Kruidvat
How the marketplace project became a success
The original article is from Johan van Leeuwen and was first published on Dutch IT Channel, 8 July 2024 Thorough preparation followed by a quick and successful implementation. That is the brief summary of the journey towards Kruidvat’s marketplace, which went live at the end of October last year. This was achieved on time and within budget. IT partner KPS was one of the crucial links in this success story.
At the Dutch office of AS Watson, Kruidvat’s parent company in Renswoude, Roland van den Berg and Raimond van het Reve share their story. Van den Berg is responsible for e-commerce and customer-facing IT for AS Watson in the Benelux. Van het Reve is the country manager of KPS. Kruidvat has 1,300 stores throughout the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as a strong online presence.
We have an O+O strategy. That means we want to grow the customer base that buys both online and offline,” Van den Berg begins his story. “In a number of product categories, we wanted to expand our range. One of these is baby products. People who have a baby often use a baby checklist, which is also on our website. But from that list, they could only order 25 percent from us. Diapers, wipes, oil, and ointment, yes, but many other products, no. We wanted to be a one-stop-shop in that regard, so we came up with a marketplace strategy where partners offer products through us to complete that checklist.” The drugstore chain certainly does not open all doors. “We decided that the assortment we add must always align with how people know us. It must not overlap with what we have in the stores. We also don’t want customers to have to choose between five or six suppliers with the same kind of product. We are very consciously choosing a select number of partners with whom we really collaborate.”
A Good Feeling
Kruidvat gathered specialised companies around it to build the marketplace. SAP for the platform and Mirakl for the specific marketplace software. Not much later, KPS also came into the picture. KPS is an internationally active IT company with 1,200 employees spread across 12 offices in Europe. Building platforms for retailers and fashion chains is one of their specialities. Additionally, the company is strong in S/4HANA transitions. KPS had already worked with AS Watson. Van den Berg: “They had set up a marketplace at Superdrug, our sister company in the UK. Our colleagues were very impressed, so we looked to see if they could help us too. We immediately had a good feeling. We worked with an international team from KPS with many people who were also involved in the Superdrug project. The Benelux team of KPS also played an important role, including in monitoring progress.” The project had a careful preparation, he says. “There was no negative necessity for this marketplace, so we had the time to think carefully about how we would approach it. That preparation took a year. We took the time to translate the strategy into business needs. Some of those needs were very specific to this project. In the spring of 2023, we really started.
Expansion of the Product Portfolio
In a relatively short period of six months, everything was built, tested, and went live. That went very quickly and successfully: on time and within budget. A very impressive achievement.” Through the marketplace, Kruidvat eventually expanded its baby product range from 750 to approximately 3,000 items.
More Than Technology
According to him, there are three reasons it went so smoothly. “We thought very carefully about the scope and then froze it. We stuck to it firmly. The project governance was also very good internally. We involved the business very closely because it was not just about technology. We set up a new business with a new team and new processes for customer service. The third success factor was the professionalism and experience of the involved partners, including KPS. From the preparation phase, KPS’s specific knowledge about marketplaces was very valuable.” Raimond van het Reve is very proud of the success of the project on behalf of KPS. “There was a very good team spirit with a lot of cohesion between the different parties. We adhered well to the agreements made and worked very determinedly towards the go-live. At the same time, there was also room for fun. We are truly delighted to have shared our experience with such a great brand as Kruidvat.”
Olympic Level
Kruidvat now sells not only baby products via the marketplace principle. Van den Berg: “We notice that we are now very successful in the baby category. We are meeting all our targets in various areas. We have recently also gone live with health products, medical aids, sports items, and fragrances. We are now making plans to roll out all other categories as long as they complement our existing online and offline offerings.” Meanwhile, Kruidvat and KPS’ collaboration is growing. “They carried out some final steps after the go-live,” says Van den Berg. They also provide part of the support. And there are plans to roll out the same concept for Kruidvat Belgium. Additionally, KPS now provides the SAP Service Cloud for customer service.” Van het Reve is, of course, pleased with this: “In every project, it is important for us to maintain and strengthen relationships. We are very happy to stay connected.” Here you find more information about Kruidvat’s marketplace. Van den Berg is very satisfied with KPS. During the project, he spoke to Van het Reve about ‘Olympic level.’ Van den Berg: “It was a collaboration with a lot of professionalism. The work in the last months leading up to the go-live was top sport at the highest level. Everything had to come together at the right time.”
That statement inspired KPS to organise an event about marketplaces on 5 March 2024 at the Papendal sports centre, featuring Olympic champion Maarten van der Weijden as a speaker. Van het Reve: “That was a fantastic event where we brought all our knowledge together. The reactions were overwhelming.”
About Kruidvat
Kruidvat is part of the AS Watson Group. The AS Watson Group is the world’s largest international health & beauty retailer. With 16,500 shops under 12 retail brands in 28 markets, with over 130,000 employees worldwide. For the fiscal year 2023, AS Watson Group posted sales of $23 billion. Each year, it serves more than 5.5 billion shoppers through its O+O platforms (Offline plus Online), offering offline and online customers a technology-based shopping experience.
Build & optimise a marketplace with KPS
KPS is a leading e-commerce implementation partner offering extensive expertise and best practices in the marketplace space. KPS supports companies in the planning and implementation of the marketplace model, utilising solutions such as Spryker , which offers companies successful, transactional business models in online retail, and the fully configurable Mirakl platform. Thanks to pre-built connectors and flexible APIs, it fits effortlessly into your existing environment and offers a seamless experience from day one. You can find more information about the trend and the solutions on our marketplace page.
