Maxim Sergeant started this flourishing company in 2013 because he noticed that all big companies jumped upon the e-commerce trend; think about Colruyt launching Collect & Go, Jetair launching Sunjets.be,… . With this in mind Maxim saw that nobody focused e-commerce on local craftsmen which he always kept close to his heart.

But ofcourse, big companies spend an insane amount of money to establish their e-commerce strategies and platforms. Local artisanal crafstmen don’t have these amounts of money nor the knowledge to invest in e-commerce, instead they focus on their artisanal creations. Nevertheless, those artisanal craftsmen need to adapt their business model to keep up with the expectations of the modern customer we know today. They need to adapt themselves to the high demanding customer in order to be competitive.

Keeping this in mind, Maxim had the genious idea of  bringing artisanal products closer the the customer via e-commerce. He found a way to effectively enhance the market for local artisanal crafstmen. With this platform, the baker has a tailor-made e-commerce platform without having the initial high investment like other companies.

This story started with an initial financial investment of own financial means, until date all the shares are under in-house management. But Maxim states that his personal financial means and bank loans aren’t an endless resource, in the future he will look for external partners to stimulate the growth of the company.

Vision

Becoming the e-commerce midpoint for the local fresh-food business in Europe by preparing the local craftsmen to the modern-day customer.

Values

• Customer orientation ( The customer is the midpoint for all actions)

• Innovation (Bakkersonline keeps up with the latest technologies in order to satisfy the needs of their customers)

• Does not, does not exist ( You can achieve anything if you truly believe in it)

The growth strategy of Bakkersonline entales investing a lot of financial means in the sales department in order to obtain a revenue growth of 200% on the Flemish market by the end of 2016. From that point on, a growth in Belgium is targeted at 650% for the next year. Once these two goals are achieved, Bakkersonline will have an astonishing market share in Belgium.

If the platform in Belgium has reached an antonomous stage, Maxim is planning to lead the company to be the market leader of e-commerce for local artisanal craftsmen in Europe. This because Maxim believes that the best strategy for the company is to first be very powerful in one country before fully reaching out to others.

It doesn’t stop there, during this country optimalisation and internationalisation strategy Bakkersonline is also going to expand their e-commerce services to other sectors.

Customers

Bakkersonline’s target group consists out of local artisanal craftsmen. At this time being bakers and butchers in Belgium, The Netherlands and France.

Competitors

In the general competitive landscape, there are almost no e-commerce companies who primarily focus on local artisanal craftsmen. Therefore, Maxim is confident to say that Bakkersonline will always be one step ahead of the competition. At the moment, there’s no competitor who forms a huge threat to this company.

In addition, the software of Bakkersonline for online ordering has an enormous amount of functions and features solely based on the baker’s/ artisanal craftsmen’s needs. The company offers a tailor-made e-commerce solution that currently no other system can offer which highly strengthens the company’s position in their market.

Conclusion

To conclude, Bakkersonline is a company that increased in popularity enormously over the past three years. On top of this, with Maxim’s visionary thoughts and perseverance, he is determined to expand Bakkersonline accros Europe and in other segments in the coming years. The biggest threat for the company is wanting to grow too fast, they need to make sure they don’t overgrow themselves which will lead to less control and an unhealthy growth.

Maxim’s advise for young entrepreneurs is that you need to go for it with all your energy and establish a good and complementary team, maybe even start an advisory board consisting out of highly experienced business people he stated.

Posted on 09/05/2016