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~ ChannelEngine ~

volume, they’re able to offer us good rates. The transit times I believe that is something that will take over here as well.
are typically between 2-5 days for E.U. countries, meaning We’re already seeing it in the Netherlands. It’s much easier
we can also compete with domestic sellers.” for customers to do all their shopping in one place, and
much harder for new e-commerce companies to make their
The importance of cross-border selling websites compete with sites like BOL.”
“It’s crucial to us. Because we operate in Holland, it’s not
the biggest country in Europe. If you want to grow as a Expanding on this idea, Tommy says: “You now have a lot of
company, you generally have to go cross-border. In the big e-commerce companies turning into marketplaces – sites
Netherlands, there are only around 17 million people – if like Zalando, which has now converted to a marketplace
you expand to Germany, you already have five times that model. More and more big companies are going down this
total number, so way more potential consumers,” Tommy route as it allows them to offer a wider variety of goods
says. to their consumers without really shouldering any risks
themselves, particularly when it comes to stock levels.”
“We’re also capable of filling in grey spots in other countries.
What often happens is we stock certain products which Why marketplaces and why ChannelEngine?
are either very expensive or difficult to get hold of in other “For a seller, being able to capitalise on the already-
markets,” Gertjan adds. established reputation and traffic of the marketplace is a big
part of the appeal. Payments are also handled through the
“The AMIGO brand is particularly good when it comes to marketplace, and you don’t necessarily have to spend any
filling those gaps in other countries. We buy and develop money on ads. It’s really low-risk and really low-entry in
these products ourselves, which allows us to target specific comparison to other channels,” Gertjan says.
markets we know are lacking a certain product. For example,
with our bikes, we know they’re not being produced often “Then, if you mix in an integrator, like ChannelEngine, they
enough in certain countries across Europe, meaning we can take care of all the technical work. They’re responsible for
focus on them, which is a big part of our model.” the integration, which, again, makes it very low-entry. With
the help of an integrator, you can scale your business at a
Dealing with the pitfalls much faster rate. You’ll have all the necessary information.
“The biggest problem we have is returns. DHL makes You just ask them to add a new channel, and it’ll be
it incredibly easy for us to ship to other countries, but standardised through the integrator. You can launch multiple
returning parcels is always an issue. It’s a general challenge new platforms every year, making it easy to expand while
right across e-commerce, but it is particularly hard when it risk levels stay low.
comes to larger packages, which is a common occurrence
given our product offering,” Gertjan says. We picked ChannelEngine because we noticed how rapidly
they were growing, much like ourselves. Their software is
Expanding on that, Tommy adds: “Because we sell via set up in a really user-friendly way – almost everything is
marketplaces, we have to offer free returns as part of the tweakable. The advanced attribute mapping options help
platform’s terms and conditions. This costs a lot of money us create even better product content, in turn significantly
and a lot of time – especially due to the size of items we deal increasing our product visibility. Their support is great, and
in. You can’t just print off a label. You have to plan a pick-up the flexibility of their software allows us to solve problems
appointment for the consumer. quickly and efficiently – that’s been a major factor in
allowing us to grow as rapidly as we currently are.” ••
Language barriers can also be a problem, so having good
translating software is a must when it comes to delivering
good customer service in other countries. Also, VAT can still
be tricky. It used to be way more complicated, though it has
become easier with the One Stop Shop. If you can join that
program, then it’s not quite as big a deal anymore.”

Predicting the future of e-commerce
Quizzed on the future of the landscape, Gertjan had the
following to say: “I think we’ll see the continued rise of
the platform economy, the trend that consumers start their
search on marketplaces directly, and will not divert to search
engines like Google. It’s common practice in the USA
already; customers start their search on Amazon rather than
Google.

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