Carter's, Inc. is the largest branded marketer in the United States of apparel and related products exclusively for babies and young children. Their IBM solution now enables Carter's to focus on delivering a customized, smarter shopping experience to their clients and staying competitive in the dynamic retail industry by connecting and transmitting data in real-time between their distribution networks. Eddie Lizondro, Sr. Manger Integration, Carter's Satya Kallur, Director, IBM Connectivity, Perficient

1. Creating a Smarter
Shopping Experience with
IBM Solutions at Carter's
Session - 6578
Eddie Lizondro
Sr Manager, Integration
Carter’s
Satya Kallur
Director
Perficient, Inc.

2. Agenda
• Carter’s – Introduction
• Understanding Carter’s Business and Customers
• Business and Technology challenges
• IBM tools used in the overall Solution
• Carter’s Integration landscape
• Approach
• Future steps
• IT Trends in Retail industry
1

3. Carter’s Story
2
• Leading U.S. brand of children’s clothing, gifts and accessories
• Approx. 15,000 Employees
• Retail, Wholesale, eCommerce and International business units
• 530+ Carter’s/200+ OshKosh B’Gosh stores
• 26 consecutive years of growth
• $2.8 Billion Revenue
• History Highlights:
1865 – Carter’s founded by William Carter
1895 – Oshkosh B’Gosh founded in WI
2005 – Carter’s acquired Oshkosh B’Gosh
2011 – Carter’s acquired Bonnie Togs (Canadian children’s apparel
retailer with 59 stores and plans to grow to 160)
2011 – launched eCommerce business
2012 – built Braselton, GA Distribution Center (1.2 million square
foot omni-channel facility)
2013 – consolidated corporate headquarters to Atlanta, GA

4. Carter’s Core Systems
3

5. Understanding Carter’s Customers through the
Generations..
4
PopulationbyAge(asof2013)
BOOMERS
(age 50-68)
GEN Xers
(age 35-49)
MILLENNIALS
(age 14-34)
TBD Gen
(age 0-13)
Market growth opportunity with population
swell entering child-bearing years

6. Millennial Moms
5
Value: Shops more frequently and spends more, but
prefers discount/off-price clothing and specialty stores
Digital: Knows a world with 24/7 connectivity and
immediate, expansive access to information
Social Media: Spends more time consuming media,
especially smartphones and tablets
Word of Mouth: Trusts other Moms more than brands
Personalization: Expects brand to know her and
speak to her via her preferred methods
Who she is What matters to her
• 24 – 34 year old Mom
• 83% of first time moms
• Largest generational segment:
80 million
• $1.3 trillion in annual spending
• Carter’s ranks #1 with Millennials
as well as Baby Boomers
• OshKosh is positioned mid-pack
competitively with Millennials; top
3 for Baby Boomers

7. Challenges
• Business Challenges
• Why invest in IT and/or newer technology?
• Support growth in both domestic as well as
international segments
• Consolidate supply and demand into a
single solution
• Increase the collaboration with wholesale
and mass customers
• Support for multiple distribution centers US
and International
• Integrate the processes and organization for
the replenishment of Carter’s stores
• Building towards OMNI-Channel visibility
6

8. Challenges (contd.)
• Technology challenges
• Small IT staff
• Seamless integration with the vendors to improve the quality,
consistency and to reduce the costs
• Multiple legacy systems
• Consolidate the applications supporting various channels to
make it OMNI-Channel
• Existing IT Culture
7

9. IBM Solutions used
• Sterling Order Management Systems
• Order Management and fulfillment services
• WebSphere Message Broker
• Enterprise Service Bus for Carter’s
• IBM DataPower
• Security Gateway
• Sterling EDI
• EDI and data translation engine
8

10. Carter’s Integration Landscape
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Trusted Zone
Tax Calculation
Gift Cards
Drop Ship
Vendor
Email Service
Provider
eCom Portal
Credit Card
Authorization
Business User /
Call Center
Web Store
Call Center
via UI
Identity
Management/
Access
Management
IP Filtering
WebSphere Message Broker
Product Hub
Sterling Order
Management
System
General Ledger
Other Data
Sources
FTP Server
EDI Engine
Data
WareHouse
Address
Verification
Service
WebSphere DataPower
XB62
Warehouse
Management
System
Account
Payable
Logistics
Product Life
Cycle
Management
Goods Tracking
Q Mgr
S S S
<SOAP>
XML
File Based Integration
Service Service Service Service
Interface Interface Interface Interface
Error
Handling
Error
Notification
Auditing /
Logging
Scheduler
Monitoring
Patterns
Legend
Applications
(Internal)
Applications
(External)
Roles
Internet

11. Project Challenges
• Multiple projects with different team executing them
• Multiple versions of the same applications existed
• Sun setting legacy applications and moving business functions
to newer standard systems
• Business functions being moved in phases in different projects
• New tools and applications being implemented as part of overall
Solution
• WebSphere Message Broker
• DataPower
• Sterling OMS
• Legacy systems primarily interacting via files and DB calls and
in batch mode
10

12. Approach
11
• Enable Carter’s team on use of
ESB and patterns typically used
• Establish strong foundation by
setting patterns for the interfaces
across all projects
• Pub-sub
• Asynchronous
• Canonical models
• Collector patterns
• Established Integration standards
and best practices to be used
across all projects

13. Approach (contd.)
12
• Establish frameworks for the
Integration layer
• Logging
• Error Handling
• Error notification
• Scheduler framework
• Interfaces across projects built in
an incremental fashion

14. Additional IBM solutions being considered
• BlueWorks Live
• BPM
• UrbanCode
• IBM API Management
13

15. Technology trends in
Retail Industry

16. Interoperability in Retail industry
15

17. 16
IT trends in Retail industry
• Modernize IT – Services and APIs
• OMNI-Channel visibility
• Security
• Securing IT applications and assets
• Deliver the same Customer experience across all channels
• Mobility
• DevOps maturity
• Scalability and Flexibility

18. Thank You
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