TCOG and Tinx-IT on the growth of e-commerce
The past year and a half many fashion companies have had to set up their own e-commerce at a rapid pace. Additional sales channels, so as not to miss out on any turnover and to be able to participate in the explosive growth of e-commerce. It is now clear that e-commerce is here to stay, so companies are seizing the opportunity to optimize their e-commerce activities and expand with online marketplaces.
FashionUnited discussed this with Rembrandt Kuijpers, Managing Partner at TCOG, and Bob van der Lelie, Senior Sales Executive at Tinx-IT.
Perfect partners, at the right time
Well before the corona crisis, TCOG entered into an exclusive partnership with Tinx-IT to jointly provide the fashion and retail market in the Benelux with integrated e-commerce solutions. Kuijpers: “We saw perspective in offering standard integrations between Dynamics 365 Business Central (previously Dynamics NAV) and e-commerce platforms such as Magento, WooCommerce and Shopify. Last year we jointly completed several successful implementations. Not long after, the growth of e-commerce accelerated due to the corona crisis.” With now over eighty passionate colleagues from three locations, TCOG ensures that customers can do what they do best. In doing so, TCOG relieves customers of their IT and digital transformation challenges as a one-stop-shop partner. “With our Dynamics 365 platform-based solutions from LS Retail (LS Central) and itSuitsFashion 365, we are creating the perfect fit for our target market.”
Joining forces for the best result
TCOG’s vision is to standardize as much as possible. To serve customers even better, the company sought a partner that has proven e-commerce software available. “Tinx-IT is a very innovative company that is continuously improving its software,” says Kuijpers. “A relatively small and personal company with its feet in the clay. That suits us. Not too much bravado and a similar DNA: both TCOG and Tinx-IT employ real people-people.” Van der Lelie adds: “We have a common vision, which is to offer our customers future prospects with powerful solutions. We specialize in e-commerce integrations with Microsoft Dynamics 365. We also facilitate links to ChannelEngine, a centralized hub where companies can connect to hundreds of marketplaces such as Amazon, AboutYou, Kleertjes, Bol and Zalando.”
Expanding e-commerce step by step
The latter is in increasing demand from fashion companies, as marketplaces are booming. “For Dante6 and ByBar, both customers of ours, we started by realizing an integrated webshop. Now we are expanding this further to marketplaces,” says Kuijpers. Style Labels, which includes the children’s fashion brands Levv and Quapi, is also gradually expanding its e-commerce activities in collaboration with TCOG and Tinx-IT. Van der Lelie: “With their organic collection Levv obtained the highest ISO certification for sustainable production. Unique in Europe. With that collection Style Labels will now enter several marketplaces.” The flexibility and scalability that the collaboration provides is a big advantage: expanding to more channels is relatively easy, once the basis is in place.
More focus on good content
More and more fashion companies have their own webshop and are present on marketplaces. It is of great importance that the technology behind this works well. This allows them to focus on creating beautiful content, to showcase the products as well as possible. When the webshop and external channels are synchronized with the ERP package, this provides many benefits. Less repetitive actions, for example, which reduces the margin of error. “In practice, this quickly means a saving of half to two FTEs,” Van der Lelie knows. “Employees that can be used as a company for other purposes, such as improving service.” The return on investment is great, agrees Kuijpers. “By creating multiple sales markets, fashion companies can increase their reach enormously, come into direct contact with the consumer and spread their risk. And that security – even after the pandemic – is very valuable.”
Do you work with Microsoft Dynamics Business Central and want to integrate e-commerce or make the step to marketplaces? Book a no-obligation quick scan now and find out what this can mean for you.
