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~ ChannelEngine ~

Beginning life as a physical bicycle store back in 2005, the TOM
Group’s incredible journey over the last 15 years has seen the
business develop into one of the most renowned and rapidly-
WINNER
growing entities within the Dutch e-commerce landscape.

CATEGORY
OM TMP is the organisation’s marketplace TOM TWM B.V. MARKETPLACES
division. We caught up with Tommy (B2B sales), TOM
2021
TKriellaars (Business Unit Manager at TOM B2C B.V. (B2C sales),
TMP) and Gertjan Vosters (Marketplace Business and TOM Retail B.V.
POWERED BY
Developer) to discuss the company’s ongoing (physical stores).
success, challenges that come with selling cross-
border and being picked as winners of the 2021 Right now, our
Cross-Border Magazine Awards. physical shop
only accounts for 2.5% of our total sales volume, which
Where it all began means that 97.5% of our sales are being handled through
“After four successful years of selling bikes from our e-commerce. Back in 2009, the numbers were the complete
physical store, it became obvious that internet shopping was opposite.”
quickly taking over. So in 2009, we started selling online
through our own webshop (Internet-bikes.com). That too So...How have they managed it?
became a big hit for us, so we began to introduce new items, “First of all, we have a long-tail strategy; we don’t just sell
starting with toys in 2011 – to date, those two segments, the bestsellers in each category, but also the slightly less
toys and bikes, are still our best-selling,” Tommy says. popular products. There’s far less competition for these
items, so despite the sales volume being lower, because we
He continues: “Now, we have a total of 14 different product have such a vast number of products, the value is actually
groups spanning over 410,000 SKUs. We have around 14 very high when they’re combined. I think that’s one of
webshops spread across B2C, we have TWM, which is our the big things that distinguish us from our competitors,”
unit for the B2B market, and we have TOM TMP, which is Tommy reveals.
for all sales via marketplaces. At this moment, we’re selling
across 21 marketplace platforms — though we always lose He adds: “We have all of the products in stock ourselves
count as that number is constantly increasing as we expand within our warehouses. That’s another big advantage in
into other countries.” comparison to a number of our competitors.”

Pivoting to success Tommy also points out how vital the business’ own label has
“Besides growing our assortment, we’ve extended across a been to the operation: “We have our own brand, AMIGO.
variety of different sales channels throughout the years. In That covers things like bikes and e-bikes, sporting and
2013, we started selling on Bol.com, which was the first outdoor items, and toys, all under our label. The biggest
marketplace we launched on. A year later, we expanded our advantage of this is that you don’t have any competition on
business to Amazon Europe,” the pair explain. the product itself. You can really set your prices and market
the products without having any direct competitors on
“During 2014, we also launched a dedicated B2B website the same items, and without having to join the race to the
for our TWM division. TWM uses a slightly different bottom.
strategy, targeting higher sales volumes by offering lower
selling prices specifically for business customers. This Around 25% of all of our revenue from the marketplace
operation has grown significantly throughout the years. For side of the business comes through AMIGO. Overall,
example, we now offer dropshipping service for business its products account for less than 5% of our entire stock,
customers and have recently launched a new concept that but the revenue it contributes is huge. So that is the
enables companies to set up personnel shops where their power behind a unique product with which you can shape
employees can buy products. your strategy and not be crowded out by high-spending
competition,” Gertjan highlights.
Two years ago, as our growth accelerated, we decided that
we needed a more specialist approach to manage all those “I believe another reason behind our success is our
different sales channels. We launched a new organisational partnership with DHL. You need a courier that can
structure focused on four separate business units set up as compete in terms of transit times and rates. DHL allows us
independent legal entities: TOM TMP B.V. (marketplaces), to ship to all European countries, and because of our sales

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