e-commerce agility

Aalberts hydronic flow control is selling its products through a range of digital marketplaces across Europe as it develops its online B2C (business-to-consumer) e-commerce potential. The move taps into consumers' rapid shift from offline to online shopping, and will help the company grow sales while raising product awareness across digital markets.



seize the day
“Consumers are buying more online than ever before,’ says Tim Kaper, e-commerce lead at Aalberts hydronic flow control. “Companies like ours need digital sales models that enable them to take full advantage of the e-commerce boom. We discovered that consumers were interested in sourcing our products via digital marketplaces. After using e-commerce tooling to analyse the potential, we now offer our Flamco, Simplex and Meibes brands directly to the consumer across a number of Amazon markets places in Europe. We are also selling our Comap range in France through the ManoMano site and on Amazon.”

strong potential
While at first glance it may seem relatively simple, selling directly to consumers online means using a different model than selling to wholesalers, Tim says. "Moving into the B2C space means we are able to create consumer-focused content and ship in different quantities, from single items up. This means we are able to offer a more flexible model. Looking ahead, we want to grow our assortment across online sales platforms in Europe, and establish our own warehouse to ship directly to the consumer. In the first half of 2022, we will start selling through Bol.com, a leading Dutch e-tailer, which will strengthen our presence within the Benelux market. And, of course, we'd also like to collaborate with other business units across Aalberts, as we believe there are great strategic opportunities available to further develop our e-commerce operations. What we have achieved so far is because of great teamwork across departments, from supply chain to sales and marketing, and we would love to develop this further within the company.”