Page 49 - CBM25

~ Salesupply ~

It is unarguably the upcoming, trending sport of the moment:
padel. The dynamic mixture of tennis and squash finds its origins
in Spain. In the last couple of years, the sport has been growing
tremendously, and people all over the globe are now playing it.
One company that anticipated this trend is Padelshop.com, the
specialist in padel equipment. We sat down with Brandon van

Deelen, Head of E-commerce at Padelshop.com, to talk about
the importance of a streamlined fulfilment operation.

Back in 2018, La Playa was the only serious showed that their
padel player in the Dutch market, and they customers’ preferred
“controlled the whole chain: wholesale, online shopping time was BRANDON VAN DEELEN,
retail and the construction and exploitation of between six pm and HEAD OF E-COMMERCE AT PADELSHOP.COM
indoor padel courts. On April 1st, 2021, we joined midnight. Therefore,
them as part of an investment round. That’s when together with Salesupply, the cut-off time was increased to
we decided to split the company into Plaza Padel 10 pm.
for the padel courts and Padelshop.com for the
e-commerce business.” Brandon explains. “Customers are becoming more demanding, and they want
to receive their newly bought products as soon as possible.
Scaling up the business Together with Salesupply, we are currently planning to
“The early days of Padelshop.com were tough. We started extend the cut-off time to midnight, and we are looking at
in the loft of one of the Plaza Padel locations. We had no offering same-day delivery.” Brandon elaborates.
structure, no processes and 121 SKUs. Imagine having
to store all these products in a sports facility visited Returns
by thousands of people every month. From a business Returns are handled in two different ways at Padelshop.
perspective, this was a big liability. And I am not even talking Complaints or damaged products are handled by specialists
about moving a pallet with thousands of padel balls up the at Padelshop.com. Other returns are handled by Salesupply.
stairs.” “We are now in talks with Salesupply and its partner
Returnista to create an automated self-fulfilling process.”
That is when Padelshop started looking for a scalable
fulfilment solution. “We were at the point where we needed International expansion
to professionalise our operations to take the next step. In Padelshop’s main markets are the Netherlands and Belgium.
a previous company, I already worked with the fulfilment Additionally, they supply parts of the Middle East and have
solution of Salesupply, and I am a fan of the simplicity of clients in other parts of Europe. Fulfilment is arranged
the solution. The system is very straightforward. That’s why I from one central warehouse in the Netherlands. Padelshop
decided to contact Salesupply again,” Brandon says. is planning to further expand cross-border within Europe.
“Our short-term goal is to expand into Italy and France,
Getting started: onboarding markets where we see good potential. It is important to add
The onboarding process went fast and smoothly. Because of value, especially as a new foreign vendor entering a market.
the standardised processes, Padelshop’s team immediately To do so, we are currently developing propositions such as
knew what was expected from them. “The systems are very ‘test it at home’ where customers can order multiple rackets
straightforward to work with,” says Brandon. “Take Depot, online to test them at home.”
for example. This application—developed by Salesupply—
connects the backend of our Shopify store with the WMS “In the long term, our goal is to establish ourselves into
(Warehouse Management System). Very often, these the top five padel companies in Europe. I always say that
connecting tools are complex and not user-friendly at all. the first three, four, five players taking part in the game, if
With Depot, there were no doubts or frustrations; my you are lower on the list, you shouldn’t even try.” Brandon
team instantly knew how to work with it and—even more concludes. ••
importantly—we are still in control and can make changes.”

Optimising next-day delivery
When Padelshop started working with Salesupply, the cut-
off time for next-day delivery was four pm. Data analysis

49