One communication flow: How Ziik is helping Bahne make retail operations smoother

About the Company

Bahne is a Danish lifestyle retail chain with 22 stores across the country, offering fashion, home interior, and many different lifestyle products from Danish and international brands. The business operates with strong local store ownership and the fast operational tempo that has become typical of  modern retail.

For Benjamin Røpke, communication is closely tied to successful execution: “For us, communication is very important operationally. If it works, stores perform better. If it doesn’t, you notice it immediately.”

Challenges before Ziik

Too many channels and too little structure

Before Ziik, internal communication at Bahne was spread across email, shared files, and Facebook groups. The increasing number of tools combined with the lack of a clear structure was a growing challenge. 

“We had need-to-know and nice-to-know mixed together. That makes it hard for people to know what actually requires action,” recalls Benjamin Røpke.

Messages also moved through several organisational layers before reaching stores.

“Information travelled through the organisation and sometimes changed along the way. That’s not ideal when you run retail operations.”

When Bahne started looking at Ziik, it quickly became clear that the project was about more than choosing a platform, it was about reducing complexity.

“Working with Ziik forced us to rethink our internal communication altogether — what we communicate, how we do it, and who needs to see what,” Benjamin Røpke explains.

Requirements for a new Solution

Bahne realised that they needed to reduce the complexity of their internal communications in order to keep their lines of communication clear and consistent.

Results

Implementing Ziik gave Bahne the opportunity to redesign communication around how the business actually operates. A key principle became separating the need-to-know (operational, action-driven communication, like weekly task-based updates) from the  nice-to-know (like inspiration, product knowledge and supplier visits). “That separation sounds simple, but it changed a lot. Now people are never in doubt when something requires their immediate attention.” Bahne leadership is now able to quickly and accurately communicate across the organisation using Ziik. “It removes distance. You can speak directly to stores and employees without information being filtered.”

Faster reaction across multiple locations

“If a barcode is wrong or an order is wrong, you need to stop it immediately. Otherwise 22 stores might run into the same problem.”

Stronger connection between HQ and stores

“Before, information moved step by step. Now we can communicate directly and quickly. That removes unnecessary friction.”

Support that feels like a real partnership

Ziik’s support has turned out to be a bigger differentiator than expected.

“The support from Ziik has honestly been extremely good.”

“Whenever we ask something, we get an answer quickly, and it’s practical help, not just technical.”

“It feels like working with people who want the solution to work in real life.”

Favourite Features

Retail-ready usability

Ziik’s biggest strength is simple: people actually use it. In a retail organisation with many receivers and relatively few senders, usability decides whether communication works.

“If people don’t use it, nothing else matters. That’s why simplicity is number one.”

The familiar mobile interface means store teams just start using it with no need for training. 

Structured communication flows

Separating operational communication from inspiration has created clarity and reduced noise across stores. “Separating need-to-know and nice-to-know has made communication much clearer.”

Stores can trust that urgent updates really are urgent, and that inspiration stays inspiring.

Integration-friendly communication layer

Instead of forcing Bahne to replace existing systems, Ziik works alongside them, acting as the entry point to information, workflows, and operational tools.

“We can connect Ziik to the way we already work, instead of rebuilding everything.”

“That flexibility is extremely valuable for us.”