The corona crisis is affecting the economy and e-commerce in Germany. In this article, we take a look at Erbeerprofi.de. The German webshop, which sells strawberry plants, is seeing its sales shoot through the roof now that Germany has to stay home. An insight into a thriving family business in times of crisis.
How it all began
In 1956 Arnold Henselmans founded the family business Henselmans. The company later passed to son Joost, who now works in the business together with his brother. Joost is responsible for marketing and maintains contact with clients. His brother focuses on cultivation. Originally the company focused on growing strawberries, onions and carrots, but soon the popularity of strawberry plants became apparent. Individuals also came to the Northeast Polder from all over the country to buy the plants. About a year after the brothers took over the business, the world of e-commerce began to beckon. What if we started selling the plants online? Now, eight years later, Joost and his brother can look back on a successful step.
Crossborder flying out
Soon the company was able to expand into Belgium and Germany. Long detective work was not necessary before they ended up with Dexport four years ago. Erbeiprofi.de was founded after which all German-speaking countries were served. Mainly through their own German webshop and Amazon. According to Peter Meinhardt, co-owner and responsible for e-commerce in Germany, Amazon is the most important growth channel. Also, ebay kleinanzeigen, the German version of Marktplaats, is an important channel for them. "Here, we post ads about which people can ask questions through a kind of service hotline," he says. Furthermore, newspapers are an important channel for the company. Both online and offline they do promotions and work with discount codes. Their target group, the over-55s still read a lot of newspapers and especially during the corona crisis they noticed growth through advertising in German (garden) newspapers.
The impact of the corona crisis
Erbeerprofi.de is also noticing the huge impact of the crisis. "We not only produce strawberry plants for private individuals, but also for professional growers. That is almost completely at a standstill right now because of the crisis." Says Joost. For the e-commerce side, however, the crisis has mainly had a very positive effect. Sales already went through the ceiling shortly after the lockdown in Germany, Peter also noticed. "Germany has a bigger Do-It-Yourself market anyway. Hobby gardening is very popular in Germany, especially In the East. Now that people are sitting at home, we see that sales have increased tremendously. Partly because people have more time to remodel themselves, and partly because they feel that because of the lockdown they now have to." The fact that German consumers are eager to become more self-sufficient just now ensures that the family business from the Noordoostpolder is now working overtime.
Stress
According to Peter, since the crisis they have measured webshop growth of between 60 and 70 percent, and on Amazon they have even grown by 140 percent. So they need to get going and the fact that the company is originally used to working together as a family also comes in handy now. The whole family is brought in to help where needed. Parents, sister and partners who normally work as hairdressers and physical therapists are now coming to the rescue. It is a fairly madhouse at the Henselmans family farm. "In terms of volume, we could not have scaled up so quickly. Last Monday, almost 500 orders came in. On a normal Monday, we might have had a maximum of 200 at one time." When asked if they can still handle the enormous demand from German consumers, Peter replies, "As far as the online shop is concerned, we have plenty of opportunities, but of course someone still has to pack those boxes. We are now reaching the border and we have to go all out for a while." There is no reason to stress, however, according to him. "I would have been stressed only if we had no stress now," he says with a laugh.
The future
Although the company is now riding high despite the crisis time, the brothers and Peter continue to think about the crossborder future. "Our dream for the future is to franchise the concept to other Amazon countries," said Joost. To make that dream a reality, though, they first need to find someone who is in the same industry and shares the same passion. That way, they want to serve markets other than the Dutch and German ones. However, that is still far away, for now they have their hands full and the family business is reaping the benefits of the corona crisis.
