Vera Bradley’s legacy systems limited growth and customer experience, creating inefficiencies as the business expanded across retail and online channels.
Vera Bradley unified finance, commerce, supply chain, and customer service with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Copilot Studio, streamlining operations.
The company increased efficiency, saved millions, reduced live agent escalations by 25%, and improved customer experience with real-time insights.
Vera Bradley is an American luggage, handbag, and apparel company headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Over time, the brand found that its legacy technology systems were limiting business growth and the overall customer experience. To solve the problem, Vera Bradley implemented a solution featuring Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Commerce, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and Microsoft Copilot Studio. As a result, the company has centralized financial management, improved operational efficiency, saved millions of dollars, reduced live customer service agent chat escalations by 25%, and gained deeper analysis into promotions and pricing.
When Indiana friends Barbara Bradley Baekgaard and Patricia Miller were traveling together in 1982, they noticed something lacking in an airport they visited—stylish luggage. Shortly after their trip, the two friends created Vera Bradley, named after Baekgaard’s mother, and began manufacturing and marketing their distinctive products. Today, Vera Bradley is an American lifestyle brand that sells colorful, patterned handbags, luggage, apparel, and accessories in approximately 125 branded retail stores, more than 1,600 department and specialty retail stores, and through verabradley.com and other online channels.
As Vera Bradley grew, the brand saw the need to replace its outdated legacy ERP, point of sale (POS), and e-commerce systems. These on-premises systems were fragmented, which led to inefficiencies in processes and difficulties in managing customer interactions as the business expanded. “As the business evolved from a wholesale business to a predominantly e-commerce and retail business, our environment had become increasingly complex,” says Aaron Feagler, Director, Security and Operations at Vera Bradley. “We were looking for a solution that would help us consolidate vendors and build a less complex technology stack overall. This would allow us to get to a position where we could innovate and keep the technology stack current.”
To centralize data across functions and make the business more agile, Vera Bradley began searching for a cloud solution that could help standardize supply chain management, finance, and commerce operations.
After evaluating different technology vendors, Vera Bradley selected Sunrise Technologies, a Microsoft partner, to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance for the company’s financial and order management processes and Dynamics 365 Commerce to manage the company’s in-store POS systems.
During the implementation, Sunrise helped Vera Bradley quickly convert its legacy SAP and Oracle environments to Dynamics 365. “When it was time to go live, we converted all our SAP systems and about 550 POS terminals to Dynamics 365 overnight across the store fleet,” says Feagler. The Dynamics 365 environment also integrates with the Vera Bradley Shopify e-commerce platform, used for the company’s online sales. Additionally, Dynamics 365 integrates with the company’s supply chain management, payment processing, tax processing, and EDI solutions.
At the retail store level, Vera Bradley uses Store Commerce, a point-of-sale application for Dynamics 365 Commerce, at stand-alone price checkers in outlet stores. The company uses Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to manage store-to-store transfers when sending products back to the company’s distribution center or transferring products from between stores. In addition, the solution automates the process for receiving products in stores when shipped from the distribution center.
Vera Bradley also implemented Dynamics 365 Customer Service to simplify case management for the customer service team and reduce the number of systems required to serve omnichannel customers. Additionally, the company’s sales team uses Dynamics 365 Sales to manage lead generation and store terms-of-sale documents for wholesale accounts.
More recently, Vera Bradley began using Microsoft Copilot Studio in Dynamics 365 Customer Service to enable autonomous chat for customer self-service, with a Copilot agent answering customer questions about order status, luggage registration, or policies. The company is also using Microsoft Copilot for Store Commerce to generate product insights, helping sales associates improve their efficiency.
By moving from its legacy application environment to Dynamics 365, Vera Bradley has increased operational efficiency by centralizing its financial management processes and streamlining multiple store operations. “Our financial management is now centralized, providing better control and visibility,” Feagler says. “The integration with our e-commerce platform has improved customer experience, enabling buy online, pick up in store and ship from store capabilities.” Through the integration between Shopify and Dynamics 365, online Vera Bradley orders are ready for store pickup in as little as an hour. Dynamics 365 can also identify stock availability issues for certain orders, ensuring the company can ship products to a customer from a store instead of the primary distribution center on demand if necessary.
Cost savings was another benefit of the move to Dynamics 365. “We were looking at possibly spending more than $10 million to upgrade our SAP environment. It was so out of date that upgrading meant reimplementing completely new technology,” says Feagler. “Dynamics 365 has saved us millions of dollars a year in maintenance and software costs over the previous solutions.”
“We were looking at possibly spending more than $10 million to upgrade our SAP environment. It was so out of date that upgrading meant reimplementing completely new technology. Dynamics 365 has saved us millions of dollars a year in maintenance and software costs over the previous solutions.”
Aaron Feagler, Director, Security and Operations, Vera Bradley
Using a customer support agent developed in Microsoft Copilot Studio integrated with Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Vera Bradley has significantly improved customer service efficiency by automating more than 2,000 monthly support cases through its website agent.
“The use of Microsoft Copilot Studio for autonomous chat-based self-service has reduced live agent chat escalations by 25%, allowing our agents to focus on more complex issues. By offloading routine inquiries, our agents report feeling more empowered and engaged in solving meaningful customer challenges,” says Susan Campbell, Director, Customer Experience at Vera Bradley.
By diverting routine inquiries away from live representatives, Vera Bradley has effectively eased the burden on its customer service team. “The AI-powered agent has been especially valuable during peak retail seasons, handling increased case volume without additional staffing,” says Campbell.
“Our customers tell us they prefer to self-serve when they can, and the agent provides a seamless, always-on experience. Customers have access to track orders, initiate returns, register luggage, find current promotions, and more. With Microsoft Copilot Studio, we can continuously monitor and improve how we engage with our customers,” Campbell adds.
With Microsoft Copilot Studio, Vera Bradley can closely monitor key metrics such as Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), issue resolution rates, and engagement levels—ensuring the delivery of a high-quality customer experience at every step.
“Our customers tell us they prefer to self-serve when they can, and the agent provides a seamless, always-on experience. Customers have access to track orders, initiate returns, register luggage, find current promotions, and more. With Microsoft Copilot Studio, we can continuously monitor and improve how we engage with our customers.”
Susan Campbell, Director, Customer Experience, Vera Bradley
Scalability and strong system performance are paramount to ensure success during peak periods of the year such as during the holiday season, back to school, and Vera Bradley’s Annual Outlet Sale. “We have between 50-60 cash registers operating during our Annual Outlet Sale versus a typical store that averages between three and five registers. Dynamics 365 has enabled us to scale based on our needs,” says Feagler.
Using Commerce for in-store POS and Dynamics 365 overall to scale up for seasonal events, Vera Bradley can easily manage peak demand. “We gained a lot of stability and performance from Dynamics 365, compared with our previous environment. With Dynamics 365, we have reduced desk ticket volumes and technology issues, especially during peak seasons and large-scale events like our popular Annual Outlet Sale,” says Feagler.
Data insights from Dynamics 365 give Vera Bradley the ability to validate the effectiveness of a given price point or promotion. The integrated Dynamics 365 solution gives Vera Bradley the capability to make faster adjustments to promotions and pricing over previous solutions.
Analysis from Microsoft Copilot for Store Commerce also gives Vera Bradley sales teams ideas on how to work more efficiently. “Copilot Insights in Store Commerce has given our store associates summaries of key report metrics, product highlights, and customer insights,” says Feagler. “In addition, we’re using Commerce to enable per-channel pricing and promotions on products.”
Adds Kyle Mock, Business Analyst at Vera Bradley, “Copilot Insights for Store Commerce has empowered our store teams with data-driven details that help improve our customers’ shopping experience. From Customer to Product Insights, the highlighted details can complement the service experience we provide for our customers. Additionally, leadership and accountability thrive through the narrative-based Report Insights which quickly shed light on key performance indicators.”
Overall, Dynamics 365 has equipped Vera Bradley for sustained growth while enabling real-time insights, streamlining operations, and improving customer experiences. “Transitioning from legacy applications to Dynamics 365 has allowed Vera Bradley to consolidate vendors and simplify our technology stack, making the business more nimble and able to pivot quickly to provide in-demand customer conveniences and shopping patterns,” says Feagler.
“Copilot Insights for Store Commerce has empowered our store teams with data-driven details that help improve our customers’ shopping experience. From Customer to Product Insights, the highlighted details can complement the service experience we provide for our customers.”
Kyle Mock, Business Analyst, Vera Bradley
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