Case Luhta - Online store in record time

Luhta, the largest textile company in the Nordics, set an ambitious goal to develop the group's online store centrally and connect all its brands to the new luhta.com platform - in a record time. With the help of a top team, this agile development project succeeded and Luhta’s B2C  online store opened just in time for Black Friday in 2020.

Initially, Luhta had more than 10 online stores and websites of different brands, all developed and operated separately. The challenge was technological fragmentation, the slowness of online shopping, and the distribution of customer flow between several services. Further development was difficult because the stores were on their own platforms and synergy opportunities were minimal. In terms of sales, the online store complex did not serve Luhta's goals, and the further development of individual services was not believed to achieve the desired growth. In addition, the Luhta brand did not have its own online store.

Luhta started the development project with a clear goal: a new online store under the Luhta brand to be launched on Black Friday. For the project, the best experts were gathered from each area, from design, software development, online shopping, payment services, and search engine optimization. Luhta chose HiQ’s Lamia to lead the multivendor project and be responsible for technologies and software development.

Scalable technologies enable further development

In the technology choices, emphasis was placed on the possibilities of further development and search engine friendliness. With Lamia's help, modularity and scalability were brought into the architecture of Luhta's digital commerce, precisely with further development in mind. One of the choices was Vue on the front-end side of software development. Vue justified its place because it made agile development possible, is very fast as technology, and increases search engine visibility. In addition, in terms of architecture and user interface, Vue enables agile further development.

Strict prioritization during the construction phase

During the software development phase, Black Friday was already two months away. To keep up with the strict timeline of the project, Lamia fixed a team of more than ten experts ranging from designers to software developers, SEO experts, and project managers. The scope and use cases of the project were kept under very strict control so that the focus remained on the schedule, quality, and on building a complete working solution from the end user's point of view. Luhta defined a schedule within which Lamia prioritized features to build a functioning service.

Luhta's consumer side online store was launched 3 days before Black Friday in 2020. The whole project and Black Friday's successful sales figures were a big signpost for Luhta about the potential of online shopping. The agile development model also proved its worth: luhta.com's time-to-market was record-breaking and created, a credible, feasible roadmap for future development.

Global scope in further development

In the near future, Luhta wants to expand the online store to the global market, and HiQ's Lamia is closely involved in this cooperation. Luhta is already a well-known brand in brick-and-mortar stores in more than 50 markets, but the online store still has room to grow. During its long history, Luhta has always managed to stay ahead. Luhta's new Reuse clothing recycling concept has brought circular economy themes to brick-and-mortar stores and online stores. Luhta has already succeeded in harnessing new sales and customer experience potential, and the online store's expansion will only increase.

"It's great to be building and supporting Luhta's journey - a smart technical setup will enable us to react quickly in the future in an ever-changing business environment", HiQ's Technology Advisor Lauri Järvenpää says.