Liquorice lovers around the world are set to reap the benefits of limitless retail thanks to a new partnership between Sitoo and LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW.
LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW’s first store opened in 2007 after founder, Johan Bülow, had perfected cooking liquorice in his mother’s kitchen. Since then, the business has seen phenomenal global success and is now sold through more than 2000 outlets in 35 countries and 28 brand stores that provide the full brand experience.
Alongside this, over the past four years, LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW has seen an average compound growth rate of 90% for ecommerce sales, meaning the total sales coming through ecomm are 12 to 13 times greater than they were four years ago. This now makes 40% of total sales as opposed to 6% back in 2018.
A best-of-breed technology stack
This success and growth meant LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW had to find technology partners to match their own ambition.
“We made the decision through the pandemic to move from an on premise, monolithic platform into a more API-driven approach.”
Chief Digital Officer at LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW, Michael Ewald Hansen, explains: “We made the decision through the pandemic to move from an on premise, monolithic platform into a more API-driven approach.”
LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW has prioritized selecting best-of-breed technology solutions. Michael Ewald Hansen has a good explanation for why that’s the case:
“When you’re manufacturing high-end confectionery, quality is of the essence. We’ve transferred that attitude to our IT architecture. We want the best stack with the most well-suited components.”
“This shift in mindset led us to Sitoo when we were looking for a POS to power our stores. Sitoo is relatively decoupled and has a fully integratable and open REST API, packed with capabilities we saw as being incredibly beneficial for us as we continue to grow and scale.”
“We use Adyen as our payment provider and Sitoo comes with an out-of-the-box integration with Adyen which meant we could have the same payment platform across online and our physical. This was also a great benefit.”
LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW has chosen a tech setup dominated by MACH architecture:
“With a technology landscape that includes commercetools, Contentful, Frontastic, inriver and Sitoo, it’s fair to say that LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW has made cutting-edge decisions regarding their architecture. Their tech setup is designed to help scale the business across the globe, and it definitely speaks to their bold vision and relentless ambition,” says Mikkel Stærk, Director, Technology at IMPACT."
Sitoo is now live across 25+ LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW stores, with Ewald Hansen noting the roll-out and installation has been smooth and hassle free. Store associates have also praised the simplicity and user-friendliness of Sitoo’s UI.
A superior brand experience
What’s more, LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW are already enhancing CX by tapping into the omnichannel capabilities of Sitoo.
Michael Ewald Hansen adds: “Our brand means the world to us. From packaging and in-store experiences to campaigns and our loyalty concept. Everything needs to be of the highest quality and create a superior customer experience.”
“We have a loyalty initiative called Lakrids Lovers where our customers get treats and free non-purchasable samples when they visit a store. When a customer signs up to our newsletter they receive a QR code in their welcome email. Now this code can be scanned in-store and, through Sitoo POS, the customer data can be picked up by talking to our ecommerce platform.”
“This also then triggers an event which is pushed back into our data warehouse so we know what each Lakrids Lover has purchased in store so we can start building a 360 degree view of our customers.”
“This is just the start of what we want to do. We have way more advanced features we want to build into this so we can offer truly personalized experiences to every single one of our customers and help the world fall in love with liquorice.”
Alongside this Sitoo has also greatly improved stock visibility (across stores and online) and the number of cross-channel fulfillment options LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW can offer customers. For example, with many of their customers being tourists, they can place an order in-store and have it delivered to their home anywhere in the world.
Jens Levin, Sitoo co-founder and CEO, adds: “Following the launch of our new office in Denmark, it’s fantastic to be working with one of the country’s fastest growing and most ambitious retail brands. The team at LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW have a fantastic mindset towards retail software and we’re already seeing the rewards it’s bringing them and their customers.”
