Carluccio partners with e-commerce platform BigCommerce for digital transformation

Italian restaurant chain, Carluccio’s, has partnered with the e-commerce platform, BigCommerce, to overhaul its digital footprint.

The digital transformation comes as part of a £10mn investment and brand restructuring which aims to “reinvigorate the restaurant’s online and offline presence” and improve the customer experience.

Creating a new website that's hosted on Wordpress with e-commerce powered by BigCommerce, the platform will bring together content and online shopping into a single web experience.

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James Backhouse, marketing director at Carluccio's, is leading the brand reinvigoration and digital-focused strategy.

“We are unusual in having both restaurants and delis retailing our products, and we wanted to bring this all to life in our online presence,” he said.  

“Our aim was to develop a website that did the fundamentals really well - whilst also demonstrating the stories behind the brand and products, and linking seamlessly into e-commerce.

“To do this, we needed a platform that could strike the balance between traditional e-commerce and a content-rich website. This newly launched site has definitely accomplished that.”

Earlier this year, Carluccio’s closed a third of its branches in a company voluntary agreement (CVA) to protect the firm’s strong core business.

The 85 remaining restaurants will be fully upgraded, according to the firm.

Mark Adams, EMEA general manager at BigCommerce said: “Our entire e-commerce platform is built to be open, working in tandem with best-in-class technologies, enabling us to deliver the best possible functionality and capabilities for our customers based on their unique requirements.

“By levering BigCommerce for WordPress, Carluccio’s has created an engaging, inspiring, story-driven site with embedded shopping intelligently incorporated throughout.

He added: “Fusing WordPress’ CMS with BigCommerce’s powerful commerce platform means Carluccio’s team can easily and efficiently manage product catalogues, inventory, orders, fulfilment and shipping, checkout and payment, all without technical overhead or complexity.

"This is what retailers expect of a modern e-commerce platform, and we are thrilled to help Carluccio’s bring this to market in time for the holidays.”

Carluccio’s noted that 80% of the business’ e-commerce volume comes from the two months leading up to Christmas.