// The Very Group has signed a partnership with Commercetools to tranform the technology behind its ecommerce platform
// CIO Matt Grest said it was one of the most exciting tech developments in Very’s history and the first in a series of investments planned for 2022 to improve its digital customer experience
The Very Group will transform the technology behind its ecommerce platform as it ramps up investment to improve its digital customer experience.
The online retail group has signed a new partnership with commerce platform Commercetools, which it said would help significantly improve its customer experience and was a major step in helping it modernise its tech stack.
Very said the move is the first in a series of investments in technology and talent that it will make in 2022 to further improve its customer experience online.
It is moving towards a microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native, and headless (MACH) architecture, which it explained would allow it to make customer experience changes more frequently and faster than ever before.
Very will begin migrating each stage of its customer journey to Commercetools from March this year.
It said with each stage of migration customers would be delivered with “a more contemporary, consistent and accessible design” built using the retailer’s new design system.
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The Very Group chief information officer Matt Grest, who joined the business from the BBC in late 2020, said: “This is one of the most exciting technology developments in Very’s history. Delivering a brilliant digital customer experience is more important than ever in today’s competitive retail environment, and Commercetools will give us increased scalability and reliability when delivering change.
“Our team will be able to make more simultaneous changes to different parts of our customer journey than ever before. The possibilities that this opens up from both a customer and a business perspective are greater than anything we’ve experienced, and we can’t wait to get started.
“But this isn’t all. Over the coming months we’ll be making even more investments in technology to give our customers their best ever experience on Very, and help our business to attract and retain more of the best tech talent.”
Commercetools chief executive and co-founder Dirk Hoerig added: “While shopping expectations continue to change quickly, The Very Group will be able to respond to these fast-changing market demands with Commercetools’ flexible and dynamic platform.”
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