One of the biggest challenges for today’s retail e-commerce companies is the seasonality of
their business. The release of a new product line, the launch of a promotional sales campaign,
or peak purchasing time around the holidays can significantly increase online activity.
Furthermore, many retail entities depend on an array of middleware applications to optimize inter-
departmental processes. This reliance frequently culminates in the procurement of excess technological
resources throughout the year.
FullBeauty Brands, the premier fashion and lifestyle destination for men and women sizes 12
and larger, spent upwards of $300,000 per year for an underutilized MuleSoft license. In
addition, the renewal process for this platform was cumbersome and complex, requiring a
significant number of legal resources to review documents.
Migrating to an AWS cloud-based solution would deliver all the necessary components to create
a robust, highly available, highly scalable, and secure serverless solution.
About FullBeauty Brands
Founded in 1901, FullBeauty Brands serves plus-sized customers with fit, fashion, style, and
comfort. It offers an online marketplace that delivers a curated collection of styles from
renowned brands, making it a popular fashion and lifestyle destination for those men and
women looking for sizes 12 and above.
Challenge
FullBeauty was using the AnyPoint Platform by MuleSoft, which required purchasing an annual
license that could accommodate the company’s peak periods. However, since those peak
periods occurred only occasionally throughout the year, much of the capability behind the
expensive technology went unused.
The licensing renewal process was complex and required costly legal review, and the
knowledge required to support MuleSoft workflows resided with only a few key employees,
introducing a significant risk to the brand if they departed.
In addition, FullBeauty needed multiple middleware integrations into an antiquated legacy
system to keep its various departments operating efficiently. For example, the warehousing and
shipping area may use a logistics package, the finance department relies on accounting
software, the sales team depends on a CRM (Customer Relationships Management) solution,
and so forth, resulting in significant integration challenges throughout the enterprise.
Solution
FullBeauty Brands contacted IO Connect Services to help it migrate to AWS, modernize its
website resources, and integrate its middleware solutions. By leveraging the AWS serverless
technologies, the company could take advantage of the pay-as-you-go options, which scales
natively during the peak seasons.
First, the IO Connect team helped FullBeauty accurately calculate its cost per transaction on
AWS, which allowed the business to estimate its transaction volume and project AWS usage.
Then, the team applied its expertise in middleware integration and lean best practices, which
resulted in improving both resiliency and transparency of the entire system. For example, AWS
allowed FullBeauty to easily pinpoint problems within its multiple middleware applications to
troubleshoot efficiently, which is unavailable in most other platforms.
The solution was fully automated and thoroughly tested before deployment, giving FullBeauty
Brands complete confidence that it was stable and robust before going live. In addition, since
AWS allows companies to bring their own programming languages, it was easy for the
FullBeauty team to utilize its many employees who had experience in multiple programming
languages to effectively work with the new solution.
Results
IO Connect efficiently partnered with FullBeauty, delivering the new solution on schedule and
within the allocated budget. With FullBeauty's internal system singularly integrated with
middleware via a dedicated VPN, the migration process was smooth, concentrating on
workflows, protocols, and agreements, all while ensuring zero data loss.
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