How Kiabi Gained Complete Spend Transparency with Navan in Just 2 Months

Region

EMEA: Europe, Middle East, and Africa

Headquarters

Lezennes, France

Industry

Retail

Products Used

• Navan Business Travel
• Navan Travel Payments

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Kiabi, a leading French ready-to-wear retailer, boasts a massive global footprint: more than 648 stores across 37 countries and a workforce of 10,000 employees — affectionately known as "Kiabers" — from 80 different nationalities. The company’s indirect procurement needs are as diverse as they are vast. 

From marketing and IT to logistics and store operations, Denise Maurice, group indirect procurement director, is responsible for ensuring the company has everything it needs to function and grow. Until recently, however, one of the most critical components of Kiabi’s business operations was stuck in an offline past.

Before Navan

Managing all travel through an entirely offline agency made Kiabi an outlier in the corporate world. And for a modern, fast-moving retailer, it created a bottleneck that hindered productivity and frustrated employees. “We had to call or email the agency in order to arrange our trips,” said Maurice — a manual process that involved a high volume of email exchanges. It was not only time-consuming for Kiabi’s employees, but also deeply frustrating, because it meant waiting for the agency to respond.

The process also created a significant disconnect between agency proposals and actual traveler needs. When suggested itineraries failed to align with their schedules, employees frequently bypassed the official protocol entirely. “Instead of booking through our agency, people were making direct bookings through online sites, simply because they lacked the tools to explore available options themselves,” said Maurice. This surge in non-compliant bookings created a critical duty of care gap, leaving the company unable to effectively track or support its travelers in the event of an emergency.

Why Navan

Kiabi needed a solution that could scale with its massive workforce and provide what Maurice calls “freedom within a framework.” The goal of switching was to facilitate the lives of Kiabers, so they could focus on high-value tasks rather than administrative hurdles. 

Navan stood out for its intuitive interface, dynamic pricing, and the ability to integrate Kiabi’s travel policies directly into the booking flow. The promise was simple: Give travelers choice and autonomy while maintaining strict corporate oversight.

“

Navan is easy to use, and gives our travelers the autonomy they want while ensuring the company has the control it needs.

Denise Maurice

Indirect Procurement Director

Results with Navan

Change management for a 10,000-person organization is usually a marathon, but Kiabi achieved a full-scale digital transformation with remarkable speed, going live in just 52 days. 

Maurice described the onboarding process as “smooth,” and notes, “Training our employees to use Navan was really easy because it’s a really intuitive platform.” This ease of use was the catalyst for successful change management, as employees traded the frustratingly manual back-and-forth process for a digital-first solution they actually enjoyed using.

In the two months since going live, Navan’s impact on both the traveler experience and procurement oversight has been profound. ”The adoption rate has gone way up,” said Maurice. In addition to a streamlined booking experience, the integrated payment system makes the entire trip process transparent and easy for travelers, who no longer have to pay out of pocket and wait for reimbursement. Additionally, the safety net for Kiabers has been significantly strengthened by Navan’s always-on support ecosystem. The combination of automated efficiency and human availability has built a new level of trust within the organization. “Our travelers are quite impressed that we have 24/7 support, which is really reassuring for them,” said Maurice. “They now have the freedom to use the app to rearrange their own trips, but they also have the peace of mind of Navan’s AI agent, Ava, for immediate questions. Whether they’re using the digital chat or calling a representative, having that 24-hour support makes them feel truly supported, no matter where they are in the world.”

From a procurement perspective, the newfound visibility into travel spend has been a total game-changer. ”The move to Navan has provided the real-time visibility needed to negotiate better rates and keep costs under control,” said Maurice, adding that the “dynamic prices that we have, and the fact that Navan checks all the GDSs and platforms for pricing, is really reassuring for me as a procurement person.”

“

Our travelers are quite impressed that we have 24/7 support, which is really reassuring for them. They now have the freedom to use the app to rearrange their own trips, but they also have the peace of mind of Navan’s AI agent, Ava, for immediate questions.

Denise Maurice

Indirect Procurement Director

Future with Navan

By replacing an offline, manual agency with Navan’s automated platform in less than two months, Kiabi has empowered its employees to manage their own travel with confidence.

The procurement team has successfully moved from reactive problem-solving to proactive strategy, secured by a tool that provides always-on support and total spend transparency. “Navan is easy to use, and gives our travelers the autonomy they want while ensuring the company has the control it needs,” said Maurice.