TFG (The Foschini Group) has chosen Oracle to support its digital transformation strategy with the consolidation of 22 brands into one online marketplace.
With close to 3 000 stores, TFG migrated its brick-and-mortar offering to a hassle free digital platform and now offers the myTFGworld.com online marketplace to its customers.
“We sought to create an experience for our customers that would allow for a comprehensive, one-stop-shop across our brands, as well as provide other products outside our normal offering like flowers, kids toys and digital gadgets. Our aim was to build an omni-experience for our customers; whether in-store or in their homes; offering a service that would enable us to better respond to their needs,” says Brent Curry, CIO at TFG Group.
Curry explains that the marketplace is built on Oracle’s ATG platform, allowing for seamless, interoperable, functionality across existing software and hardware.
“Oracle’s platform has enabled us to integrate existing technology seamlessly, allowing us to save on costs, increase efficiencies and achieve the desired business benefits in optimal time. We truly saw the benefit of the system in 2018 with Black Friday, growing 24% year-on-year, and over the Christmas period being able to, without fail, through MyTFGworld.com, provide customers with a flawless shopping experience.”
Core to its digital strategy, TFG through MyTFGworld.com will see the ongoing introduction of products and services, ensuring that the business achieves its desired 5% of business revenue, driven by online shopping, by 2025. The company is keeping bricked stores as its core business focus, however changing and adapting to the ever-increasing needs of its customers. Plans for the coming year include experiential and personalised services in-store, offered through the introduction of connected-technology and a TFG application.
“South African retailers are increasingly looking to technology that they can use to improve their operations, better understand and engage with their customers – using both off- and online channels – and set themselves apart from the competition,” says Derek Bose, applications country leader at Oracle South Africa & SADC.
“Retailers need to have a comprehensive digital presence in order to stay relevant. This is especially the case in developing markets, including in Africa, where mobile devices are their primary means of access to the internet. With Oracle, TFG is able to provide customers a seamless, personalised shopping experience and grow its online customer base.”