Although just under fifty collection points are dwarfed by Dutch supermarket giants, Nyenrode Business University Ocama marketing professor Kitty Koelewijer calls it an interesting case. ‘Interestingly, they not only sell food and fresh produce, but many non-food products as well. And of course it’s difficult to build a distribution network as a foreign competitor, which is extremely expensive,’ she says Koelewijer.
Also listen | Lidl: from drug dealers to sustainable supermarket
He also says that politics often does not cooperate. “For example, many obscure flash delivery company stores have to close,” she continues. “Then, as a solution, they have concluded an agreement with Blokker, whereby their shops are used as collection points. And those are shops where you already go for part of their range.’
Existing articles
According to Koelewijer, these are mostly consumer electronics and household items, and the new option is an addition to the lineup. “That makes it an interesting counterpart, but they’re nowhere near as big.”
Therefore, dare to doubt that it is a smart strategy to grow in the Netherlands. ‘That’s smart for Blokker. They offset part of the costs of the stores and attract more customers,” he says. “I think it makes a lot of sense from that point of view. people have to go specifically to collect your products, while the online store is small and not geared towards the Dutch market, so it’s a big step towards such a collection point.That’s why they have now conducted a pilot with Blokker, and apparently it has worked well. But will it work for fresh products? Perhaps it is partly advantageous what Blokker will now also offer.’
JD extension. com
Ocama is a subsidiary of JD.com, which in turn is part of Tencent. “One of the top two online platforms in China, next to Alibaba Group,” he continues. Tencent is also the party behind WeChat. And they have deep pockets. But at the same time, the market in Europe is relatively small for that company, which means they will make less effort to adapt to the Dutch market.’