CommerceNext: The Bounteous x Accolite and fabric Partnership Is a Winning Formula!
Welcome to a #TopperTuesday, a special Monday morning edition coming to you live from #CommerceNext!
Today, the kickoff of CommerceNext in NYC provides a great backdrop for us to talk about our partnership with Bounteous x Accolite. For retailers, our two firms create a powerful “troika” of business and technology services that enables the ultimate store of the future. Everyone who has had a successful replatform of any sort knows it takes a great platform and a great partner.
Joining me today from Bounteous x Accolite are Jennine Loisel, EVP, Technology, and Jen Spofford, EVP, Managing Director of Retail. Jennine leads the platform and solution engineering teams at Bounteous x Accolite that develop seamless digital customer experiences, no matter how complex the data and back-end. Jen leads Bounteous x Accolite’s retail vertical team, partnering with clients to leverage digital to solve their customer problems and generate more business value.
On the fabric side, we have me, Jay Topper. I’ve been with fabric since 2024(!) and on the business side of retail in a variety of C-level roles for more than 27 years. Also with me is Chirag Patel, fabric’s SVP, Customer, and the post-sales glue that keeps the wonderful fabric engine focused on customer outcomes and stellar support.
Veterans of the replatforming wars
For full transparency, we all know each other very well! We went through “replatforming war” together when I was the customer at my last company, one of the coolest women’s fashion retailers on either side of the Mississippi! I’m not sure how many stand-up meetings we did together, but more than 100, for sure!
At that retailer, we implemented fabric’s core platform (product catalog, price and promotion engine, cart and checkout, and OMS/DOM) within about a year, along with seven other new platforms including A/B testing, search, CRM, authentication, and order tracking. In a head-to-head with the legacy systems, well, we kicked ass!
So, let’s dive into the Q&A. I have one question for each of my teammates, and then I will close with a quick summary.
The first Bounteous-fabric engagement
Jennine, you’re up first. We’ve already done a webinar and a panel at your own Co-Innovation Executive Summit, so this is easy! I have come to respect you SO MUCH; your capacity across all business, technical, and functional players and processes is AMAZING.
From your first time working with fabric, a new enterprise player in the commerce platform space, how in the world did you engage with them to bring about this crazy success? What makes fabric so special?
Jennine: When I first started working with fabric, I realized very quickly that they had assembled an amazing team of ecommerce experts, folks that have been in the ecommerce space for years and have been through many implementations on various platforms. fabric brought that expertise to bear in the product that they built, but also offered that expertise to their customers and partners implementing and using their platform.
We were able to collaborate with fabric and our retail partner to bring together all that relevant experience in decision-making and to drive the program forward. We intentionally worked very closely with fabric and our retail partners in technical design to ensure we were making the best possible decisions on architecture and design and leveraging the platform effectively and efficiently. The fabric team was involved in all these solutioning discussions regardless of whether we envisioned a fabric component to the solution. They were in it with us and ready to help define solutions across the program — not just in areas that involved their platform. I love that about the fabric team — their sense of accountability and ownership across the program. None of this ‘not my problem’ attitude or narrow focus you sometimes get with other vendors. Our success and our client’s success was their success. We were really one team.
Forging new relationships through shared determination
Chirag, you’re up next. In addition to your successful delivery on my project, we work together now.
So many replatforms create issues between the platforms, partners, and customer. How were you able to avoid that? How did you work so seamlessly with a systems integrator (Bounteous x Accolite) that you had never worked with before?
Chirag: At the core of any successful transformation program are the basics: people, process, technology. One needs to bring together a smart and motivated team with grit. We formed a strong three-in-a-box (fabric, Bounteous x Accolite, and the customer) team at each level (from executive to operational). Bounteous onboarded experts onsite and offshore to keep the program moving 24×7. fabric also provided top engineering and delivery talent across those time zones to resolve issues in real time.
Processes were quickly established (sprint planning, weekly exec reviews, change management, etc.) and followed with rigor. Blockers were addressed on a weekly basis by the executive committee. Any time lost has an exponential impact on such replatformings. Everyone on the project understood this.
One team and shared success, backed by great composable technology. That’s the key to replatforming!
Continuously delivering modern commerce value
Jen, we also have a rich history. You were not just my day-to-day contact at Bounteous x Accolite but also the liaison to several VPs across our retail organization — herding cats indeed!
My question for you is forward-thinking: After going through what we did together, which was an incredibly efficient success, what makes you — makes us — confident we can do it faster and more efficiently the next round?
Jen: I’ll admit that the speed at which you wanted to move on this total commerce replatform took my breath away more than once! At Bounteous x Accolite, we’re very accustomed to clients wanting to achieve aggressive dates — whether because a platform is at end of life, or budgets are use-it-or-lose-it, or macro impacts (say, a pandemic) fundamentally change the way their customers engage with them. But, we have just as much experience with delays and blockers due to siloed marketing and technology teams inside client companies, as well as the ‘us and them’ culture that partners like we and fabric can find ourselves in with retailers.
We were incredibly fortunate that, as the client sponsor, you removed all of that from the equation, and our three companies were able to work as one to accomplish our ambitious goal. And, we did that even though Bounteous x Accolite and fabric had no prior experience with each other. Now, not only have we forged our partnership through shared success and become thoroughly integrated, we’ve also developed playbooks, accelerators, and global working models that we leverage for our retail clients to efficiently transition to composable commerce powered by fabric.
Learn why this partnership works for you
I will close with this: If you are an omnichannel retailer looking for dramatic improvements with modern technology by partnering with people who care, we welcome the opportunity to speak with or meet with you! In addition to all of the above, we have mastered the use of offshore resources to complement US resources. This helps with costs, for sure, but importantly (to me) lets us work 16-20 hours/day to get things done faster!
We are the executive teams (part of them) you get when you sign with fabric and Bounteous x Accolite. I believe in these people because I’ve experienced them in action. We want to repeat with you the magic we created, with greater speed and less cost than our first time around!
To learn more about fabric, request a demo or stop by fabric’s booth #146 at CommerceNext, running June 11-13 in New York.
Chief Customer Officer @ fabric
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