Page 48 - Cross-Border Magazine Nr.3

~ Zamro ~

end, which is why good selection guidance is crucial. On top Europe within four years
of that, professional orders often need authorisation from the Zamro has the ambitious plan to cover the whole of Europe
management, which is why they are working on integrating within the upcoming four years. Belgium was the second
a purchasing authorisation flow in the order process. “A huge market after The Netherlands to be launched in autumn 2016,
difference between B2B and B2C is the order quantities: followed by Germany in March 2017. A fourth market hasn’t
businesses tend to order much more.” In terms of delivery, been chosen yet, but will go live in the coming year. Careful
reliability and expectation management seem more important observation and market evaluation are needed to prepare for
than speed. the challenges ahead: “We have not experienced it yet, but
there are certainly differences between countries. Germany
“We don’t want to become a marketplace” for instance, is much more formal in the tone of voice. On
Zamro launched their webshop on the e-commerce engine top of that, hierarchies in Germany are steeper, which makes
of the German B2B commerce specialist Intershop, which the purchase process different. In the Netherlands, Google
enabled them to launch an online shop and a complete order Shopping works very well, whereas in Belgium the usage is
management system (OMS) within 5 months. The shop is limited.” Other differences are expected in the customer pur-
easily replicable, it enables the possibility of a fast interna- chase path on the site, the use of media, marketing content
tional expansion, international sales channels can easily be and payment habits. Zamro plans on also diversifying the
added and the platform is capable of handling large volumes assortment according to regional and national differences. In
of transactions. To enable terms of safety, certain
a high degree of flex- products cannot be sold
ibility, Zamro integrated in Germany because their
“SCALE UP QUICKLY, GAIN
the OMS within the safety specifications do
Intershop e-commerce not comply with German
platform and with the law. In order to better
MARKET SHARE IN OTHER
ERIKS warehouse, from understand new markets
where the orders are such as Germany, Zamro
fulfilled. “Right now, we hires natives for both
Belgium, but this is only a COUNTRIES, BE THE FIRST customer service and
serve German customers
marketing. Next to the
from the Netherlands and
surveys within the target
future plans for Zamro’s TO CONQUER THE SECTOR” group, Zamro organises
temporary solution,” says
user panels and establish-
Kerssens. One of the key
es a constructive exchange
growth is the integra- with the customer. After
tion of more suppliers, Europe has been launched
growing the assortment successfully, Zamro wants
to over 1 million items. “Adding two, three or more suppli- to look in to possibilities for a next continent. Kerssens
ers will make everything more complex,” explains logistics says: “We are following a rapid expansion strategy: scale up
manager Thomas Bloemaerts, “The OMS is ideal to aggregate quickly, gain market share in other countries, be the first to
the product offer. We are now at a tipping point where the conquer the sector.” ••
OMS will have a bigger added value.” The OMS system has
two major advantages: The possibility to integrate multiple
suppliers into one single e-commerce platform, and the scal-
ability when replicating the shop in several other countries.
Bloemaerts says “In several countries, there are different VAT
requirements, different email formats and invoices. With
the OMS we can easily provide that individually for each
country.”

“We don’t want to become a traditional marketplace, because
as a marketplace you lose control over content. But it’s exactly
the content that is key for us in order to offer guided selling.
We want to diversify our offers and sell products from more
suppliers and partners via our platform. The OMS system
enables us to integrate more suppliers next to ERIKS.” Zamro
eyes a drop-shipping system and will, in the long run, con-
sider opening their own fulfilment facilities.

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