LC Waikiki Kenya Turns 5

Turkish fashion retail brand LC Waikiki turned five in style today by launching a new system at their flagship store in Two Rivers Mall. Themed with the LC Waikiki’s mission, Everyone Deserves to Dress Well, the launch paid homage to its nine Kenyan stores.

The retail giant has 1,200+ stores in 54 countries, and 347 different cities across four continents supported by more than 56,000 employees. “We want to reach 14 stores (in Kenya) by the end of the year,” LC Waikiki Country Manager Sevda Bilen said. The Kenyan market is key to the brand with 300.” It makes us the market leader of the
22 countries that we are in. Our target for 2022 is to have stores in five different cities. We
also want to open our second store in Mombasa.”

Exactly three years to the day, LC Waikiki selected Infor CloudSuite PLM for Fashion built on Infor OS and deployed via Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). At the time, Şerafettin Özer, their Chief Digital Officer said, “Having a dedicated end-to-end platform designed to support the specific dynamics of fashion product lifecycle management is crucial to win market share in a highly competitive industry.”

Özer added that “The extensive capabilities and intuitive interface of Infor CloudSuite PLM for Fashion mean that we can continue our growth journey with the very best tools and absolute confidence in our performance. Product lifecycle management is a critical process for our business, and therefore our project with Infor is highly strategic.”

The fashion sector is also one of the largest industries in the world, estimated to be worth more than $3T by the end of the decade, according to CB Insights’ Industry Analyst Consensus. Fashion brands such as LC Waikiki attach themselves to consumers by becoming a big part of their lifestyle. The Turkish brand’s target, for instance, is more than 1,500 stores all over the world in the next few years. The Istanbul-based company reportedly sold 530 million items in 2021. Its expansion dream will likely be achieved through technology-assisted strategies such as Microsoft 365 replacing legacy applications.

Led by its research team, the tech-assisted brand has made software purchases for digital transformation, identifying on-prem and cloud applications used by their then 22,000 LC Waikiki employees with tech that identifies “new suppliers as part of their overall digital and IT transformation projects to stay competitive, fend off threats from disruptive forces, or comply with internal mandates to improve overall enterprise efficiency.”

Underneath the LC Waikiki skirt sits its revenue projected to have grown to $3.50 billion in 2021 inclusive of its IT budget and roadmap, cloud software purchases, and forecast assumptions regarding its “intention to invest in emerging technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, IoT, blockchain, an autonomous database or in cloud-based ERP, HCM, CRM, EPM, Procurement or Treasury applications,” cites appsruntheworld.com. 

In August, the retailer is planning to open its first store in Windhoek, Namibia. The goal; reach approximately $43 million in endorsements with its 22 stores in 4 countries in 2023. “Also, we want to contribute towards employment by reaching more than 600 employees,” said the LC Waikiki Kenyan Country Manager, Bilen.