Kitchenware Direct Sizzles With NetSuite SuiteCommerce

SYDNEY, Oct. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP software suites, today announced Australia's largest pure-play kitchenware retailer Kitchenware Direct, has gone live on the new NetSuite SuiteCommerce platform as a complete cloud commerce solution. Thanks to NetSuite SuiteCommerce's multi-site capabilities, Kitchenware Direct is able to run 10 B2C and B2B web stores out of a single NetSuite instance—all without a dedicated IT staff. This spans eCommerce, mobile commerce, telesales, financials, inventory management, order management, distribution, marketing, customer relationship management and other core processes. Streamlining its business operations on NetSuite has enabled the Perth-based retailer to grow 1000 percent in the past four years to an annual turnover of more than $20 million. Maintaining momentum, today Kitchenware Direct broadens its offering with its first homewares venture, Avago.com.au, offering one of the biggest challenges to traditional homewares retailers in recent history.

NetSuite's SuiteCommerce platform is at the heart of NetSuite Commerce as a Service (CaaS), and enables businesses to manage interactions with other businesses and directly with consumers via a cloud platform that delivers an enhanced customer experience, on multiple touchpoints (website, smartphone, tablet, in-store, social media site, etc.), directly on the core NetSuite ERP/CRM business management application. This technology transcends the limitations and complexity of first-generation eCommerce systems to deliver new efficiencies for merchants and a superior experience for customers. For more information about SuiteCommerce, please visit www.netsuite.com/suitecommerce.

SuiteCommerce Features and Benefits Highlights

Multi-Site:

Multi-site capability is one of the most important features in NetSuite SuiteCommerce. With that, companies can create multiple websites from a single NetSuite account—each with its own products, domain, branding, look and feel.  Websites can target different markets, sell different product lines, or distinguish between wholesale and retail customers.  Each website can sell separate items, or share items across sites.  Each Web store has its own shopping cart with distinct confirmation emails, merchant accounts, and out of stock rules. Each site offers shoppers a password-protected customer self-service centre, where shoppers can review purchases, track packages, quickly re-order items, and correspond with the merchant.  Additionally each website can be set up by country/region, with different languages and currencies available per site.  As importantly, companies can manage all back-office and front-office operations of these multiple sites from one single back-end system, spanning accounting, order management, warehouse management, returns management, billing, recurring billing, customer support, marketing and sales force automation. They can also manage inventory and fulfillment, market to different customer segments, assign commissions to sales reps and affiliates, and track and report all Web and sales activities from one account.  And they have a 360-degree view of shoppers, including purchase history and marketing/support communications, regardless of which site or sites they purchase from. 

Order Management:

Among its many capabilities, SuiteCommerce Order Management is paramount in enabling commerce transactions regardless of touchpoint or currency. The SuiteCommerce Order Management System (OMS) offers unmatched billing capabilities such as payment capture, refunds, invoiced billing, usage-based, and recurring billing to support any type of desired customer interaction for B2B and B2C environments.  In addition, SuiteCommerce OMS provides a robust, rules-based workflow technology to manage the lifecycle of a transaction – order-to-fulfillment-to-payment capture-to-repurchase. It reduces fraudulent orders and the amount of time spent reviewing them by providing intelligent review and exception capabilities that will raise red flags and place a hold on orders.  It provides powerful back-office technology such as warehouse management capabilities including bin and lot tracking, pick/pack/ship fulfillment process, support for multiple warehouse locations, and the intelligence to select the appropriate warehouse based on each merchant's business logic. SuiteCommerce is integrated with Australia Post, DHL, Startrack, Toll, TNT, and many others, to generate real-time rates, print shipping labels, and automatically send package tracking information to shoppers. And all of these capabilities are delivered with the multi-currency and multi-tax support required to deliver seamless global commerce.

Kitchenware Direct Achieves Business Success with NetSuite SuiteCommerce

Kitchenware Direct, a family-owned retail business founded in 1992, has been a NetSuite customer since 2008. It switched its flagship KitchenwareDirect.com.au, seven niche B2C retail websites and a B2B website HospitalityDirect.com.au, to NetSuite after outgrowing four previous backend systems, including MYOB for finance, a POS system, an inventory system and a credit card transaction terminal. After adopting NetSuite's single, cloud-based commerce system, the retailer's sales sky rocketed 200 percent in the first 12 months and 917 percent within four years to reach $16.5 million in revenue. In late 2011, this growth was further boosted when Kitchenware Direct created a dedicated mobile portal, resulting in smartphone conversion rates increasing fivefold.

"Kitchenware Direct is a brilliant example of a smaller retailer that catapulted into a market leading position in a few short years by streamlining its entire business in the cloud," said Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite. "SuiteCommerce gives it a powerful, real-time view of its entire multi-brand business operations. This helps drive its market leading position by meeting the growing expectations of consumers for tailored, personalised and seamless shopping experiences from multiple touchpoints."

Avago.com.au continues its growth trajectory, making more than 5,000 homewares, travel, gift and children's products available to Australian consumers from over 200 brands. As one of only 100 retailers worldwide selected to trial the next iteration of SuiteCommerce, SuiteCommerce Enterprise, before its 2013 launch, Avago.com.au integrates seamlessly with major social media sites, among many other features. This allows shoppers to socialise their shopping by pulling in friends and influencers from Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest to advise on homewares choices—a new concept in Australian homewares retailing.

"We've dreamt of launching a premium site like Avago.com.au for a long time," said Peter Macaulay, managing director of Avago.com.au. "SuiteCommerce has made it a reality, giving us an unprecedented opportunity to show the Australian homewares market what a rich, deeply social and seamless multi-channel retailing experience looks like."

SuiteCommerce can manage all Avago.com.au transactions and interactions with consumers and other businesses regardless of touchpoint (website, smartphone, social media site, telesales, etc), directly on the core NetSuite cloud ERP/CRM business management application, which also manages all Kitchenware Direct brands and touchpoints. Additionally, Avago.com.au can use SuiteCommerce's advanced merchandising and integration capabilities to boost sales opportunities. This includes a Twitter feed so shoppers can see what's trending globally, editorial pages featuring advice and designer profiles, a 'live' gallery where shoppers pin favourite items for friend networks to comment on, and loyalty programs to reward customers for shopping, recommending or reviewing products. Avago.com.au can also serve personalised content, such as promotional, overstocked or seasonal item specials, by data mining its NetSuite ERP database to identify customer preferences. And because SuiteCommerce uses responsive design principles to automatically optimise to any user device, Avago.com.au can offer the same great shopping experience on smartphone or tablet devices as on a PC.

Within 12 months, Avago.com.au plans to expand to 15,000 product SKUs to provide even greater consumer buying choice, as well as strengthen its challenge for a serious stake in the Australian homewares market. According to market research firm IBIS World, this market was worth $1.4bn in FY2011 and is expected to grow 2.5 percent each year for the next five years.

"Australia's homewares market has been sitting in a stillwater for decades, with the same major department stores serving the same stock, from the same brands and in the same way for far too long," added Mr. Macaulay. "Using advanced technology, social media and data-driven merchandising capabilities, Avago.com.au delivers something completely new to meet our consumers' appetite for quality, seasonal and fashionable homewares from around the world. Moreover, by using social media, consumers can now for the first time in Australia curate their homewares choices for friends and influencers to earn a qualified endorsement before purchase."

Continuing its growth in the next 12 months, Kitchenware Direct also has plans to leverage SuiteCommerce's multi-language and multi-currency capabilities to expand its kitchenware and homewares brands into the South-East Asian market.

Today, more than 12,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex, mission-critical business processes globally in the cloud. Since its inception in 1998, NetSuite has established itself as the leading provider of enterprise-class cloud ERP suites for divisions of large enterprises and mid-sized organisations seeking to upgrade outdated client/server ERP systems. NetSuite excels at streamlining business operations, as demonstrated in a recent Gartner study naming NetSuite as the fastest growing top ten financial management systems vendor in the world. NetSuite has continued its success in delivering the best cloud financials/ERP suites to businesses around the world, enabling them to lower IT costs significantly while increasing productivity, as the global adoption of cloud is accelerating.

For more information about NetSuite, please visit www.netsuite.com.au

Follow @NetSuiteAPAC on Twitter for NetSuite news and real-time updates.

For more information on Avago, please visit www.avago.com.au

NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are service marks of NetSuite Inc. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between NetSuite and any other company.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to expectations, plans, and prospects including expectations relating to the future growth of the Australian homewares market. These forward-looking statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of NetSuite's management as of the date of this release, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements including, without limitation, the risk of continued adverse and unpredictable macro-economic conditions. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof, and NetSuite disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

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SOURCE NetSuite Inc.