment data. It also wanted to supporting its international expansion by creating more online stores that supported local payment methods.

Find out how Zadig&Voltaire managed to meet these challenges in the midst of a pandemic thanks to the expertise of Adobe and Adyen.

The company’s 5-year mission was to completely overhaul its digital infrastructure, starting with the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 and the implementation of the Progressive Web App (PWA) across its ecommerce sites. More than a simple software migration, “it was a real architect's job, with a complexity that required a strict roadmap and a major expansion of our agile methodology,” recalls the Jonathan Attali, the new Chief Digital Officer.

After ten successful years of partnership, it was an easy decision to continue working with Magento when Jonathan arrived. He had also worked with Adyen several times over the years. And, with Adyen's purpose-built Magento plugin and global footprint it was a good fit for Zadig&Voltaire's ambitions.

Thanks to its suite of innovative technologies, Magento Commerce has let the company create personalised shopping experiences in line with its values of innovation and agility. “The acquisition of Magento by Adobe opened up a world of possibilities,” says Jonathan Attali.

Soon, however, Attali was faced with a new challenge. The crisis surrounding COVID-19 caused an acceleration in sales and the closure of factories:

“It’s been a complicated time for the sector, having to rely solely on digital. Fortunately, we launched this redesign project to help us handle this acceleration, especially in periods when there was more traffic than usual. The automation of the processes achieved with the switch to Magento 2 has allowed us to focus on business,” says Attali.

20% of the brand's sales are now online, 70% of which are via mobile. Now, the priority for Zadig&Voltaire’s digital transition lies in the creation of unified online and offline customer journeys. It seeks to benefit from a 360° view of its customers, thanks to the consolidation of payment data, in order to offer them the best possible shopping experience. With its numerous integrations, as well as an omnichannel presence, Adyen lets Zadig&Voltaire unify and personalise customer journeys, as well as offering services such as buy online, return in store.

“Online, we are completely in sync with retail: everything that happens in store also happens online. Products are launched at the same time to give the same visibility to our customers,” explains Attali.

Customers are at the heart of the brand's concerns. It makes a point of regularly conducting user tests to provide the best customer experience. This is evidenced by the work carried out with Magento Commerce and Adyen on the optimisation of payment pages. By reducing the information requested as much as possible: setting up a two-step check-out system, Zadig&Voltaire was able to decrease cart abandonment and increase its conversion rate (+ 72% on mobile).

Less than two years after the arrival of their new CDO, and in the midst of a health crisis, the performance indicators are extremely encouraging. Since its switch to Magento 2, Zadig&Voltaire has doubled the number of page views, and reports a 67% increase in active mobile users, and a 22% reduction in page load times.

Thanks to the capabilities of Magento Commerce and Adyen, Zadig&Voltaire has accelerated its international expansion. In addition to simplifying the creation of online stores, enabled by Magento, the luxury ready-to-wear brand has been able to count on Adyen to activate localpayment methodsin different countries, from SOFORT in Germany, MultiBanco in Portugal, and iDeal in the Netherlands to AliPay and WeChat Pay in China.

“It was fundamental to our growth that customers feel comfortable when ordering. It was a real plus not to have to develop integrations to them internally,” says Attali. “Adobe and Adyen are partners with whom we can really grow. Support is responsive, and the back office reporting is easy to use.”

With such partners, Attali is optimistic about the brand’s online presence: “The goal in the future is that there is less and less friction at the time of purchase, and that transparency and security are prioritised. QR codes in particular are very promising, and offer a lot of possibilities. Z&V's digital teams were strengthened with this in mind, in order to remain at the forefront of the digitalisation of retailers.”