Pioneer of ethical and sustainable natural performance apparel, icebreaker has chosen MuleSoft to modernise its regional digital integrations and increase the speed to onboard new retail partners in Australia and New Zealand.
Founded in New Zealand in 1995, icebreaker takes unnecessary plastic out of performance apparel, focusing on natural fibres. The apparel is sold in more than 5,000 stores in 50 countries, as well as Touch Lab retail stores and e-commerce platforms.
icebreaker recognised the need for 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.
With MuleSoft, icebreaker 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 improves the onboarding process for retail partners and marketplaces with prebuilt APIs.
MuleSoft’s RTF empowered icebreaker to upgrade the rest of its business processes and deliver seamless functionality across all digital channels. These APIs are reusable and purposeful, delivering greater flexibility when connecting data to applications.
icebreaker’s digital transformation journey is in its early stages, but there’s already 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.
The company is on track to reach its goal of increasing local integration time by 70%. The next stage is to enable system-to-system integrations to connect all three core business systems: e-commerce, point of sale, and distribution centre.
“The foundation that we are establishing for Australia and New Zealand using MuleSoft’s integration capabilities is allowing us to modernise our business,” icebreaker senior IT manager for digital and technology, Nicola Spurdle said.
“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 fibres and preserve the planet for future generations.”