A long and successful partnership.

A partnership that began before day one

Several of Commerce Mind’s people supported Lyko already at earlier employers, among other things as architect and project manager when Lyko’s current e-commerce solution first saw the light of day in 2016. When Commerce Mind started in 2021, Lyko became our very first client.

Lyko is defined by constant growth and a focus on innovation, aiming to be top of mind in beauty with a major push into Europe. They have built a large in-house development department but keep complementing it with specialist competence, for example when a larger initiative needs to be broken out as its own project or when they want advice on technical direction. The value lies in the independence: our recommendations are always given in Lyko’s interest, with no agenda to sell a particular platform or partner.

An app that took the customer experience further

In 2022 Lyko wanted to take the next step with their community, Lyko Social, and get closer to their most loyal customers through an app of their own. We were there from the start with technology choices, planning and staffing, and through the whole project in the roles of project manager, architect and developer alongside Lyko’s own team. The app launched in autumn 2022 and has become an important channel where Lyko experiments with new features, such as the AI-driven beauty bot Lyko AI.

Nexus, a cornerstone of the system map

Our framework Nexus has become a cornerstone at Lyko for handling data and change properly. It was first picked up on a developer’s own initiative and is today all but a given whenever a new system is built, most recently in the new WMS. Lyko keeps splitting systems into smaller parts that talk to each other, and Nexus makes sure the data transfer happens correctly, including in the links between Lyko’s different companies for one and the same order.

Interim and flexible support

Few organizations have the capacity to run every project with internal resources; it usually lands on top of roles that are already full. When Lyko’s regular product owner for e-commerce went on parental leave, we stepped into the role on an interim basis, as part of the IT management group. Because we know both the platform and the organization, the handover was smooth and without a dip in effectiveness. We worked on internal requirements, prioritization for the development team and procurement of an external vendor, and acted as daily team lead.

E-commerce is 90 % logistics

Lyko has its roots in Dalarna and handles tens of thousands of orders every day from the warehouse in Vansbro. To carry the planned growth, warehouse capacity had to more than double, with a new WMS and an automation solution from Vanderlande. We contributed project management and development as an integrated part of Lyko’s team, toward the shared goal: double the capacity.

Next step: a sharper search experience

Most recently we have supported Lyko in switching search and relevance engine, from Voyado eSales to Constructor. With a large number of items in the assortment, there are high demands on customers finding the right thing quickly. The work with Constructor spans search, autosuggest, browse and recommendations, with AI-native product discovery at the core.

With over 87,000 items in the assortment, beauty at our place is sometimes a jungle, even for the most dedicated beauty nerds. That is why we have put so much effort into making it easier to find the right thing, and now we are taking the next step and sharpening the search experience together with Constructor.Rickard Lyko, CEO, Lyko

Want to read more? Read the full article about the partnership with Lyko on the blog (in Swedish).