E-commerce, Marketplaces
GUEST BLOG: Dutch online shopping behaviour in international perspective
24 June 2020
"It's important that we're visible as a brand."
Dutch home label is a home furnishings webshop and has been offering a wide selection of lighting, home accessories, and furniture from the Dutch leading brand Light & Living since 2017.
After a successful launch of the webshop in 2017, Dutch home label was ready to take the next step and strengthen its position in the Netherlands. The biggest growth opportunities of the young company were in marketplaces, such as Bol.com in the Netherlands. "Our ambition next to that was to gain a foothold in Germany. However, the technology was missing, and we looked for an integrator to manage and facilitate our data feed," said Marnix Vlug, owner of Dutch home label.
"We found a solution close by home in Leiden with ChannelEngine," Marnix explains. "With a simple plugin, our WooCommerce backend was connected with ChannelEngine, pushing our product offers to the marketplaces - Bol.com at first, followed soon enough by other marketplaces - and very quickly orders our way." Not everything was automated from the beginning, though ChannelEngine has shown some rapid product development in the last 2 years. "At first some manual work still had to be done on the side of the marketplaces, to update product data and images," he elaborates, "but nowadays we only need to create the correct mapping in ChannelEngine to update our product data on the marketplaces automatically."
"Through ChannelEngine's expertise and support, our online reach has expanded enormously. Our product data can be directly transferred from one system to all marketplaces and automatically updated," says Marnix. "Because of the expansion nationally and internationally, we have grown enormously".
The expansion did not go unnoticed, and since the beginning of last year, Dutch home label is part of the same group as Light & Living. The wholesale company in lighting and home decorations is well-known territory for owner Marnix Vlug, who practically grew up between the lampshades of the company of his parents Robin and Jose Vlug. For Light & Living, a presence in marketplaces such as Bol and Amazon is especially important. The brand must be visible and properly presented on large platforms.
"It is important that we are visible as a brand on these marketplaces. Not only for the end consumer but also to present our products and brand in the right way. This way, we can create customer awareness for the brand Light & Living, and ultimately our loyal retail customers will also benefit from this. Brand awareness is our primary focus."
"Also, our ambition was to establish a foothold in marketplaces abroad, such as Germany and France," Marnix said. "We first started with Germany; other countries followed quickly. In the end, we need to be represented as a brand in the major marketplaces throughout Europe. This presence is intended to increase the brand reach of Light & Living and sales in the brick and mortar stores of Light & Living's retail customers."
At this moment dutch home label is active on 10 channels in 5 European countries via ChannelEngine. Not only the number of channels has expanded, but the team did as well. The acquisition of Parlane International Ltd (a parent company), a leading home decoration brand in the United Kingdom, will allow for new possibilities in the coming years. "This expands the product range and enables us to serve the customer even better, both in the Netherlands and abroad. In addition, at the end of this summer, we will take the first steps in America. Here also, ChannelEngine will support us with their expertise to help us diversify our sales channel," concludes Marnix Vlug.
