Praxis wanted its marketplace to become the do-it-yourself search engine where customers can find everything for their DIY or garden projects. According to Liesbeth Duenk of Maxeda DIY Group, which includes Praxis, this has worked out well. She talks about this for the first time on Shopping Today.
The Praxis marketplace went online at the beginning of this year. By choosing an existing platform, the hardware store was able to go live with its marketplace within a year. According to Duenk, the customer knows Praxis and the company wants to further expand that position. ‘The range we had online was mainly from the store and only a small part online only. The marketplace allowed us to scale and expand our range. Our product range has doubled in the past nine months.’
Selective
Praxis believes that the marketplace will give the construction market a more sustainable future, which fits well with their strategy. And the marketplace can easily respond to this, Duenk knows: ‘Our marketplace is very suitable for making your home more sustainable because it is easier to put products online than to convert fifty stores. In addition to being specialists, we are also a selective marketplace, which means that we only work with companies and have deliberately not chosen private sellers. When making the selection, we look in the short term at products that we are still missing and which price levels are missing. The long-term focus is on adding other products and categories within the range, such as green roofs or charging stations. We speak to all sellers in advance, so that we are sure that the seller meets our ‘requirements’.’
Loyal customers
Thanks to the marketplace model, Praxis can easily fill gaps in the range and are not bothered by products that place a heavy burden on inventory, which is not very beneficial for working capital. Duenk: ‘Because there is no stock, no pre-financing is required. We are currently trying online only range as much as possible to the marketplace. Because the salespeople not only do the content creation themselves, but also the first-line customer service, costs in this area have fallen by sixty percent. Salespeople do what they are good at, we manage the traffic, marketing and conversion.’ According to Duenk, another positive effect of this marketplace is the continuous growth in their loyal customer base. ‘We have approximately 130 million unique customers per year,’ says Duenk, ‘including approximately 5.5 million loyal customers. And 75 percent of our marketplace purchases are made by these loyal customers.”