Key Impacts
- Reduced all transaction response times to less than 1 second
- Decreased bandwidth utilization by 30%
- Reduced site abandonment
- Supported a 35% increase in quarterly direct-to-consumer sales
- Supported a 50% increase in site traffic
- Able to serve dynamically generated content
Urban Outfitters, Inc. is an innovative specialty retailer and wholesaler offering a variety of lifestyle merchandise through three brands—Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Free People. In addition to its retail stores, the company promotes its products and brands directly to the consumer through its e-commerce Web sites and catalogs. Urban Outfitters has achieved compounded annual sales growth of approximately 29% over the past five years, with sales of approximately $1.2 billion in fiscal 2007.
Urban Outfitters' brand sites are heavily trafficked by consumers from all around the globe. While the company serves an average of 120-130 million page views monthly across all brands, that number spikes to 200 million per month during the back-to-school and holiday seasons. "Today's consumers expect Web sites to perform quickly and without fail. This is especially true of our Urban Outfitters' site, where we are catering to the younger generation who expect a seamless online experience. With Akamai, we supported a 40% increase in monthly page views while decreasing front-end bandwidth utilization by over 30%," explains Keary McNew, Manager of IT Engineering for Urban Outfitters, Inc.
"Our relationship with Akamai is very strategic, allowing us to focus on our core business, ways to build customer loyalty, and generate higher revenues."
—Keary McNew, Manager of IT Engineering, Urban Outfitters, Inc.
