icebreaker, a leader in natural performance apparel, chose MuleSoft to reimagine its digital infrastructure in Australia and New Zealand to pave the way for faster and more efficient regional partner onboarding.
Salesforce has announced that icebreaker, a pioneer of ethical and sustainable natural performance apparel, has selected Mulesoft to modernize icebreaker’s regional digital integrations and vastly increase the speed it can onboard new retail partners in Australia and New Zealand.
The move to natural
Founded in New Zealand in 1995, icebreaker is leading a movement to natural by taking unnecessary plastic out of performance apparel, and instead focusing on the power and quality of natural fibers, true to its philosophy of ‘do more with less’.
icebreaker’s apparel is sold in more than 5,000 stores in 50 countries, as well as Touch Lab retail stores and e-commerce platforms.
icebreaker realized it needed a technology refresh when it experienced difficulty integrating with the modern marketplaces owned by its retail partners in Australia and New Zealand.
Following in the steps of its parent company, VF Corporation, icebreaker chose to embark on a Digital Transformation journey with MuleSoft specific to the region so it could integrate more modern systems into its own as it continues to grow its roster of Aussie and Kiwi retail partners.
Using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to connect with partners in the region
With MuleSoft, icebreaker locally transitioned from its previous point-to-point integration engine to Anypoint Runtime Fabric, a leading container service solution that simplifies the deployment and management of Mule runtimes. This API-led architecture supports its regional strategy of improving the onboarding process for retail partners and marketplaces with prebuilt APIs.
MuleSoft’s RTF empowered icebreaker in Australia and New Zealand to upgrade the rest of its business processes and deliver seamless functionality across all digital channels. These APIs are reusable and purposeful, giving icebreaker greater flexibility when connecting data to applications.
icebreaker’s regional connectivity system consists of three layers – system APIs, process APIs and experience APIs, which provide a consistent stream of data from systems of record to new experiences, all of which can be reused.
Local integrations are faster than ever
icebreaker’s Digital Transformation journey is still in its early stages, but they’re already seeing positive results. For example, icebreaker successfully activated a major rewards store partner in Australia and New Zealand in three weeks.
Before integrating MuleSoft, this process took approximately four months. icebreaker expects to accelerate even faster as more APIs are being built and reused, and it integrates more partners.
The company is on track to reach its goal of increasing local integration time by 70%. The next stage of icebreaker’s Digital Transformation journey for the region is to enable system-to-system integrations to connect all three core business systems: e-commerce, point of sale and distribution center.
“The foundation that we are establishing for Australia and New Zealand using MuleSoft’s integration capabilities is allowing us to modernize our business,” said Nicola Spurdle, Senior IT Manager, Digital and Technology, icebreaker.
“By automating our processes, we are cutting down the time it takes to onboard local partners and marketplaces, and manual business processes, as well as enable greater access to natural solutions as we push deeper into e-commerce. MuleSoft has been proactive in supporting our goals in encouraging customers to move to natural fibers and preserve the planet for future generations.”
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