APPDYNAMICS & SWAROVSKI: Monitoring the Sparkle – Ensuring a Seamless Customer Experience

San Francisco, CA – October 26, 2023 – APPDYNAMICS LLC, a leading observability platform, today announced a fascinating, if unconventional, application of its technology: monitoring the online sales and customer experience surrounding SWAROVSKI crystal bracelets. While seemingly a jump from traditional IT infrastructure monitoring, this case study demonstrates the power of APPDYNAMICS to analyze any complex, customer-facing system – even one revolving around luxury goods and peak shopping moments. For SWAROVSKI, a globally recognized brand synonymous with quality and sparkle, delivering a flawless online experience is paramount. Every click, every page load, every transaction needs to be smooth and reliable. A slow website, a stalled checkout, or an inaccurate product description isn't just an inconvenience; it’s a potential loss of a luxury purchase and a dent in brand reputation. APPDYNAMICS is helping SWAROVSKI prevent these issues before customers even notice them. “We’re known for beautiful bracelets, not complex IT systems,” explains Amelia Stone, Head of E-Commerce at SWAROVSKI. “But behind every online purchase, there’s a lot going on – product catalogs updating, inventory checks, payment processing, shipping integrations, personalization engines… the list goes on. We needed a way to understand exactly what was happening, end-to-end, and identify any bottlenecks that were impacting our customers.” Beyond Servers & Code: Monitoring the Customer Journey Traditionally, application performance monitoring (APM) focused on the technical side – server health, database queries, code performance. APPDYNAMICS takes a different approach. It focuses on the business transactions themselves, tracing the entire customer journey from the moment they land on the SWAROVSKI website to the confirmation of their order. “We don't just see CPU usage,” says David Chen, APPDYNAMICS Solutions Architect. “We see the performance of the ‘Add to Cart’ transaction, the ‘Checkout’ transaction, the ‘Payment Authorization’ transaction. We can pinpoint exactly where delays are occurring, and what's causing them.” How it Works: Digging into the Details of a Bracelet Purchase Let's walk through a typical SWAROVSKI crystal bracelet purchase and see how APPDYNAMICS monitors it: 1. Customer Lands on Website: APPDYNAMICS tracks the initial page load time, identifying any issues with content delivery networks (CDNs) or website hosting. 2. Browsing the Bracelet Collection: APPDYNAMICS monitors the performance of the product catalog, ensuring that images load quickly and product information is displayed accurately. If a particular bracelet – say, the ‘Stella’ bracelet – is causing slow page loads, APPDYNAMICS can immediately alert the team. 3. Adding to Cart: APPDYNAMICS tracks the ‘Add to Cart’ transaction, ensuring that the product is correctly added to the customer’s shopping cart and that the cart total is calculated accurately. 4. Checkout Process: This is where things get complex. APPDYNAMICS monitors every step of the checkout process, including address verification, shipping option selection, and payment method selection. If a customer is abandoning their cart at a particular step, APPDYNAMICS can provide insights into why. For example, maybe the shipping cost calculator is experiencing issues, or the address verification service is down. 5. Payment Authorization: APPDYNAMICS monitors the communication with the payment gateway, ensuring that the payment is processed quickly and securely. If a payment fails, APPDYNAMICS can help identify the root cause – whether it's a problem with the customer's credit card, a connection issue with the payment gateway, or a bug in the payment processing code. 6. Order Confirmation & Shipping Integration: APPDYNAMICS monitors the communication with the shipping provider, ensuring that the order is correctly transmitted and that the customer receives a shipping confirmation email. Real-Time Insights & Proactive Problem Solving The real power of APPDYNAMICS lies in its ability to provide real-time insights into the performance of these transactions. The platform uses machine learning to automatically detect anomalies and identify potential problems before they impact customers. “We’re not just reacting to problems,” explains Stone. “We're proactively identifying and resolving them. For example, during a recent promotional campaign, APPDYNAMICS alerted us to a slowdown in the payment processing system. We were able to quickly scale up our resources and prevent any disruptions to the customer experience.” Beyond Performance: Understanding Customer Behavior APPDYNAMICS also provides valuable insights into customer behavior. By analyzing transaction data, SWAROVSKI can understand which bracelets are most popular, which pages are most visited, and where customers are dropping off during the checkout process. This information can be used to optimize the website, improve the customer experience, and increase sales. “We can see, for example, that customers who view the ‘Harmony’ bracelet are more likely to complete a purchase,” says Stone. “This allows us to personalize the website and show more relevant products to customers.” The Future of Observability: From IT to Everything This partnership between APPDYNAMICS and SWAROVSKI demonstrates a broader trend in the field of observability. Observability is no longer just about monitoring IT infrastructure. It’s about understanding the performance of any complex system, from IT applications to business processes to customer journeys. “We’re excited to be working with SWAROVSKI to push the boundaries of observability,” says Chen. “We believe that our technology can be used to improve the performance of any business, regardless of industry.” APPDYNAMICS, based at 500 Terry A Francois Blvd, San Francisco, CA, 94158-2354, United States (714-966-4981), continues to innovate in the observability space, helping businesses like SWAROVSKI deliver exceptional customer experiences. The company believes that by understanding the entire customer journey, businesses can identify and resolve issues before they impact customers, and ultimately drive growth and success. And in the case of SWAROVSKI, ensure every sparkle shines brightly.