Customer-centric digital transformation at Vibram

Digital transformation can be an indispensable tool to use for a complete overhaul of a company’s business and its market relationships. From a traditional standpoint, digital technologies are conceived as tools for boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of existing business. But when the time comes for a paradigm shift, these tools morph into strategic drivers for transforming the entire company - and the transition is a complex one. In today’s hyper-dynamic context, innovation must never lose sight of the centrality of customers and their expectations.

Vibram is a long-established manufacturing concern headquartered in the province of Varese that produces rubber shoe soles. Recently the company decided to embark on a courageous digital transformation strategy, and at the same time, to break into the Business to Consumer market (B2C) with products that totally reinvent the customer experience with technical sports shoes. And Vibram does not stop with the product/service: the company’s push to innovative extends to encompass the customer relationship as a whole (link to the case)

Vibram’s strategy and success in the digital era are concentrated on innovation of the product, the experience and interaction with customers, as well as the distinctive competencies of the company’s original business: producing rubber soles. Thanks to this approach, the company has established a reputation for excellence in production, continual innovation and an impassioned search for new materials. This goes to show that success is not just about inventing new products, but the drive to innovate in every direction. (Today Vibram’s investments in research and development range from 5% to 10% of annual turnover.) And in fact, innovation is embedded in Vibram’s DNA. Proof positive: the company develops around 180 new models each season and serves six major markets (outdoor, fashion lifestyle, safety on the job, military, shoe repair and motorbike).

The digital transformation at Vibram was structured along the lines of a customer-centric approach. In fact, product innovation was inspired by insights gleaned from constantly, carefully listening to potential consumers, along with traditional touchpoints and communication methods, and customer interaction. The creation of direct-to-consumer (DTC) e-commerce in 2004 gave Vibram the reach it needed to connect with far-flung targets (from a geographical and logistical standpoint); the company saw online sales escalate by 30% in just one year. The new portal has also clinched more comprehensive control over the customer experience in purchasing and shopping, and provided better insights from consumers in Vibram’s markets all over the world.

Vibram remapped the entire customer journey too, offering new channels for customer contact along the way (both physical and virtual), and enhancing the quality of contents, services, and value propositions. Mono-brand stores were designed like experiential zones where consumers can touch and test all the products, personalize them to taste, and purchase limited-edition collections too. These offline spaces are deeply integrated with digital channels (an e-commerce site, an app, social media, company management), and represent Vibram’s value production and its omnichannel approach to customer relationships.

Thanks to its partnership with Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Vibram can fully exploit the data heritage generated by the different touchpoints. By creating a single portal where all sales data is collected in real time, in fact, Vibram develops business intelligence tools that are useful for monitoring and predicting market trends. And the Salesforce platform not only lets Vibram track customer preferences via the direct sales channel, it also provides a structured way to collect information shared by consumers on social media.

The new B2C approach developed by Vibram accounts for around half of the total turnover for the company today, thanks mainly to a number of iconic products like Fivefingers (running shoes with five toes that feel like going barefoot). In 2019, turnover for Vibram nearly hit 200 million euro, surging 40% higher than 15 years before; in the same period, profits soared by 30%.

The digital transformation of Vibram encompasses not only customers, but operational processes too. In recent years, the company has worked on boosting efficiency in the production structure, actively engaging the work force and IT in this process. By doing so Vibram was able to revamp the main processes - to include production - by thinking digital: from cutting to coloring to modelling soles, to monitoring compression times and temperatures.

The tools for predictive analysis available on the cloud platform have also allowed Vibram to engineer processes and meticulously monitor the various product life cycle phases, appreciably compressing time to market. The end result is much more efficiently organized production that aligns more fully with customer expectations, including logistics.

• The digital transformation of Vibram is evidence of how a company which has always taken a product-centric approach can shift to a customer-centric orientation, with the aim of reinforcing the value it offers to customers (thanks to product innovation and upgraded operational processes). As far as resources, the primary enablers in these innovations are digital technologies. Digital is the driver of a change which goes beyond technology to radically transform every aspect of the company’s business, impacting the entire organization and the work force as well.
• Vibram has been progressively building a B2C value proposition, which complements – but does not substitute – its B2B soul, emerging from a deep ability to listen and understand its customers thanks to data available in the network and the use of social intelligence. A company’s resilience is also demonstrated by its ability to embrace change without jeopardizing the values generated by its core business.
• Like in every company, Vibram shows us how digital transformation takes courage and entrepreneurial imagination, along with new competencies and a new digital culture.