a case study for

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A C A S E ST U DY FO R:

ghd

The market leader in hair stylers

BUSINESS ghd is the market leader in hair stylers. Their products are sold in over 50,000 salons and stores around the world, as well as via their own busy website CHALLENGES The dramatic change in the retail environment has resulted in extreme spikes in traffic in the two weeks between Black Friday and Christmas

SOLUTION Rackspace Fanatical Support with a bespoke hybrid cloud solution OUTCOME A robust and scalable platform to ensure ghd can deal with the increased demand around Black Friday and Christmas and remain at the cutting edge of innovation in the ecommerce space.

“The decision to work with Rackspace is as much about people as it is about technology”, says Spencer Hudson, ghd’s Internet Technical Solutions Manager. “We lean on their expertise to understand what we want to do next, and scope out how to get us there, managing out any issues that crop up along the way, mitigating risks, and constantly pushing our platform as hard as possible to achieve the best results.”

CUT TING EDGE ECOMMERCE

A MATURE APPROACH

Founded in 2001, ghd (otherwise known as Good Hair Day) is the market leader in hair stylers. Their products are sold in over 50,000 salons and stores around the world, as well as via their own busy website.

ghd have a very mature approach to managing demand - constantly examining successes and failures (both their own and those of their peers), scenario planning for every eventuality based on analytics and forecasting data, and investing in new technologies and best practice approaches.

ghd have been a Rackspace customer for over a decade. During this time they’ve evolved from the first iteration of their website in a dedicated bare metal environment, through the building one of the UK’s largest ecommerce cloud production environment in 2010, to today’s multi-channel digital solution, underpinned by a bespoke Rackspace hybrid cloud environment. At every stage the partnership has ensured ghd remains at the commerce cutting edge - constantly re-examining lesson learned, the strategic application of new technologies for improved performance, and the implementation of innovative strategies to boost resilience and scalability.

“T HE DECISION TO WORK WITH RACKSPACE IS AS MUCH ABOUT PEOPLE AS IT IS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY.” SPENCER HUDSON :: Internet Technical Solutions Manager, ghd

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Spencer explains: “The retail environment has been dramatically changed by Black Friday. Traffic is fairly stable for much of the year, but Christmas season has become significantly compressed. Previously demand would start predictably ramping up from September, but increasingly we see customers putting off their shopping until Black Friday. Site traffic and customer transactions have increased year-on-year during the 2 weeks between Black Friday and Christmas, with 54% of orders coming from mobile, and more and more content being viewed on an increasing range of devices. Having a responsive website is vital.” He continues: “We start our preparations in earnest very early, bringing together our internal team, with Tacit Knowledge, our digital commerce agency, and Rackspace. Together we review analytics and look at the red lines set in the previous year and how close we got to them. We look at how many simultaneous transactions we can cope with, bandwidth limitations, and how this translates to disruption impact, and then we put in place a number of potential best, worst and disaster type scenarios. From this informed basis we then take a strategic approach to how we can improve provisioning. Likewise, we start load testing, implementing best practice and adding in new technologies from across the Rackspace portfolio. It is a great three-way partnership that pays real

“S ITE TRAFFIC AND CUSTOMER TRANSACTIONS HAVE INCREASED YEAR-ON-YEAR DURING THE 2 WEEKS BETWEEN BLACK FRIDAY AND CHRISTMAS, WITH 54% OF ORDERS COMING FROM MOBILE, AND MORE AND MORE CONTENT BEING VIEWED ON AN INCREASING RANGE OF DEVICES. HAVING A RESPONSIVE WEBSITE IS VITAL.” SPENCER HUDSON :: Internet Technical Solutions Manager, ghd

dividends, both in terms of the big wins and the marginal gains, whilst always alive to cost/benefit.

BIG BANG FOR BUCK “Rackspace delivers that all important comfort factor”, says Spencer. “We draw upon their expertise and knowledge, and the experience they gather from their other customers. They facilitate networking and sharing opportunities which allow us to investigate new ideas and share concerns – conversations that really do pay real dividends for the future – this is all part of their Fanatical Support, and it certainly delivers big bang for our buck.” But Spencer also believes it’s the relationships he’s built up with the Rackspace team that really makes a massive difference. “Technology aside, the relationships we have with people at Rackspace are wonderful”, he

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says. “We have great continuity in terms of our BDM’s, account managers, and the wider team. They have taken the time to understand us, and ensure we understand each other, this means we can express a lot of information very quickly. Likewise, even when we have had issues around a piece of software not technically part of their core support service, they are always on hand to help. They go far beyond what you would expect from the typical service provider/customer relationship.”

AN INNOVATIVE FUTURE ghd is always evolving its ecommerce strategy, constantly casting a critical eye on what they can do next to afford new competitive advantage, mitigate risks and improve customer experience. They will look to re-platform in the next two to three years, and are keen to investigate the opportunities afforded by multiple clouds. They also have many innovative ideas, including a waiting page for times when traffic exceeds even their anticipated scenarios. “This is really where our relationship with Rackspace comes to the fore. They understand us, they understand Tacit Knowledge, they understand where we want to go next, and they take our ideas and turn them into reality. It is a futureproof partnership,” concludes Spencer.

ABOUT TACIT KNOWLEDGE Tacit Knowledge, a Newgistics Company, is the digital commerce consultancy that delivers Silicon Valley innovation to retailers around the world. Founded in 2002 by a group of software engineers, Tacit Knowledge implements packaged applications, provides application support, web development, integration and content management, and also builds custom software for globally recognized multichannel organizations, including some of Internet Retailer’s Top 25. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London, New York, Mexico and Moldova. For more information please visit http://www.tacitknowledge.com.

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ABOUT RACKSPACE Rackspace (NYSE: RAX), the #1 managed cloud company, helps businesses tap the power of cloud computing without the challenge and expense of managing complex IT infrastructure and application platforms on their own. Rackspace engineers deliver specialised expertise on top of leading technologies developed by OpenStack®, Microsoft®, VMware® and others, through a results-obsessed service known as Fanatical Support®. Learn more at www.rackspace.co.uk

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