Belgian dreamland.be web shop celebrates tenth anniversary with great figures
DreamLand, Colruyt Group's toy expert, is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its web shop. Since its launch, more and more customers found the way to dreamland.be, and the corona crisis boosted online sales. Unique about the DreamLand web shop is the vast network of pick-up points in DreamLand, Colruyt and OKay stores.
Friday, February 5, 2021
38 million visitors a year
Ten years after its launch, dreamland.be rates among the top of Belgian retail web shops and developed into the largest toy web shop in Belgium. Every year, more and more customers find their way to the online store, which was visited 38 million times in the past year, an increase by no less than 150% compared to the year before. A striking fact is that people consult the mobile site more and more often: in 67% of the cases, the web shop is visited by means of a smartphone. The biggest part of online sales are toys, followed by outdoor toys, gaming, garden furniture and multimedia. The average review score of 4.6/5 proves that customers are extremely pleased with what they bought at dreamland.be.
Extra boost because of corona
The corona crisis and closure of the stores caused a huge increase in the number of online orders of course. In 2020, we sold twice as much in the web shop than the year before. Customers do not just order online more often, they also order larger quantities: from an average of 3 articles per order to 6 today. Kris De Vuyst, Head of E-commerce at DreamLand, explains the logistic consequences: "During our busy end-of-year period, no less than 6 trucks a day left for our customers by Bpost, whereas there were only 1 or 2 in other years. To be able to handle all this logistically, we expanded our work force considerably to twice as many co-workers in our distribution centres.”
Lego, puzzles and trampolines
During the past corona year, many classic toys filled the top 5 of terms most looked for at dreamland.be:
- LEGO
- Nintendo Switch
- Playmobil
- Barbie
- PlayStation 5
During the first lockdown, we noticed that customers were looking especially for entertainment at home: LEGO, puzzles and board games sold well, but educational practising booklets were also very popular. During the summer months, focus shifted to entertainment in the garden, with great demand for trampolines, swimming pools, garden sets and sunshades. The gaming range remained popular all year long. The release of the new Play Station 5 had something to do with that, but the Nintendo Switch also turned out to be a top product in the web shop.
Vast pick-up network a success
One of the main assets of the DreamLand web shop is the unique, vast pick-up network of more than 400 Colruyt, OKay and DreamLand stores. Apart from home deliveries, customers can also pick up their packages while they are shopping in their usual store. And this turned out to be a success: whereas 30% chooses home delivery, 60% prefers to pick up their order in a store. A win-win says Kris De Vuyst: "It enables us to work more sustainably than the average web shop: less transport is required and because the DreamLand orders leave with the daily store deliveries, it's cheaper in packaging. And, more importantly, our customers appreciate the service: they can pick up their order while they are doing their weekly shopping.” Since the lockdown, more and more people are choosing the comfort of the pick-up points. “At peak moments, packages to be delivered at home took longer to arrive, whereas the flow to our pick-up points continued without any delays. Customers seem to find this reliability important,”, says Kris De Vuyst.
The Click & Collect service is also on the rise: in 2020, the number of Click & Collect reservations increased by as much as 400%. Customers check whether a specific article is in stock in their DreamLand store, reserve it and can pick it up at the store 3 hours later. About 10% of our customers chooses this formula.
On- and offline, a perfect match
DreamLand continues to focus on an omni-channel strategy, a combination of "clicks&bricks", in which physical stores and the web shop complement and reinforce one another. And it pays, according to Kris De Vuyst: “While our stores were closed due to corona, our web shop compensated for this loss completely. This proves that our stores and web shop form a perfect match. Moreover, the success of Click & Collect shows that the web shop is also acting as a digital store window for our 47 physical stores.”
To offer our customers the best service, we are investing in digital initiatives on top of the physical stores. DreamBuddy for instance, the digital gift picker, which helps customers pick the perfect gift from among thousands of articles. With an online wish list, customers can share gift tips with friends and relatives. And the video platform was also visited a lot in the past year: more than 24,000 children enjoyed a digital meeting with Saint Nicholas.
10 % discount
During the anniversary weekend (from 5 to 7 February) DreamLand lets its customers join the festivities. Customers can play an anniversary game on the web shop trying to catch as many gifts as possible, and they receive a 10 % discount on their complete order at dreamland.be.