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~ Salesupply ~

HOW SOLIS

MADE THE TRANSITION

FROM B2B RETAIL TO

ONLINE B2C

Text: Ruud den Rooijen // Photos: Solis

More and more brands are making the transition from purely B2B
retail to an online B2C organisation, including high-end brands such
as Solis of Switzerland. The producer of top-of-the-line kitchens

and beauty appliances started its transition four years ago. Daan de
Jong, Global E-commerce Manager at Solis, explains the crucial role
online marketplaces and especially e-commerce fulfilment played in
making this transition successful.

single marketplace and the bigger picture that didn’t offer their own DAAN DE JONG
Solis started off with direct-to-consumer sales fulfilment services.” GLOBAL E-COMMERCE MAANGER, SOLIS
A via Amazon, CDiscount (France) and Bol.com
(Netherlands), making use of the fulfilment services offered From retail fulfilment to e-commerce fulfilment
by these online marketplaces. “It is all about creating scale, The warehouse partner of Solis at that time was a reliable
step by step,” Daan says. “In the beginning, you don’t need B2B retail specialist. Great for receiving, processing, and
external specialists; you can do it yourself. The important shipping pallets at affordable rates. However, direct-to-
question is, where do you want to be in five years?” consumer e-commerce fulfilment is a whole other discipline:
pallets vs. packages. Initially, both companies tried to make it
In other words, it is crucial to consider where the organisation work: the partner increased its cut-off time and even recruited
wants to be in the next five years and to create a model and a new team for this project. However, carrier dependency
strategy around it, including the required investments in proved to be an issue. “Two years ago, during the peak
software, content, advertising, service and logistics. holiday season, that carrier was overloaded and—because we
didn’t have the option to switch carriers—we couldn’t live
Initially, Solis only worked with the fulfilment services up to our delivery promises. That’s when Amazon closed our
offered by the connected marketplaces. After a while, the FBM account for a couple of months during peak season. At
number of connected marketplaces grew significantly, and that moment, we decided to search for a fulfilment partner
Solis adapted its organisation to the new B2C model. “At specialising in e-commerce fulfilment,” says Daan.
that point, we took a closer look at the current set-up,” Daan
remembered. “We could compare the revenue and the costs Smooth integration in time for peak season
for each product on each marketplace, and it became clear Solis focuses on the Benelux, Germany and France as the
we couldn’t just fulfil every product via FbA or its equivalent most important markets. The local network and carrier
at other marketplaces. Something had to change, especially contracts of Salesupply in these markets were a perfect match.
since we wanted to connect important marketplaces such as In addition, the size of both companies proved to be a good
Mediamarkt and Kaufland in Germany and Darty in France match. “We were looking for a partner that was big enough

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