From talent shortage to growth engine: Inside offshore transformation

About Accent Group

Accent Group is one of Australia and New Zealand’s largest footwear and lifestyle retailers, overseeing a portfolio of 800+ stores and more than 34 iconic brands. Headquartered in Melbourne, the company has built a strong reputation for combining retail scale with innovation.

A pioneer in omnichannel strategy, Accent Group continues to invest heavily in digital platforms to improve customer experience and operational efficiency. Its tech-driven model has delivered measurable gains in online conversion, average order value, and business agility, positioning the company as a standout in the region’s retail sector.

The challenge: Scaling tech capacity fast in a tight local market

As Accent Group accelerated its digital transformation, the demand for skilled developers surged. Yet Australia’s talent market posed significant barriers: limited availability, high turnover, and rising salary expectations made local hiring both costly and competitive.

At the same time, the pressure to deliver faster across digital platforms was growing. In-house resourcing came with long lead times and mounting operational costs, slowing momentum just as the business needed to scale with agility.

To sustain its pace of innovation, Accent Group needed a more flexible solution: a scalable, cost-efficient tech workforce that could work in sync with internal teams, move quickly, and align culturally without compromising on quality.

Key challenges:

• Limited access to experienced local developers.
• Urgent need for faster digital execution.
• High cost of in-house resourcing.
• Requirement for a scalable, reliable, and culturally aligned delivery model.

The solution: Building a strategic offshore partnership

To address its growing tech demands and local shortages, Accent Group partnered with Away Digital Teams to establish outsourced experts in Vietnam. What began as a solution to resourcing challenges quickly became a high-performing extension of their local team, delivering far more than expected.

Strategic build: Crafting a fit-for-purpose offshore tech team

Accent Group’s journey from 9 to 40 outsourced talent in Vietnam wasn’t about adding numbers, it was a carefully staged growth strategy.

Phase 1 | STRATEGIC FOUNDATION (TEAM OF 9)

The process began with nine core hires across Full Stack Developers, QA Engineers, Front-End and Back-End Developers, and DevOps Engineers. Each specialist was handpicked for both technical alignment and cultural fit, ensuring the team could plug seamlessly into Accent Group’s agile workflows from day one.

Phase 2 | PROVING CAPABILITY THROUGH ALIGNMENT

With a high-skill, well-matched team in Vietnam, Accent Group quickly saw results. Their strong experience, tool fluency, and cultural alignment meant minimal ramp-up. Delivery quality, communication, and collaboration flowed naturally, proving this team could operate as a true extension of the inhouse development force.

Phase 3 | CONFIDENT EXPANSION

With early success proving the strength of the offshore setup, Accent Group began scaling its Vietnam team to meet growing delivery needs. New hires across development, QA, and DevOps were carefully sourced and onboarded to match both technical standards and team culture.

Clear collaboration rhythms: from daily updates to weekly syncs, kept things running smoothly, while regular in-person visits helped strengthen connection and alignment across borders. The result: a growing, highperforming offshore team that felt fully embedded for lasting growth.

Phase 4 | CROSS-FUNCTIONAL GROWTH

As the partnership matured and delivery continued to exceed expectations, Accent Group recognized an opportunity to extend the impact of its offshore team beyond technology. Confident in the performance, alignment, and cultural fit of their Vietnam-based unit, they began scaling into other core functions, introducing roles in technology, digital marketing, administration, finance and accounting.

This evolution wasn’t just about headcount, it was about building capability. New hires were chosen with the same care and alignment as the original team. With rigorous processes, integrated onboarding, and real-time collaboration, the growing offshore team quickly became a cohesive extension of Accent’s core operations.

Today: A fully embedded offshore engine

What began as a dedicated development team has evolved into a high-performing offshore engine powering Accent Group across IT and core business functions. From digital execution to finance, marketing, store design and back-office operations, the Vietnam team plays a vital role in delivering outcomes that are fast, consistent,  and scalable.

Now 40 strong, fully embedded, and still growing, the team continues to drive speed, agility, and consistency, proving that with the right partner and structure, offshore teams don’t just support delivery; they elevate it.

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The results: Driving scalable impact across digital, operations, and growth

Accent Group’s partnership with Away Digital Teams to build their offshore team resulted in significant, measurable improvements across key areas of the business, from operational efficiency to digital acceleration and scalable growth infrastructure. The transformation was not only immediate but also designed for long-term success.

• Up to 50% cost savings compared to local hiring, freeing up capital to reinvest in core areas like customer experience, platform innovation, and brand expansion.

• A team of over 40 offshore specialists now supports key functions, including Digital, Finance, IT, and Administration, delivering both operational support and contributing to broader transformation initiatives.

• Greater focus for in-house teams, who are now able to concentrate on high-value planning, and leadership functions, while execution is reliably handled by a trusted offshore counterpart.

• Strong cultural and operational alignment allowed the offshore team to work closely within Accent Group’s existing workflows, tools, and values, operating as a natural extension of the business rather than a separate team.

• A scalable, future-ready resourcing model that supports long-term digital growth, platform optimization, and regional expansion without the overhead or rigidity of traditional hiring.

• Leadership visibility and performance oversight, with structured reporting and regular engagement at the executive level, ensuring continuous improvement and alignment with broader business goals.

• Accelerated digital delivery, with faster development cycles enabling quicker rollouts of new features, integrations, and optimizations across Accent Group’s omnichannel platforms.

Built-in flexibility to fuel business growth

With a deeply embedded team of offshore specialists integrated into core operations, Accent Group unlocked the flexibility to scale strategically, expanding digital capabilities, launching new initiatives, and accelerating into growth phases faster. Freed from local resourcing constraints, the business could reinvest time and capital into innovation, customer experience, and market expansion.  

This strategic flexibility became a powerful enabler of business growth, allowing internal teams to stay focused on innovation and customer experience. It’s a success story of what Away Digital Teams calls Outsourcing 2.0, where integrated offshore teams drive long-term value, not just short-term savings. Today, it acts as a growth engine, supporting Accent Group’s momentum in a fast-moving retail landscape.

The client testimonials: Hear from Accent Group about working – with Away Digital Teams

Accent Group’s leadership has consistently recognized the value delivered by the Away Digital Teams. As the business continues to expand its digital footprint and operational capabilities, the offshore partnership in Vietnam has proven to be a reliable and high-performing extension of their organization.

This endorsement reflects not only the quality of execution but also the depth of trust and alignment built across teams. For Accent Group, the partnership goes beyond outsourced support, it’s a key element of how they scale, adapt, and lead in a fast-moving and digitally driven retail landscape.

The conclusion: From expense to expansion – leveraging outsourcing for sustainable growth

Accent Group’s experience shows that outsourcing, when done strategically, goes far beyond cost savings, it’s a pathway to resilience, speed, and smarter growth.

By partnering with Away Digital Teams, Accent Group unlocked access to reliable, skilled talent in Vietnam, building a scalable offshore capability that eased local pressure, accelerated delivery, and supported ongoing transformation.