WEBSHOP OUTLET: FRISIAN MARKET MERCHANT ON THE INTERNET

Posted by NDC Mediagroep:

Will it be a heart rate monitor, a cutting board, a set of boxer shorts or a defense pen today? And with a 50, 60 or 70 percent discount? You probably receive such offers in the mail every day. But how does it work? Webshop outlet in Joure shows it.

JOURE Almost everyone knows it: every day a newsletter in the mail full of offers with high discounts on the most diverse products. Euro2Deal, Something fun every day, Telegraaf offers, Groupdeal, 1 day fly, Dealdonkey, 1 Dagactie.nl and more. Webshop outlet has acquired a permanent place among all that violence.

Batteries and figure-correcting shirts
There are boxes in the warehouse in Joure. Lots of boxes. Full of trinkets, but also larger items. Sweaters, batteries, pens, umbrellas, you can think of it so crazy. “It has been going really well lately. We sold a thousand of them in a week'', says Christian Hijlkema (31). He shows a figure-correcting shirt for men. ,,I honestly did not expect that,'' says his girlfriend Esther Kortenschijl (31) with whom he runs the business. "I didn't even know shirts like that existed."

It is often gambling. Buying large batches via auction sites in the hope that they will go well via the web shop. ,,I've been doing this since 2011. Then you've got a bit of a feel for what works and what doesn't. But we are sometimes very wrong.” Kekke garden sprinklers, for example. Hijlkema bought a lot of 200, but managed to sell only one. Even though it was high summer. ,,I sold the rest as a party. At a loss indeed.”

Big parties
Today, Webshop outlet is a well-known name in the trading world. Hijlkema: ,,In the beginning we were a kind of market vendors. We took risk by buying up large lots. Today it is also different. Companies come to us with the question whether we want to be their sales channel. If they want to get rid of their stuff, for example, or if they want to test or promote a new product."

Usually the merchandise is stored in Joure. Sometimes the items go directly from the supplier to the customer. Whatever is most practical and whatever the customer wants. A photo studio has been set up in the shed. Kortenschijl: ,,We always take pictures of the products we have bought ourselves. And often videos. Sometimes the stuff that we sell on behalf of others, depending on the imagery that we get."

Nice stuff and a little luck
How do you come up with such a so-called day dealer? In the case of Christian Hijlkema, this was an organic process. ,,I enjoyed working at the Voordeel Vinden website, which no longer exists. After that I traded in cabinet shops in Friesland, the kind of things where you can rent a stall to sell your stuff. My Table for example. That actually went so well that I decided to offer my goods in a webshop. Even before the site was finished, I already had my first order. Then I knew: this is going well, this is it. How did I come to be successful? Apparently I saw what people think are nice things. And there's also a bit of luck involved."

And then the scouring of auctions and especially working on fame begins. Promotion via social media, newsletters, ensure findability via google. “In the beginning I also bought email addresses. We now have more than 100.000 in our system. Most of them receive a daily newsletter with the bargains of that day."

A house full of stuff
Buying, selling, packing, sending, the webshop, marketing, the software. Hijkema did everything himself in the beginning. From home, where his girlfriend soon cooperated. “At a certain point that was just not possible anymore, the house full of stuff. Especially not when we had kids."

The company is now housed in a multi-company building, where a large office and a warehouse are rented. There are at least two packers at work every day. Christian works on purchasing, marketing and customer contacts. Esther takes care of the administration, contact with the purchasing customers and more. “We work well together.”

Seasonal products
At least a hundred packages leave the building every day. With as destination the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France. Nanofluid is popular during this period. Lifehammers and covers against frozen windows also do well. “We always try to offer as different products as possible in the newsletter, so that there is always something for someone. But of course: we pay attention to the season.”

They are growing, and constantly working on further development and improvement. Sometimes it's in the details. “For example, the button in the newsletter that takes you to our website. We are experimenting with its color to see what generates the most clicks'', says Hijlkema. “We see plenty of growth opportunities. In the Netherlands, but certainly also abroad. We've only been really busy for two and a half years. We are still at the beginning.”

Trustworthy
And above all – with this they want to distinguish themselves from the other day dealers – they work on reliability. Esther Kortenschijl: ,,We have all the quality marks, but we want more. There is simply a telephone number on our site. And we take those calls ourselves if possible. Good customer service is essential to us. It's about our name, our reputation. It must be good.”

Ear studs, dining chairs, phone cases, car storage compartments, gloves, doorbells, back straps, headphones, gel insoles. On sale yesterday. And tomorrow it will be different again. "That keeps it fun, doesn't it? That variety. That works too. A third of our customers have bought something from us before.”

Jean Paul-Taffin (Journalist)

Posted: February 9 2017