As the first and only basketball specialty concept store in the Philippines, Titan started as a brick-and-mortar retail business in 2010. The retailer established stores in posh locations and around the metropolis, such as Bonifacio Global City, Megamall, Conrad, Vertis, Alabang, and Solenad.
While a great part of its success can be attributed to its physical stores, the brand recognized the obvious opportunities of opening online stores. This prospect compelled Titan to become an e-commerce pioneer to open an online channel ahead of other industry players. The brand, however, needed internal expertise to operate a digital store. As a result, it chose to hand over its online business operations to a specialist e-commerce enabler, which provided guidance and expertise in the operations and logistics departments of running an e-commerce channel.
But like any other business, the company wanted to grow more, leading it to explore potential partners that could help it achieve more success.
aCommerce was initially referred to Titan in 2016 by the regional team of one of its biggest brand partners. To succeed in this area, the company believed that simply employing a service provider was not enough. It needed a committed and capable partner.
“TITAN saw aCommerce as not just a third-party service provider as an enabler, but as an overall key partner to grow within the long run,” said Raymond Canteras, Titan’s Digital Director.
Strategies for Success
One of TITAN’s key priorities has always been to continuously innovate to provide consumers with the best experiences, whether online or offline. With the help of aCommerce, the brand launched its first mobile application in 2018, bringing it closer to consumers with just a flick and click on their mobile phones.
“By being deeply connected to the consumers, we get to understand them better and know how to serve them in the best and most seamless ways possible,” Raymond Added.
The partnership also allowed aCommerce to rebuild and manage Titan’s website Titan22.com and develop a fully customized mobile app until 2021. Today, aCommerce’s role has evolved where it currently manages Titan’s warehousing, logistics, last-mile fulfillment, and customer service line following established service level agreements.
The companies also embarked on several successful campaigns such as 11.11 and new activation or program rollouts, some of which have resulted in “single-day – or even just minutes – sell-outs of certain products with thousands of quantities”.
Titan is particularly proud of the partnership’s biggest success thus far when aCommerce provided expert support in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic exploded. The two entities working together enabled them to quickly serve the sudden burst in online demand and respond to the shift in consumer behavior.
“Every campaign we have collaborated in always had a lot of key takeaways that have helped and will continue to help us grow,” adding that “despite all the challenges faced throughout that period, aCommerce was able to provide the best service levels the brand could ask for.”
Filling the Gaps
Since partnering with aCommerce, Titan has consistently achieved significant growth in its e-commerce business year after year. On its first full year with aCommerce in 2017, the brand’s digital business grew by 50% from the previous year. And now, six years later, the company projects to grow more than 10x bigger from the collaboration’s launch in 2016.
This only demonstrates how Titan’s customers consistently enjoy high excellence in services rendered by aCommerce 99% of the time each month. The Titan22.com website has also established itself as a highly reliable channel in the country, from user experience to last-mile order fulfillment.
“Titan’s vision is to empower the hoop dreams of athletes around the world. With the help of aCommerce, the brand can reach every part of the country”.
Future of the Partnership
Even while the retail business landscape and consumer behavior continue to shift, Titan attributes the partnership’s success to the masterful way both companies worked together, adapted, and responded quickly to provide the best service levels possible to customers.
“Effective and efficient collaboration is very critical to the success of the partnership. Both sides have made the necessary investments to grow. There’s still a lot more games to win together in the future,” said Henrika Fellizar, aCommerce Philippines Chief Executive Officer. “With the expertise, both parties have in the retail industry and e-commerce, we expect the partnership to keep growing.”
