Made.com is one of the largest interior design lifestyle brands in the world. With a unique concept where no warehousing takes place, but digital-to-consumer brands are delivered to the customer immediately after they are made, Made.com manages to achieve high acclaim internationally. Damien Poelhekke, managing director of Northern Europe, explains why influencer marketing is so crucial to the brand's crossborder success.Â
The conceptÂ
Made.com, which was founded in 2010 by Ning Li, Jullien Callede and Chloé Macintosh actually grew out of a frustration. Ning Li had outgrown Ikea's convenient segment, but didn't have the money to switch to premium brands worth thousands of dollars. He saw a gap and decided to jump into it with Made.com. The concept of Made.com is different than usual. Made.com sells digital-to-consumer brands that, after they are made, are delivered directly to the customer, without storage. Made.com is constantly looking for new designers in order to offer consumers the latest trends in interior design. Its strength lies in its flexibility. Because they have no stocks, Made.com can launch new collections throughout the year. On average, two new collections a week, where it is normally only twice a year.
Germany
Damien Poelhekke, managing director of Northern Europe came to support Made.com in their crossborder growth six years ago. They are now active in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. "Germany is by far the largest market for interiors, design, home and living. That makes Germany one of the most important markets," says Damien. A country with enormous opportunities partly due to its large population, but also with a huge amount of challenge due to its centralized territories. "In France, it's very clear: Paris is the biggest. The epicenter of everything, that's where we have to put our focus. In Germany, however, you have four or five of these "Parises." Different states with different cultures and consumer behavior, which makes it complex to think out a unified strategy." Thus Damien.
Crossborder strategy 
But that strategy came anyway. For Damien, the basic rule for crossborder business is "know who you want to reach and how you want to position yourself and then start the outreach to that." For Made.com, they are only on perfomance channels. Google Shopping combined with a strong PR offensive and (local) influencers. Made.com deliberately does not work with marketplaces. "You're giving up a big piece of control with that anyway. Your brand reputation. Selling on marketplaces is a huge opportunity, but we still don't dare to do that very well." Let Damien know. TV and Billboard advertising have also been tested, but are no longer used. According to Damien, it is always very important to know who your customer is. "I can choose a big medium like TV with which I reach all of Germany, but my target group is only x% of the whole population. I prefer to think targeted then. Not thinking: how can I bring in as many leads, clicks or visitors as possible, but rather focusing on the quality of them. How to inspire them, how do I make them come back now or in the future?"
Influencer marketing
Made.com does bet on influencer marketing. Brand managers contact these influential social media tigers for each country. On the one hand, it's a piece of exposure for Made.com and works for brand building in Germany. On the other hand, it is an ideal opportunity to produce content this way. At the end of last year, Made.com launched the campaign: Design Your Happy Place. In the campaign, Made.com created a network of influencers who each brought unique content. The campaign produced many photos of what homes and their furnishings looked like. Real-time photos, rather than a perfect picture. And it worked, Damien also saw. "It inspires more. We saw a better conversion engagement rate back. This was a precursor to our influencer program where we started working with a number of influencers.
Influencer marketing is becoming increasingly important in Germany. "A great achievement by Damien and his team at Made.com. Dutch companies, like Made.com, can benefit from the reach of German influencers. 21.8% of Germans bought a product in 2020 because they saw it at an influencer. The figure was 19% last year and 16% in 2018. So the importance for brands is growing. The important thing is to find the influencers who really fit well with your brand and your growth phase." CEO Andreas Giese of Dexport.
Andreas Giese - CEO Dexport
Critical to collaboration
Who Made.com may represent is an intensive process, and Damien and his team are critical. "It has to be the right story that we also want to share, something our brand identity stands for." Almost never is paid for a collaboration. Only if Made.com really wants to establish a campgane and if they want to advertise with it, but otherwise they mainly focus on unpaid collaborations. "We focus very much on micro influencers. That's where we see much better results because these influencers have much higher engagement." In addition, Made.com does not work with agencies for their influencer marketing. "Personal contact works best, we send them a DM (direct message) ourselves and we organize a lot of events and workshops. Above all, the collaboration has to come about naturally." To get you started and analyze the landscape and determine which influencers are suitable to represent your brand, an agency can obviously be very essential.Â
Were you inspired by this story? Damien Poelhekke is one of the speakers at the CrossBorder Event 2020 that will take place on Oct. 1. On that day, you will hear his story and that of many other successful crossborder entrepreneurs.
