Vicus customer in Twinkle: Local specialist grows with Burton Car

Started under the name Duck Hunt, Burton Car Company has been active in the field of reconditioning 2CV's for almost two decades. But the company also trades in existing parts of this French car and produces improved parts for the "Duck". Later, the company also built its own sports car - culminating in the development of the sustainable Burton Electric in 2010.

Because the love for the 2CV is worldwide (today 180 thousand enthusiasts drive it), an accessible, international web shop offers the company many opportunities. This could boost worldwide sales of both parts and the reconditioned 2CVs - as well as sales of the Burton. Hence CEO Iwan Göbel contacted Luuk Roovers, director of marketing and sales at e-commerce and CRM specialist Vicus eBusiness Solutions. An appearance by Roovers at a seminar had previously drawn Burton's attention. We did have a webshop, but we were not satisfied with it,' says Göbel. The shop was not linked to our ERP system, for example.

Among other things, that led to us getting a lot of calls from customers - both consumers and wholesalers - asking about availability of parts and items.' Roovers was familiar with the customer question and with the solution for it. Still, Burton's question was a special one for Vicus. 'One of the challenges here is that we are dealing with a difference in physical and economic inventory,' he says. 'If an employee here takes fifty pistons off the shelf, suddenly they are no longer in stock. That requires a precise system and adjustment of the existing way of working.' Another important challenge for Vicus was the combination of wishes from Burton. After all, the innovative company does not limit itself to 2CV-related activities. It develops and sells many more products.

For example, the creative Göbel is also the designer of the cross urinal (the commonly used urinals at events) and the Celebrator, a vibrator that can be clicked onto an electric toothbrush. Products that are all housed in one central database. In addition, Burton works with sales partners abroad on a commission basis with their own languages, language variants, search engine optimization, payment methods, rules and logistics. Roovers: "We had to bring together this complexity of factors in a single central system that Burton itself could easily operate. The sales partners also had to be able to perform a number of tasks in the webshop system themselves'.

Achieving the maximum together

Vicus opted for the development of a multi-shop, whereby multiple webshops can be connected to one central inventory database. In the first phase of the project, the e-commerce specialist linked the webshop software to the ERP system using its own VOSBA integration software. In the second phase, the multi-shop was set up in such a way that Burton itself can easily launch new webshops and further expand its e-commerce platform. In different markets, countries, with different languages and currencies. Because of these aspects of international sales and cooperation, Burton received financial support from the European Social Fund. 'By simply turning features on and off, you can open a multitude of specialized webshops, each with their own offerings and features,' says Roovers. The current system enables Burton to open about fifty webshops in a short period of time. However, the company is not that far yet: Göbel says that eleven webshops are currently active. These are mainly Burton and 2CV webshops abroad, particularly in Europe, in cooperation with local sales partners. The first partners have been approached by Göbel himself. These are mostly smaller entrepreneurs. And that has everything to do with his vision of e-commerce. Large internet shops are on the warpath. They compete purely on price and want to capture more market share. Small entrepreneurs are squeezed out of the market and ultimately it is the market itself that suffers. The damage will be huge: soon you won't be able to try on a shoe anymore, because the shoe stores will have disappeared. We are aware of the damage and therefore seek cooperation with small businesses. The sales partner abroad orders from us, but installs the car parts in his own garage. This creates a win-win situation. The small company can survive, while we increase our turnover. That is the core of our strategy: together with the small entrepreneur and with the help of the multi-shop we get the most out of the Internet.

Sustainable and creative entrepreneur

Iwan Göbel studied Logistics at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. Together with his brother Dimitri he founded Burton Car Company. In 2005 he was elected 100% best entrepreneur of the Netherlands by ING and RTL Z. Göbel Burton Car Company introduces an average of two new products per week, including products outside the automotive industry. Iwan Gobel also regularly gives lectures on entrepreneurship, sustainability and innovation.