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In the early ages of online shopping, a Dutch company called Azalp – ‘plaza’ spelled
backwards - was founded. The online retailer started selling log cabins through online
advertisements. That business expanded into a website and, years later, an experience centre
followed. While log cabins may not appear to be the easiest products to sell online, the
potential turned out to be huge. We meet up with Merijn van Meer, Head of Operations and
Projects at Azalp, to learn about this intriguing market.

anufacturer’s assistance and Germany. Van Meer: ‘We are very much aware of the fact
Azalp sought to take advantage of the up-and- that all of our activities have to remain scalable. Considering
Mcoming e-commerce market to sell log cabins the products we sell, expanding has to do with how people
online, as most garden centres did not even attempt to fill this live, what and how they are willing to spend money on these
gap. To distinguish itself from garden centres, Azalp offered kinds of products, their culture and more. There are even dif-
a much wider range of products, which were not available in ferences in the local experience of quality. As we try to keep it
these centres and which added value to the web shop. ‘We simple, we are hesitant in opening up shop in new markets.’
positioned ourselves differently too. We have always commu-
nicated that we take care of (a part of the) manufacture of our As an example, Van Meer mentions France: ‘It is a large and
products,’ says Van Meer, who joined Azalp in 2018. interesting market, but it does not really meet our needs.
Opening shop in France requires adding another language
The garden house and log cabin markets have always been to your business. That does not need to be a problem but is
slow-moving. The products of the company are traditionally something that has impact on your organisation, your shop,
not the type that suit next-day delivery. ‘Our manufacturers customer service, fulfilment and more.’
were valued partners from the beginning. When we started,
it was common in their market to take care of the fulfil- ‘Logistics is an ever-increasing challenge,’ Van Meer contin-
ment of products. In the early days, that was one of our main ues. ‘Consumer demands keep rising and, with our product
challenges and something we really benefited from,’ explains types, it is hard to keep up with these demands. People are
Van Meer. Partially, this was due to a lot of products being used to the perks and speed of Zalando and lots of people
custom made. ‘Lots of our products have been changed from no longer see the difference between buying clothes online
a standard model to a model that suits the demands of the or a log cabin, even though it is clear that a custom-made
customer.’ Over the years, the variety of products on the shop and produced log cabin will not be delivered to your door
has expanded, adding saunas, pools, (plastic) garden sheds within one day. Logistic service providers do not call our
and garden equipment. main product categories ‘uglies’ - products that require more
care when shipped - for nothing. Delivery requires thorough
These days, Azalp focusses on limiting the complexity of its planning and resources and is one aspect which makes expand-
assortment, reducing the number of products. ‘A lot of small ing to new markets much more difficult for us than for other
items did not offer much added value for our customers and shops.’
for us. We needed to invest a lot of time in having these stock
keeping units (SKUs) up to date, while they generated little Van Meer does not hesitate to admit that the company has
profit. This is why we decided to remove them from our as- room to improve its services. ‘We used to be a bit of an opera-
sortment. We are exceeding the expectations of our customers tional-orientated company, due to our logistical processes. We
when it comes to voluminous products, which offers our cus- are shifting to a much more customer-centric approach now,
tomers personal, custom designed variation. Selling products with which we aim to make the consumer more involved in
that everybody sells does not give a company the opportunity what we do. We are focusing on expectation patterns, inform-
to shine. Lots of smaller products are available on other sites ing the customer, service questions and more.’
and marketplaces, so exceeding expectations on these prod-
ucts or services is very hard. We can, however, show our excel- Taking the lead
lent service when selling our log cabins, saunas or pools.’ From a first-hand experience, Azalp knows that the Dutch,
Belgian and German markets are very different from one
Core markets another. ‘We are a Dutch company, with a Dutch site for
Due to the range of products, Azalp is very careful about ex- markets in the Netherlands and Belgium. Here, we can
panding its online activities to other countries. Currently, the work with the same customer service and fulfilment partner,
company is offering its products in the Netherlands, Belgium though there are slight differences. Germany is different in

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