Deli XL – From orders by phone and fax to the largest online marketplace for food professionals.
Anouk Beeren won the 2016 Digital Transformers Award with the team. On March 13, she told Topmarketeers Network how at Deli XL the transformation from a product-, logistics- and supply-driven company to a customer-driven business has taken place. In this, the customer is seen as the beating heart. All business processes (assortment, stock, sales) have been digitized from that customer perspective. This allows Deli XL to respond to the new rules of e-commerce.
During this evening Anouk will explain which innovative business models have been established and which challenges she and her colleagues have encountered during the transformation process.
In 2010 Anouk, with the support of the managing director, had the goal of realizing 95% of the turnover online within a few years through a new webshop to be set up, with the best E-Commerce team. At that time, orders were still almost all coming in by phone and fax. In the first year, Anouk and the incumbent team (3 employees) proved through normal online marketing methods that customers needed e-commerce. Then she could start the real digital transformation, with the following steps:
1) Finding talent for E-Commerce, in order to build the best team
2) Bringing the Sales people along in the transition (internal target group)
3) Approaching the suppliers (Unilever, FrieslandCampina, Ad van Geloven, Coca-Cola, etc.) to cooperate with them in this and to start working the market together
4) And (lastly) approaching the customers
Despite several setbacks along the way, the director continued to believe in it. Most important to him was that the culture would go along with it. One of the biggest lessons is the realization that “if the customer doesn’t get it, we’re doing it wrong. It also took getting used to the fact that online can bring a lot more customer feedback, so also more complaints. This can be leveraged precisely to become a more customer-centric organization.
Today, 93% of sales are online. Deli XL offers Inspiration, Advice, Ordering and Service online. Everything is measurable. Sales people are still needed, but in a very different way. They are also different people. Instead of regular sales to existing customers, they now focus on acquiring new customers, bringing new products to the attention of existing customers and service.
The call center that used to take orders by phone and fax has shrunk enormously. Now there is a chat function, among other things.
Thanks to Google Search, SEA and SEO, On site search and product detail pages, Deli XL’s sales have increased significantly. Deli XL is growing faster than the market and so its market share is increasing.
Deli XL won the Digital Transformers award because they did an excellent job on 3 key aspects:
1) Adapting the existing processes
2) Making the business customer-driven
3) Applied the rules of the game of E-commerce effectively (see also Cialdini on (online) influencing techniques)
Now Deli XL is looking at how to stay ahead of the competition in data-driven sales and marketing. Deli XL wants to become a marketplace where specialist suppliers can also supply, like Bol.com has.
The ambition is to become the hospitality marketplace, 1-stop shop.
Deli XL now has, among other things, the website Vers 24/7, the online fresh market and regional market.
Deli XL, part of Bidvest, will be renamed Bidfood, the largest online marketplace for food professionals, effective June 12.
After Anouk’s story, with lots of interaction and questions, the participants got to work themselves. Using the so-called “Trusted Dialogue technique,” we looked in groups at what we encounter in our own organizations when it comes to digital transformation. The aim was to use both the knowledge and expertise of the speaker, Anouk, as well as that of the other participants. This exchange added to the participants’ ability to apply what they learned in the organizations they work in.
by Jan-Willem Hoogeweegen
