CASE STUDY
“ Our guests ’ in-store experience is highly interactive and emotional as they get to create a custom furry friend and bring it to life including our signature Heart Ceremony . Our goal with this project is to translate this connectivity and emotion to the digital world ,” said Mike Early , SVP and Chief Information Officer at Build-A-Bear .
“ The technology requirements to make this happen were not simple , as we needed enough processing power and speed to support this virtual experience on any device . This is where our partnership with Nutanix , Buzz3D and TierPoint came in , delivering a highly engaging online shopping experience in a private cloud environment that maximizes performance and is tailored to our requirements .”
With the retail landscape already shifting prior to the Coronavirus pandemic , Build-A-Bear was focused on rethinking existing technology and formed a collaboration with Buzz 3D , a UK based , 3D online shopping solutions provider .
The rapid acceleration of e-commerce and desire to translate the iconic Build-A-Bear experience for a digital audience resulted in a vision for an interactive shopping experience that would bring the joy and fun of visiting Build-A-Bear Workshop to the online space and appeal to an expanded audience of consumers who are shopping online in record numbers .
After that , the challenge was to deliver this experience , which would require large amounts of processing power , similar to what is seen in online gaming , to any customer device . To achieve this , Build-A-Bear and Buzz3D decided on Nutanix Frame , a Desktop-as-a-Service solution that can stream high performance and graphics-intensive applications running on top of Nutanix private cloud infrastructure to a standard web browser on end-users ’ devices .
Via Frame and an application embedded in Build- A-Bear ’ s website , consumers will be able to have a high-end digital experience on buildabear . com
I EXPECT OTHERS TO LOOK AT WHAT THE COMPANY IS CREATING AS A MODEL OF HOW TO TRULY ENGAGE CONSUMERS ANYWHERE . whether on a PC or mobile device , without high bandwidth requirements .
To power the Bear Builder 3D Workshop digital experience as well as Nutanix Frame , the company wanted to marry the performance , cost advantages and customization of a private cloud environment , with the As-a-Service model of public cloud . It identified data center and cloud services provider TierPoint , running Nutanix HCI software , to achieve this .
It also plans to leverage public cloud services for additional capacity to respond to spikes in traffic .
Rajiv Mirani , Chief Technology Officer at Nutanix , said : “ Retailers globally are looking at how to reinvent the online shopping experience to elevate it beyond a simple transaction that is mainly focused on cost and to bring similar value and engagement online as they do in-store . COVID-19 has only accelerated this trend .
“ Just like Build-A-Bear reinvented the in-store shopping experience , I expect others to look at what the company is creating as a model of how to truly engage consumers anywhere and how to leverage technology like Nutanix to enable that .”
Greg Ahlheim , TierPoint Senior Vice President of Product Development , said : “ Considering the unique host configuration required to deliver Build-A-Bear ’ s desired online experience to concurrent users , a custom-built private cloud was the perfect choice to anchor this initiative . We applaud Build-A-Bear ’ s vision for the project and our technology partners ’ collaboration in making it a reality .”
Marc Foreman , Co-Chief Executive Officer at Buzz3D , said : “ We ’ ve always wanted to bring 3D shopping online , but the technology needed to make it easy for a retailer to scale and deliver their ideal customer experience en-masse is only now catching up . Having discovered Nutanix ’ s Frame technology and the right partner in Build-A-Bear , we are finally able to bring the retail shopping experience online in a truly interactive and immersive way .”
We asked Mike Early , SVP and Chief Information Officer at Build-A-Bear , further questions to find out more about the project .
Can you explain some of the complexities you needed to overcome at the start of the project ?
From a technology perspective , the challenge was to deliver the Bear Builder 3D Workshop experience ,
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