The corona crisis has turned the entire e-commerce industry upside down. Some companies are benefiting and others are suffering. SB Supply, which has twice been awarded a spot in the CrossBorder Top 30, is also feeling the effects of the virus. Fortunately, owner Sander Berendsen knew how to act smartly by quickly and flexibly switching from B2B to B2C and is now seeing his company turn good months.
photo: Erik van der Burgt
Selfmade
Sander Berendsen (26) had an early grasp of the e-commerce game. At the age of 16, during his high school years, he founded his company SB Supply. While studying Economics and spending time in Australia, he had outsourced almost everything, but slowly the itch began to grow and after his studies he took matters back into his own hands. He fully embraced SB Supply again and his baby grew into a mature crossborder company.
Flexible in times of crisis
The corona crisis has had a major impact on the company with Tilburg roots. Demand has changed tremendously at the moment and overtime is being worked. "The planned rollout to Spain and Italy has also gained momentum due to the crisis," Sander cannot help but conclude that the corona crisis is creating busy times for his company. Yet these times are also challenging and he had to respond flexibly. SB Supply until recently supplied mainly business to business. That B2B side may be flat during this period, but consumers are online right now. Perhaps more than ever due to the crisis, and Sander knew how to respond intelligently. Switching gears at lightning speed, everything was set up for B2C. "We can no longer supply schools, but we now supply those products directly to consumers." Consumer behavior will now change forever, according to Sander, and you have to be able to respond to that. "You have that stock lying around anyway and you will now have to focus on the consumer as soon as possible, then just make smaller packages. Of course, B2B means a bigger order, a bigger payment, but you have to stay dynamic. What can we do?"
Other countries as examples
Sander was active in enough countries to be able to analyze what the right strategy might be during this crisis. With his own webshops and through Amazon, he is active in almost all of Europe. Because the corona crisis erupted earlier in these countries, he was able to see well what trends were emerging. "We saw there that homeschool gadgets, among other things, were going very fast, also the smart thermometer went through the roof." So we had to act quickly and flexibly, and large inventories were purchased. "We normally always look at a longer time frame. We have an algorithm for that that looks at what runs well over the months. We threw that algorithm out first right away." In times of crisis, consumers make unpredictable jumps. "We do, of course, continue to analyze continuously. We also do marketplaces and we obviously get a lot of data from that."
How to move forward?
Although Sander managed to increase his stock at the right time, that doesn't last forever. Supplies are running out. Sander also sees that the supply chain has been disrupted by the crisis. He therefore foresees problems for the coming months. Of our best sellers, we have enough stocks lying around for two to three months, but some companies are also going to collapse because of this situation. "My biggest fear right now is not being able to source products," he says. Because demand remains, even in times of crisis. Even in countries like Italy and Spain where they now have a total lockdown, people are still ordering and delivering. "Either way, we're going to struggle at some point. If my suppliers don't get paid by retailers and they collapse, I won't have any stock." Proprietary brands produced in China are also lagging. "Passenger planes are down so rates have shot through the roof. In addition, medical products take priority." The biggest challenge now is continuing to meet the huge consumer demand, but perhaps that is a luxury problem. SB Supply is currently running above budget and all because it managed to be flexible in these unpredictable times of crisis.
Were you inspired by this story? Sander Berendsen is one of the speakers of 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.
