Dutch Superwinkel launches in France

Superwinkel, an online department store from the Netherlands, has launched its online store in France. As ‘Superwinkel’ is a Dutch name, the company will operate under the translated name ‘Supershop’ in France.

France is not the first market outside the Netherlands where Superwinkel is active. In October last year, Superwinkel launched its online shop in Germany. The ecommerce company also was already present in Belgium, although not with a dedicated store.

Superwinkel platform was already cross-border ready

In its press release, Superwinkel says opening its online store in France was a piece of cake, because the platform developed by Superwinkel was already made eligible for cross-border operations before launch. “And just like in Germany, Supershop.fr will offer products in the categories ‘Perfume’, ‘Cosmetics’ and ‘Hair’.”

‘The French don’t mind buying from a Dutch company’

The company says some things are different now. For example, at first the quality of the courier wasn’t at the desired level. “It turned out to be important to do business with a local carrier. But we have also noticed that the generally chauvinistic French have no problem buying from a Dutch company.”

Next step: the UK?

For Superwinkel, the next step is to launch a French-written website that focuses on Belgium. Because for the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, the original Dutch website will suffice. “Which market will be next, depends a little bit on the developments regarding Brexit, but ideally we would like to launch an online store in the United Kingdom.”

Superwinkel was founded in 2009 as a niche retailer. It owned several websites, and with names like Parfumsuper.nl and Horlogesuper.nl each website focused on different product categories. All these labels were put under the umbrella brand Superwinkel in 2015. It’s just outside the top 100 of biggest online stores in the Netherlands.