Global Deployments

What’s on this page?

Tulip provides a SaaS solution for hosting and operating a feature-rich industry proven Checkout and Clienteling Apps that is deployable in clients’ stores across multiple countries.

Tulip provides localization natively within the mobile platform that works across regions by enabling on-the-fly locale awareness. It pre-packages support for major languages by including app text strings within its out-of-the-box mobile applications without requiring additional customization time to work into the app user interface elements.

Tulip apps will automatically detect the locale on the iOS device and switches context relevant to the usage location that is set up on the device.

Currently Tulip is hosted on a global cloud service provider where its cloud architecture allow it to constantly update its feature offerings and keep security and performance up to industry standards, along with compliance rules applicable globally.

Start small. Tulip recommends clients start with a single geolocation for the initial rollout in their stores. Clients can select a set of stores within a specific country where Catalog and Clienteling use cases, and if applicable Checkout scenarios can be launched within a Pilot phase. It is recommended to start with EN-US and USD currency if possible where the primary geography is North America.

Start with Less Complex Integrations

Tulip can integrate in real time for data update and sync to the client’s retail systems. This includes new customer record creations or updates to existing ones from Tulip app into the client’s CRM. Starting with a batched approach in Pilot expedites time to market in the start up phase.

Start with Specific Locale and Test Thoroughly

Using this approach, the apps can be deployed to a specific locale, such as the US, and then can be expanded to Canada for locale-specific testing. That said, if the Pilot is not feasible in North America, then Tulip recommend a supported language is selected for Pilot in another region (e.g. Europe, EN-GB). Tulip’s support for additional locales and languages is described below.

This approach provides clients with an expedited path to implementing a Tulip-enabled platform that can be expanded to future stores in different locations and languages. It also aligns a client’s IT solutions and resources to ensure that a wider launch can be successful.

Train and Gather Feedback

This approach also provides early feedback as well as training opportunities from a pool of well-trained committed early adopter store users. Early training and feedback can lead to appropriate business decisions and approach adjustments along with optimal Tulip configurations for features in expansion locations. Tulip works with our customers to identify the right type of store, sales associate, and location to get the most informative results from the pilot.

Monitor Requirements and Adjust Integrations Roadmap

Tulip provides most of the functionality that store staff needs today in order to be competitive and influence sales by building long lasting customer relationships. A pilot phase allows clients to capture and update requirements and adjust integrations roadmap based on digital systems in place and phasing out the complex integrations. See integration options for details on how Tulip connectors and integration options can expedite building out a connected system.

Infrastructure for Global Store Chains

Tulip provides global availability by partnering with leading cloud solution providers for hosting each client’s application servers and data services. Our architecture, combined with our cloud services provider’s comprehensive network of global data centres, provides the fastest routing to regional caches and network resolution to primary hosting location for the most optimal data response times.

The server backend of the Tulip Platform can be hosted on a multi-tenant instance with resources dedicated to the client. A specific tenant serves dedicated app functionality and business logic that is relevant to a corresponding regional customer segmentation, checkout-transactional integration logic to client’s regional, and/or locale-specific third-party services. For example, payment providers could be different in North America vs those in the EU region for the same brand retailer.

Optimized Integrations with Tulip Cloud Platform

Our clients’ in-store Tulip mobile app performance remains optimal in the most demanding time periods using the Tulip cloud platform architecture. To ensure we achieve this in all use cases, Tulip recommends minimizing real time transactions or touch-points that are routed to a client’s enterprise backend unless absolutely necessary. This is achieved by caching the client’s digital data entities on the Tulip Cloud Platform.

This empowers standard features for product and customer searching as well as filtering based on a variety of attributes. This also facilitates the leveraging of standard performance-aware mobile to cloud API which can be deployed on a global network leveraging routing methodologies, without being hardwired to client specific implementations that could be subject to performance bottlenecks, firewall and proxy config constraints, deployment and change control issues etc.

Therefore, Tulip requires caching a copy of static assets like product content, price, customer and order/purchase history and relying on integration options like the Bulk API layer for Client IT systems to automatically and periodically refresh the Tulip server cache.

Note that while most of the data is accessed through its cache on the Tulip Cloud Platform to serve the mobile app in-store, there are times where Tulip goes directly to client systems. Those use cases include the following types of interfaces:

  • Authentication and Authorization services - during initial login Tulip routes to Retailer’s Digital SAML compliant login auth control web app
  • Creation or updates to Customer record - to immediately sync CRM master in real time
  • POS system services - inventory updates, promotions calculations, post order completion settlement etc.
  • Order management system services, including a real time view of Inventory - during checkout flow
  • Primary payment gateway and payment device (PED) - during transaction payment use cases
  • Any other must have real time interface to 3rd party e.g. Recommendations engine when required, and,
  • SMS and Email delivery service partners.

Key Considerations

A Tulip Cloud-hosted tenant delivers all standard Tulip App features that are usable consistently across a global deployment; however, there are certain constraints in this scenario to achieve success:

  • All UX features must be same across all stores regardless of installation geographies.
  • A single target for Authentication that is based on SAML-compliant secure login protocol available from all locations.
  • Customer data visible within the app is not restricted or unique across specific regional deployments. Tulip doesn’t support store-specific or region-specific rules to display unique search results on customers and/or products within one application instance.
  • Features that rely on business rules such as automated follow-ups, store associate ‘advisor’, customer communication opt-in preferences, and checkout rules are consistent across all corporate (manager) and store employee users.
  • All major integrations with a clients’ systems and/or third-party backend systems are the same across all stores. Major integrations include employee authentication, CRM, product data, pricing, and inventory availability services.
  • Third-party interfaces like product recommendations engine, checkout integrations for payment gateway, promotion engines, order reconciliation, and POS systems should be hosted on a client’s middleware service layer that change minimally for regional deployments.
  • For any localization descriptions and details for products, categories, images, and associated links, clients must provide the necessary localized data in supported fields using Tulip’s Bulk API-based data synchronization. Similarly local pricing and inventory is also supported out-of-the-box in Tulip.

Tulip can offer some flexibility with configuration regional-specific specific email service providers, tax services, and address verification services. However, all other major services should be consistent across all stores

Should there be vast differences between the regional deployments, branding, integrations, and business rules/configurable features, Tulip will require a specific cloud tenant and a mobile app that is regionally configured for the different locale/deployment region. However there are a few considerations:

  • Based on the different integrations between regions, there may be a cost factor to building distinct integrations;
  • Replication of data for shared entities like Customers might be required across different regions, and that shall need specific configuration and set up effort;
  • Additional set up based on data privacy rules can be implemented based on specific requirements.

Localization with Tulip

Languages and Locale

Tulip’s out-of-the-box text labels and messages will switch based on locale settings set up on the iOS device. All data synchronized to Tulip must follow the localization format recommended. For details please see Bulk API documentation and observe the locale specific parameters in the API specification for ensuring the right locale translated text is loaded during data sync to Tulip.

What languages Tulip supports can be found in Tulip Overview.

Currency

Tulip offers out-of-box capability for displaying local currency in Product detail page of Tulip Apps. This is handled by standard localization features.

  • Check for numeric order totals regardless of currency e.g. Customers that shopped within an amount total: 50 - 100 would return customers that shopped within that range in multiple currencies, without, say distinguishing between USD or Euros.
  • The client’s systems informs Tulip of a baseline currency e.g. USD, which would be used for all order range checks.

In-App Dashboards

Currently, Tulip reporting dashboards are available in USD currency only. These are based on transaction data that is sent to Tulip. Tulip recommends that all transactions are provided in their equivalent USD totals so that all dashboard metrics can be totalled and presented in a consistent currency.

Customer Filters

Tulip allows searching for Customers based on their order history totals. A global view of customers in Tulip means that Customers that have shopped across different regions and different currencies could be returned.

Checkout Services

Payment gateways, receipt printers, POS services, and regional reporting requirements – all of these can be hosted on one global Tulip platform as long as the client can expose the same checkout interfaces for multi-regional deployment. In case any of the rules are complex and require conditional handling on the mobile app or cloud backend side, Tulip would normally recommend the separation of data and services into its own tenant.

China Mainland Deployment Approach

Tulip can deploy its mobile application within stores in China regions by employing deployment infrastructure with partners in China region that allow for compliant Tulip solutions.

Tulip’s approach is to be able to host its services in a single global instance with minimal latency near the China region by working with a partner CDN solution provider. The CDN provider will route Tulip mobile app requests to the closest proximity hosting location near China e.g. HK region, and serve the data from there.

In order to address the infra segregation requirements, Tulip has obtained an ICP license to be able to access its services through the China firewall. Tulip uses cloudflare as a partner. Tests have been conducted in this model in early 2019 and achieved acceptable latency.

Country Availability for Assisted Selling, Clienteling, and LiveConnect

  • The United States and Canada
    • Canada
    • United States
  • Europe
    • Austria
    • Belgium
    • Denmark
    • Finland
    • France
    • Germany
    • Hungary
    • Ireland
    • Italy
    • Luxembourg
    • Netherlands
    • Norway
    • Poland
    • Portugal
    • Spain
    • Sweden
    • Switzerland (just added)
    • United Kingdom
  • Africa, Middle East, and India
    • India
  • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • Mexico
  • Asia Pacific
    • Australia
    • Japan
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