Paving a Path for Sustainable B2B Growth

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Interface is a leading global B2B manufacturer of carbon neutral modular flooring, offering an innovative collection of carpet tiles and resilient flooring. With sustainability at its core, the company aims to operate “in a way that is restorative to the planet and creates a climate fit for life.” To that end, Interface is the first brand in the flooring industry that is third-party certified as a Carbon Neutral Enterprise across its entire global business, products, and value chain, solidifying its bold Climate Take Back™ mission to reverse global warming.

From a business standpoint, Interface needed to sustain the operation of its digital ecosystem. The brand looked to minimize the ever-demanding cost, time, and resources to manage and update its global infrastructure composed of multiple sites in various languages. Interface also aimed to streamline its content publishing with the intent to increase customer engagement by serving more personalized and elevated brand messaging. The company concluded that a migration from its legacy commerce platform to the Salesforce ecosystem was necessary.

To tap into our unparalleled Salesforce knowledge and more than 20 years of experience architecting complex commerce solutions, Interface engaged Astound to implement its digital transformation strategy.

We kicked off the project with an in-depth three-month-long solution definition to understand Interface’s goals and provide the best technical solution. Due to the complex nature of B2B, our experts performed a gap analysis to ascertain the level of customization needed to support the brand’s requirements to migrate to the Salesforce Commerce Cloud structure. Stakeholder and user interviews were conducted to gain further insights along with a content audit to discern the needs of each Interface customer segment. Additional services were completed to support our strong data-driven strategy for optimal implementation and design.

Employing a consultative approach throughout due to the project’s complexity, we recommended a two-phased global rollout strategy using the dynamic Salesforce Storefront Reference Architecture powered by Astound’s Launch360: Storefront accelerator. This approach would enable the development of a solid infrastructure foundation along with data migration and custom integrations of all solutions and content architecture and allow for testing and iterating before expanding further. We began by migrating the Americas (or AMS, composed of the US, Canada, and Latin America) Interface site from its legacy platform to Commerce Cloud. Leveraging the latest mobile-first framework and functionality, the brand’s EAAA sites, encompassing countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, would roll out in Phase 2.

Delivered via proof of concept, a cloud version of the Adobe Experience Manager content management system was integrated with Commerce Cloud to enable Interface’s new content strategy. Based on the extensive audit, we re-architected Interface’s content strategy and recommended employing a modular approach to content to ensure more customizable, personalized messaging.

Custom site integrations include Interface’s modernized interactive Floor Design Tool, a rich media management platform, a PDF converter, an email service provider, a digital asset management system, an enterprise resource planning tool, middleware, and a tax compliance solution. The Interface AMS site successfully launched in June 2022, with subsequent launches in 10 more regions across EAAA in August 2022. Our support of Interface’s digital transformation continues through staff augmentation.

Interface’s migration to Commerce Cloud using the Launch360: Storefront accelerator provides a scalable infrastructure primed for future Salesforce integrations. The digitally transformed site is beautifully designed, elevating the brand’s sustainably minded flooring products and unique B2B brand story via a more manageable, cost-effective platform. Its content consists of compelling brand storytelling through inspirational imagery and intuitive page design, particularly at the product detail page level. Interface can cross-promote its product categories across brands and easily convey its innovative full-flooring-system story through a user-friendly design, delivering a B2B customer experience fit for a sustainable future.

Notably, Astound won a coveted Salesforce Partner Innovation Award for B2C Commerce for our transformative work with FLOR, a subsidiary of Interface.