Zadig&Voltaire at the Forefront of the New Generation of Retail

Created in 1997 by Thierry Gillier, the luxury ready-to-wear brand Zadig&Voltaire now has a global presence with almost 350 boutiques and department store concessions.

From its birth, Zadig&Voltaire stood out for its knitwear, cashmere in particular, with a rock ‘n’ roll style that quickly became synonymous with the brand. With an original focus on women’s fashion, the brand has diversified into a men’s range, as well as a children’s line and numerous accessories (e.g., handbags, shoes).

In 2008, Zadig&Voltaire expanded into the world of online shopping with the development of an e-commerce site built on Magento Commerce. Ten years later, the brand decided to overhaul the architecture of its digital infrastructure with the migration of its e-commerce platform Magento 1 to Magento 2. The objective was to unify the online and offline customer journey through the standardization of payment data, while supporting the brand’s international expansion through the creation of online stores and the acceptance of local payment methods.

Find out how Zadig&Voltaire managed to meet these challenges in the midst of a pandemic thanks to the expertise of Adobe and Adyen.

Accelerating the Digital Transition With Magento and Adyen

The company’s five-year mission was to completely overhaul their digital infrastructure, starting with the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 and the implementation of Progressive Web Apps (PWA) on the brand’s various e-commerce sites. But, more than a simple software migration, this real global overhaul was part of the digital transition initiated by Zadig&Voltaire: “It was a real architect’s job, with a complexity that required a strict roadmap and a major expansion of our agile methodology,” says Jonathan Attali, the new chief digital officer (CDO).

After 10 successful years of partnership, it was an easy decision to continue working with Magento 2 when Attali arrived, while turning to Adyen for payments. The new CDO of Zadig&Voltaire is a certified expert in Magento and has worked several times with Adyen over the years.

It’s a real plus to have the same partners in most of our markets.

 —Jonathan Attali, CDO

Thanks to its suite of innovative technologies, Magento Commerce has allowed the company to create personalized shopping experiences, in line with the brand’s values of innovation and agility. “The acquisition of Magento by Adobe opened up a world of possibilities,” Attali says.

Attali was soon faced with another challenge. The crisis surrounding COVID-19 caused an acceleration in sales and the closure of factories:

“It’s a complicated time for the sector, having to rely solely on digital. Fortunately, we launched this redesign project to help us handle this acceleration, especially when there was more traffic than usual. The automation of the processes achieved with the switch to Magento 2 has allowed us to focus on business,” Attali says.

At the Forefront of Innovation With the Unification of Customer Journeys

While 20% of the brand’s sales are now online, 70% of which are via mobile, the priority for Zadig&Voltaire’s digital transition lies in the creation of unified online and offline customer journeys. They seek to benefit from a 360-degree view of their customers, thanks to the solidification of payment data, to offer them the best possible shopping experience. With its numerous integrations, as well as an omnichannel presence, Adyen allows Zadig&Voltaire to unify and personalize customer journeys, as well as offer services such as buy online and return in store, for example.

“Online, we are completely in sync with retail: everything that happens in-store also happens online; products are launched at the same time to give the same visibility to our customers,” Attali says.

Customers are at the heart of the brand’s concerns. They make a point of regularly conducting user tests to provide the best customer experience. This is evidenced by the work carried out with Magento Commerce and Adyen on the optimization of payment pages. They reduced the information requested as much as possible; by setting up a two-step check-out system, Zadig&Voltaire was able to decrease cart abandonment and thus increase its conversion rate (+ 72% on mobile).

Less than two years after the arrival of their new CDO, and in the midst of a health crisis, the performance indicators are extremely encouraging. Since its switch to Magento 2, Zadig&Voltaire has doubled the number of page views and reports a 67% increase in active mobile users and a 22% reduction in page load times.

Magento and Adyen are solutions that, like us, listen to their customers and innovate. They are always one step ahead and that’s what we need.

—Jonathan Attali, CDO