Merlin Entertainments boosts online ticket sales with a global eCommerce solution from IBM
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Country
- Worldwide
- United Kingdom
Product
- IBM WebSphere Commerce software
- IBM Global Business Services
Tech Stack
- eCommerce platform
- WebSphere Commerce
- Global Business Services
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
- Customer Satisfaction
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Consumer Goods
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Sales & Marketing
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Supply Chain Visibility
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
About The Customer
Merlin Entertainments Group is the second largest theme park and attractions company in the world, with more than 70 sites globally. In the UK, Merlin Entertainments operates Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventures, Thorpe Park, Sea Life, Legoland, the London Eye, Madame Tussauds, Warwick Castle and more. The company employs more than 15,000 people during its peak trading periods, and generated operating profits of £198 million in the 2010 financial year. When the merger with Tussauds was completed in 2007, the new group ran strategic reviews of all functional silos, aiming to identify opportunities for consolidation and rationalisation.
The Challenge
Merlin Entertainments, the second largest theme park and attractions company in the world, had no single, consistent process for online ticket sales. The cost of sales was variable, online cross-marketing and promotions were difficult, and there was no global sales visibility. The company was maintaining several separate solutions internally, and its outsourced service providers were also charging a significant fee per ticket sold. Equally, Merlin Entertainments was unable to run effective cross-marketing or cross-brand promotional activities online, and could not easily see online sales performance across all brands and sites.
The Solution
IBM Global Business Services developed and now supports a strategic global eCommerce solution based on IBM WebSphere Commerce software, supporting 60 global attractions, 13 languages, seven currencies and 16 payment methods. The solution provides a single platform for online ticket sales, enabling cross-selling, up-selling, cross-brand promotions and near real-time global visibility of ticket sales. While it brings operational and reporting consistency, it also supports complete flexibility in presentation, enabling each of Merlin Entertainments brands and attractions to create their own user interfaces and branding. IBM provided a complete turnkey solution for Merlin Entertainments, combining business and technical consulting, technical architecture, software development, infrastructure design and implementation, global rollout, and fully managed support.
Operational Impact
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
.png)
Case Study
Improving Vending Machine Profitability with the Internet of Things (IoT)
The vending industry is undergoing a sea change, taking advantage of new technologies to go beyond just delivering snacks to creating a new retail location. Intelligent vending machines can be found in many public locations as well as company facilities, selling different types of goods and services, including even computer accessories, gold bars, tickets, and office supplies. With increasing sophistication, they may also provide time- and location-based data pertaining to sales, inventory, and customer preferences. But at the end of the day, vending machine operators know greater profitability is driven by higher sales and lower operating costs.
Case Study
Improving Production Line Efficiency with Ethernet Micro RTU Controller
Moxa was asked to provide a connectivity solution for one of the world's leading cosmetics companies. This multinational corporation, with retail presence in 130 countries, 23 global braches, and over 66,000 employees, sought to improve the efficiency of their production process by migrating from manual monitoring to an automatic productivity monitoring system. The production line was being monitored by ABB Real-TPI, a factory information system that offers data collection and analysis to improve plant efficiency. Due to software limitations, the customer needed an OPC server and a corresponding I/O solution to collect data from additional sensor devices for the Real-TPI system. The goal is to enable the factory information system to more thoroughly collect data from every corner of the production line. This will improve its ability to measure Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and translate into increased production efficiencies. System Requirements • Instant status updates while still consuming minimal bandwidth to relieve strain on limited factory networks • Interoperable with ABB Real-TPI • Small form factor appropriate for deployment where space is scarce • Remote software management and configuration to simplify operations
Case Study
How Sirqul’s IoT Platform is Crafting Carrefour’s New In-Store Experiences
Carrefour Taiwan’s goal is to be completely digital by end of 2018. Out-dated manual methods for analysis and assumptions limited Carrefour’s ability to change the customer experience and were void of real-time decision-making capabilities. Rather than relying solely on sales data, assumptions, and disparate systems, Carrefour Taiwan’s CEO led an initiative to find a connected IoT solution that could give the team the ability to make real-time changes and more informed decisions. Prior to implementing, Carrefour struggled to address their conversion rates and did not have the proper insights into the customer decision-making process nor how to make an immediate impact without losing customer confidence.
Case Study
Digital Retail Security Solutions
Sennco wanted to help its retail customers increase sales and profits by developing an innovative alarm system as opposed to conventional connected alarms that are permanently tethered to display products. These traditional security systems were cumbersome and intrusive to the customer shopping experience. Additionally, they provided no useful data or analytics.
