PMC Retail enables digital growth for diamond retailer Signet Jewelers

PMC Retail is working with the world's largest retailer of diamond jewellery on new digital transformation projects and tripled its release speed in the last year.

The relationship between PMC and Signet Jewelers begun at the start of Covid-19 when it was called into to help work on specific workstreams involving the front and back-end of the websites of the company’s two key brands, H.Samuel and Ernest Jones.

At this time, PMC took on most of the web development work.

Drew Heppenstall, Connected Commerce Delivery Manager at Signet Jewelers, says: “It was at the start of Covid-19, and everybody was working remotely, but in less than a month PMC had a team of six up and running.”

“They really worked as a team to the level that you’d have thought they were all sat in the same office. Unlike other providers, PMC’s depth of retail expertise and delivery and collaborative culture brought us instant benefits of quality and speed of delivery.”

Among the projects undertaken by PMC has been work on various key features on the Signet websites.

These included the implementation of a search and merchandising tool that was completed in a record time.

According to Heppenstall, the average time to implement such a solution across two branded websites would have been eight months to a year but PMC successfully managed to deliver it in only five months.

Another key feature involved the implementation of warranties online.

Although they have always been available within the company’s physical stores, they had never been available online. Now, through the work with PMC, warranties are available across all channels.

The partnership between PMC and Signet has enabled the rapid acceleration in web releases.

As recently as two years ago, the company was typically undertaking only four web releases per year, whereas they now take place on a monthly basis. During 2022, there have been as many as six releases in a period of only eight weeks.

Heppenstal suggests “none of this would be possible without the PMC teams in India and the UK” referring to the blend of skilled personnel PMC deploys from both the UK and India offices, giving access to the necessary expertise.”

“I’ve never met an offshore team that is as on-shore as this. It’s unique. PMC knocks the socks off anybody else, regardless of who they are,” he says.