Lyko is regarded as a role model by many in the e-commerce world. Known for always sticking its neck out and going its own way, the results so far show that they are doing a lot right. For as long as Commerce Mind has existed, we have had the privilege of supporting Lyko in various ways, but the relationship goes back much further than that.
Lyko is regarded as a role model by many in the e-commerce world. Known for always sticking its neck out and going its own way, the results so far show that they are doing a lot right. For as long as Commerce Mind has existed, we have had the privilege of supporting Lyko in various ways, but the relationship goes back much further than that.
Several of Commerce Mind's colleagues have supported Lyko at previous workplaces, for example as architect and project manager when Lyko's current e-commerce solution saw the light of day in 2016, and have continued to collaborate with Lyko over the years, on both development and strategic technical questions. When Commerce Mind started in 2021, Lyko was the first client we started working with, since we had good, established relationships.
"Commerce Mind is a group of e-commerce experts we have worked with for a long time. They are reliable and incredibly good both at technology and at our business. As we continue to accelerate and grow, we are glad to have them with us." Rickard Lyko
Lyko is an organisation characterised by constant growth and focus on innovation, development and forward drive. Their goal is to be top of mind in the beauty category, and they are investing heavily in growth in Europe. The combination of e-commerce and physical stores has proved to be a successful concept so far, and they continue to open new stores in cities around Europe to strengthen their brand.
To be able to keep gearing up and handle a world in constant change, Lyko has over the years built up a large internal development department, but they also have ongoing needs to complement with specialist expertise. For example when a larger initiative needs to be broken out and driven as its own project, or when they want advice on larger technical choices.
Peter Gunnarsson is CTO at Lyko and is regularly put in situations where he can benefit from external advice. He feels Commerce Mind fills an important function.
"Sometimes you need more perspectives and to bounce ideas off someone you trust. Commerce Mind have been around a long time, they know our history through our long collaboration and also have valuable experiences to bring from outside. Combined with strong technical expertise, it means we can get valuable advice and support when we need it."
He emphasises the value that the recommendations given are entirely for Lyko's benefit. There is no underlying agenda to sell a platform or a partner.
"It is a big advantage to be able to discuss without having to think about whether there are other motives than what is best for us. That is when it gives real value."
In 2022 Lyko decided to take a new step and continue investing in the social network they had built up over several years through Lyko Social, which had become a large and active part of the e-commerce site.
With an app, they could take that initiative even further and get the possibility to come closer to their most loyal and active customer groups.
The project was highly prioritised, and to make sure it had the right conditions to succeed, we at Commerce Mind got to help right from the start, with technology choices, planning and resourcing. We were also there throughout the project in the roles of project manager, architect and developer, together with some of Lyko's own employees and sub-consultants from our network.
André Ihlar is Online Sales Manager at Lyko and was a driving force in developing the requirements for the app, and the buyer of the project.
"Commerce Mind has been a strong contributor to our successes with the app. We had a clear vision but needed help to secure a good technical solution and drive the project to the finish. It is a team that understands us and can deliver what we want, but that can also challenge our ideas when needed."
The app launched in autumn 2022 and has become an important digital channel for Lyko, where they also experiment with new exciting functions, like Lyko AI, a ChatGPT-driven bot that gives beauty advice and can tip about the right products.
The technical framework Nexus that Commerce Mind has developed and offers for free has become a cornerstone at Lyko for handling and ensuring that data and changes to that data are processed the right way. From having started being used on the own initiative of a developer at Lyko, it has almost become a given to use Nexus when a new system is built, most recently in the new WMS.
Lyko is constantly building more and more systems and breaking up existing systems into smaller parts that communicate with each other, and Nexus is an important component to make sure everything goes right when these exchange data with each other. Peter Gunnarsson, CTO, says:
"One thing that makes Nexus fit so well into our systems landscape is the concept around adapters, which gives flexible support and enables quick implementation of new integrations, connectors or calculations where we get high visibility out of the box. It helps and is used, among other things, around the connection between our different companies for one and the same order."
For an organisation like Lyko (and many others), it is hard to manage to run all projects with internal resources, because they often get placed on top of a role that is already full of other tasks. Those who day to day work at keeping the machine running do not have time to also drive projects. It is a typical example where it is smart to bring in a consultant during the period the project is most active, to make sure it has the right conditions to actually reach the finish. But projects are just one example, another can be parental leave.
When the regular product owner for the e-commerce was planning to be on parental leave, it was a fast and smooth solution for us at Commerce Mind to take on that engagement during a period where Commerce Mind went in as interim in the role. The advantage of long-term collaborations is that you also become nimble. It does not require a long start-up stretch to take on new roles in an organisation you already know.
Because we know both the technical platform and the organisation, there was a low threshold for the handover and there was no interruption in efficiency.
In this engagement we have worked on strategically important questions as part of the IT leadership group. We have also worked a lot with internal requirements, coordinated requirements from different parts of the business and continuously prioritised the work for the development team. Beyond that we have taken a driving role in the procurement of an external vendor, and been the daily team lead for the development team.
Lyko has its origins in Dalarna and is without competition the largest private employer in Vansbro. In offices and warehouse over 300 people work, and they handle over tens of thousands of orders every day.
To be able to handle the planned growth, Lyko sees a need to more than double the capacity at the warehouse in Vansbro. It is a big investment for the future that enables better efficiency and flexibility in logistics. As part of this process, Lyko is developing a new WMS.
At Commerce Mind we like to say that e-commerce is 90% logistics, so it felt natural for us to participate when Lyko asked us to contribute expertise to that project, which is both large and complex. Beyond the software that has to be developed internally, there is also a complex delivery organisation with sub-consultant companies, internal departments and systems, and the vendor of the new automation solution, Vanderlande, that has to be coordinated towards the shared goal, doubled capacity in 2025.
"It feels reassuring to have Commerce Mind on this journey we are now on with the warehouse expansion and the automation. Big projects always bring a lot of work for everyone involved, and then it is nice to know that we have partners who are ready to gear up when needed, and who really want the best for us in every situation." Peter Gunnarsson, CTO
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