Specishops

Multi-platform and full funnel marketplaces approach for Specishops

130% sales growth and better returns

Growth via marketplaces

Specishops, which sells packaging materials, lighting and fitness materials, was looking for a scalable, efficient and future-proof way of managing product content, stock and pricing across various marketplaces. By way of complete feed management and API integration, the product content and order feedback to various marketplaces is fully automated and the pillars of technology, products, content and pricing are optimally set up. In addition, advertising campaigns on the marketplaces were implemented in a smart and data-driven manner. The result? Targets are more than exceeded and a growth of 130% in marketplace revenue!

Services

Specishops

Meet the client.

Specishops is a fast-growing company from Enschede that specializes in the sale of packaging, lighting and fitness products. The company has a wide range of products with its own brands and sells to both consumers and business customers. Specishops are sold through their own online stores and increasingly through other channels such as marketplaces. The company purchases around the world and has storage locations in Wierden, Utrecht and Werkendam in the Netherlands, and also in Germany in Düsseldorf and Dortmund.

Visit the website of Specishops

Specishops' request

Future-proofing the marketplace strategy.

Specishops wants to continue to grow rapidly in the coming years and came to us in 2020 for the development, implementation and optimization of a new digital strategy. Specishops turnover has increased significantly in recent years, and the bar was also high for this year. Nevertheless, we succeeded in finding the synergy between channels by means of a full funnel approach, combined with improvements in User eXperience on the Specishops online stores, for example.

As a seller, Specishops has been active on marketplaces such as Bol.com and Amazon for a long time. However, in order to achieve its ambitious growth targets and achieve this in a scalable manner across multiple marketplaces, a new approach was required. The knowledge about which pillars need to be further expanded and professionalized in order to step up the effort with regard to marketplaces was lacking internally at Specishops. Based on our joint marketplace strategy, we have used our knowledge in this area to specify further tactical and operational implementation.

Winning essential pillars in marketplaces

Six essential pillars.

Adwise has a lot of expertise in the field of marketplace strategy. To be successful, and stay successful, in marketplaces, at Adwise we always look at six pillars: Range, Technology, Content, Pricing, Advertising and Reputation. In this strategy with Specishops, Adwise was asked to take complete care of all six marketplace pillars.

Technology as foundation

For sustained upscaling.

Specishops is now active with a wide range of products on bol.com in the Benelux and on Amazon in the Netherlands, Germany and France. We have deliberately opted for a steady approach in upscaling, in which we are the first to optimally establish the technical foundation and fundamental elements such as product content. From a multi-platform and full funnel approach, we have completely reassembled, set up and optimized the technical layer and consequently immediately made a huge step with regard to efficiency and certainly also the quality of the product content. A very solid foundation has been built, which means that Specishops now has everyhing it requires to further expand to other marketplaces.

Fill in the marketplace matrix

With extensive analyses.

After successful integration of technology and optimization of product content, we continued with the phase of further acceleration in marketplaces. By means of automated assortment analyses, in which we provide insight into the marketplace volumes, rankings and sales, we have implemented the marketplace matrix we work with at Adwise for Specishops.

Advertising

Data-driven acceleration.

With the data and insights we have gained from all the analyses, we defined and set up frameworks for new marketplace advertising campaigns. Both manual and automatically targeted campaigns were used here, and we immediately saw the impact that paid campaigns can have on marketplaces in uplift in your total sales; at a good return.

Growth impact analysis

Extra step.

As an extra layer in this case, an order (overlap) analysis was also carried out in order to gain a thorough understanding of the impact of the enormous marketplace growth on the results to other channels for Specishops. The possibility of cannibalization is a frequently asked question in the context of marketplaces, but this feeling is often unfounded. With a marketplace order (overlap) analysis, we compare the actual marketplace data and order flow over a longer period of time with the online store orders. We make a clear match between customer data from the online stores on the one hand and the marketplaces on the other. For Specishops, it turned out that there was hardly any cannibalization. In terms of orders that did show an overlap, the marketplace turned out to be the first point of purchase in 25% of cases; the consumer then returned and converted on the online store side. So we really do reach a new target group through marketplaces.

Results

130% revenue growth in a year.

At the beginning of 2021, we fully rolled out the new marketplace approach for Specishops and achieved very good results and a strong improvement in returns. The goal was to achieve 100% sales growth in marketplaces in a year. That was quite ambitious, but in the end we managed to achieve a growth of 130% in marketplace revenue and at a very good margin and strong advertising return. All marketplace pillars for Specishops solid, the strategy is future-proof, efficient in manageability and optimally designed for data use. So all systems are going for further expansion this year.

In numbers

130% growth

In total marketplace sales on Bol.com and Amazon

121% increase

In total marketplaces advertising revenue

20% growth

In total marketplaces advertising ROAS

Only 3% overlap

In target group compared to own webshops, where the marketplace served as the first touchpoint in 25% of the cases

130% growth

In total organic marketplaces sales

Customer's response

Exceeded expectations.

The foundation we had in terms of content and advertising on the marketplaces was okay, but to take the next step, we started working with Adwise. Their strategic marketplace approach to product content, assortment analysis, and advertising has enabled us to exceed our objectives by far. So it was a good collaboration!

Jeroen Boeve Director Specishops

Focus on the future

Upscaling to more platforms.

Resting on our laurels is not an option: optimization of the findability and visibility of your marketplaces is technically never complete. The platforms themselves are also developing at lightning speed and are constantly adding new features, both in terms of technology, content and advertising. Furthermore, the rollout to more platforms for Specishops is planned.

"Because the technical foundation is now sound and the range is extensive, we still have plenty of options. With this scalable, efficient and future-proof approach, the world of marketplaces still offers enormous opportunities for Specishops''- Jurre Oosterwechel, Adwise lead Marketplaces

Would you also like to grow through marketplaces?

Jurre, Adwise head of marketplaces, is here to help.

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