Medisana sells on around 30 marketplaces across Europe. In Benelux, however, the brand first had to learn how high Dutch customers' expectations for delivery times really are. Ingrid and Valerie talk with Martijn Paas, who knows Medisana's marketplace business inside out from his time in the Benelux team, and Patricia Lay, who helps international sellers get started on bol.

In this episode:

• Why moving the top sellers to bol's logistics service increased turnover fivefold, according to Martijn
• How Medisana found the right logistics provider after a partner went bankrupt
• How the vendor and seller businesses run in parallel – and why your own resellers can turn into competitors
• What customers in Benelux expect beyond fast delivery
• Why you should realistically expect at least a year before seeing success

This episode is for every brand looking to enter Benelux via bol.

Note from the sponsor TikTok Shop:

Thinking about joining TikTok Shop but not sure where to start? Unlike many traditional marketplaces, TikTok Shop's account management team is genuinely easy to reach directly – so don't hesitate to ask them questions. If you'd rather read up first, the free TikTok Shop Seller Academy covers exactly what sellers ask most: how to register, what your first 30 days should look like, what to sell, and how to run your first live session without panicking. It also includes a Growth Center with seller missions, guidance on affiliate marketing, and practical tips on avoiding stockouts once orders pick up. Get started with TikTok Shop here: TikTok Shop Academy and Contact to the Business Development.

I would say ball.com is one of the most forward thinking marketplaces with a lot of examples that they're also growing.

For example, you can participate in select deals.

They have a reward system since a couple of months.

So they're really trying to be ahead of the game.

Let's Talk Marketplace.

Their Marketplace podcast with Ingrid Lommer and Vana Rie Dichter.

Hello everyone and welcome back to let's Talk Marketplace.

I'm Ingrid, your host as always, and with me is Valerie.

Hi, Valerie.

Yeah, hi everyone.

Great to have you in the audience again or if you're new as listeners who just discovered us, maybe through our live podcast at DMXCo or through our last Marketplace Universe Connect event.

Welcome.

This is let's Talk Marketplace, the talk show for Marketplace people in Europe mainly.

And yeah, Ingrid, what are we talking about today?

I would say our core topic, something that we often have on the show.

We are now talking about how a brand can use a marketplace for internationalization.

And is this case specifically to Benelux?

Okay.

I mean, I would say that's core topic at Marketplace Universe.

And I know that our listeners love to hear about where they can expand and what are the news about the marketplaces, et cetera.

So what quite interested about this episode today.

Yeah.

And our case today is the German home healthcare brand Medisana.

They sell on 30 marketplaces across Europe and for Benelux, they are now focusing on the local hero bull.

So we look at how their start there actually went and what it took to make it work and what role the region now plays for Medisana.

So let's talk about.

Okay, so.

And always we have both sides of the story story with us.

So Martijn Paz runs the Marketplace.

And also with us today as a returning guest and a birthday girl today is Patricia Ley, lead international partnerships at Boel.

So Martijn and Patricia, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having us.

Yeah, you're welcome.

So as you, Patricia, you know already, we do always those three questions.

So I would do like a ping pong between you and Martijn.

Three questions to get to know you better.

So Martijn, before we dive in, who are you?

Yeah, my name is Martijn Bas.

I'm 38 years old, living in the Netherlands, working for Medisana since six years.

Originally started in our Benelux office, which we are talking about today.

But since three years working for headquarters in Germany, especially focused on the Marketplace business.

Okay, Patricia, who do you.

Who are you?

I'm Patricia.

I'm the birthday Girl today, as you mentioned.

Yes.

Fresh, 37 years old and working at Paul since two years now as lead international partnership growth, helping international sellers.

Getting started on the marketplace together with partners from.

From the ecosystem which are integrators and agencies.

Great.

So Martijn, next question.

What would you say?

What do you do best?

Oh, that's a.

That's a very good question.

In my case, if I take my job, my current job and also the past, I'm good at basically trying to do everything at the same time.

So I wouldn't call myself a particular specialist, but I had quite some different jobs throughout my career.

So that also makes it like a spider in the web where you can lead projects everywhere and get familiar with all kinds of topics.

So that would be I think my specialty nowadays.

Great.

And Patricia, what's your.

What do you do best?

I can relate very much to what Martijn said, but I think also getting stuff done.

I'm very good at getting things done and generally being out there doing.

Telling about ball to especially Germany, since I'm by chance German as well.

Oh yeah.

Being the one that fixes it.

Very true.

Getting things done.

Patricia.

Yeah, that's I think your second.

Second name.

Yeah, exactly.

I think.

But that's also something you.

You really need as a marketplace manager.

Like also my time said, right.

Like to get everything done and so many different roles and hats you.

You have.

Okay.

Yeah.

Now a fun fact about you, Martijn.

It's.

Can also something be private.

We already have spoken a little bit about birthdays.

So I think what is special in my case is that I was the birthday gave of my father 38 years ago.

So we have same birthday the 4th of August.

So that's something that's quite unusual.

That's true.

That's nice.

Yeah, that's so funny because we are almost.

We are all at this almost same age.

I had last last week my birthday and turned 38.

So Ingrid, you are definitely out of the senior sphere.

Yeah, senior in the room.

I won't tell you by my how much I'm that age now.

Okay, Patricia, your fun fact.

Oh, so many.

But let's go with one that fits the birthday theme.

Obviously you always need champagne on your birthday.

And I own a champagne saber and I know how to use it.

Oh, okay.

We definitely need to see that at one of our connect events.

Patricia, I think you're welcome.

Yeah, great.

Okay, so I get now we already know you a little bit better.

We are right in the mood to have a great birthday episode.

Obviously.

So I guess we can dive right in after a very short advertising break.

So you have been thinking about joining TikTok Shop, but you don't really know where to start.

You're not alone.

A lot of brands and retailers get a little bit overwhelmed both by everything the platform can do and by the fact that it works so fundamentally different from other marketplaces.

It's less about a static storefront you set up once and more about content and community all the time.

That alone throws some people off.

But here's the good news.

There is a lot of help and input to get you to help you get started.

First, there's the account management team of TikTokshop, which is, compared to many traditional marketplaces, is really open and easy to get in touch with.

So don't be shy, contact them, ask questions.

They know how their platform works best and are ready to share.

You can use the contact in the show notes if you like.

And secondly, if you're more my type of person and like to read first and ask questions later, there's always the TikTok shop seller academy.

That's a free resource TikTok shop runs especially for getting you started on the platform.

It's organized around the questions that sellers ask the most, like how to register, what your first 30 days should look like, what can you actually sell, and how to run your first live session without panicking.

There's also a growth center with seller missions to work through, a section on affiliate marketing if you'd rather have creators sell on your behalf, and practical guidance on operational things like avoiding stock outs once your orders start picking up.

Whether you're about to launch your shop or you're already live and looking to get a little better at it, there's a good chance the Academy already has your answer.

Or as I said, get in touch with them personally.

They are happy to help.

Ok, you get the drift.

So get your info and your contacts in the show notes.

Okay.

Right.

So I guess let's get started.

And let's get started as always, with the brand in the room.

So Martijn Medisana is active now as a seller on Bull, but you have been a supplier also for years.

So maybe you can lead us through your decision how you how to position yourself on the platform and why did you make the move into the seller area?

Definitely.

So we already have an existing brand relationship with Bold.com since 2011, so it goes way back already many years ago, but especially the last, I would say three, four years.

We have been trying to dig into the rise of marketplaces, as we call it.

And especially, I would say the biggest catalyst for this decision was Covid.

During the COVID period, of course, there was an interest to start, but this already speeded up the process because the classical retail, especially also with stock risk and all these kind of things, stores closed, made us realize that the business is changing nowadays.

And this was, for us, the biggest growth factor to switch to marketplaces.

And on the other hand, also we have Roundabout 350 SKUs at the moment.

So that's quite a big assortment.

And on the vendor side, of course, they take a big chunk of this, but there's a lot of potential that is not utilized.

So that made us also think about, okay, if we offer, let's say, 100 SKUs on the vendor side, there's still room for 250 SKUs to sell on ball.com directly, and we can use this sales data as well to convince the buyer of ball.com in this case to see the full potential if we sell it on marketplaces as well.

So it's, I would say, a combination of timing at first, but also to try to utilize your full potential as a company.

Yeah.

So, Patricia, I guess that sounds like gold in your ears when he's talking about all the assortment that he can bring additionally to the marketplace.

So if you look at international brands like Medisana, do they usually start out in such a strong position or what is.

Is there something missing or is that a very medicinal approach that Martijn is talking about?

You have comparable.

Yeah, you have comparable sales partners that started in a similar route, but you often see that in the beginning they choose one side of the business.

So either they start as a supplier or they start as a marketplace seller.

And only afterwards they eventually add a second path.

So, yeah, it's not the most common, but it is with the bigger brands, something that we see happen, of course, and which is possible.

You can sell as both supplier and as marketplace seller on both, which is absolutely fine.

Yeah.

Okay.

So Martijn, maybe walk us through the first month of your seller route.

So how was that different from your experience as a supplier before?

What worked right away?

What hurt?

So just the first month, I would say quite a challenging road forward because I started as a marketing manager for our Benelux office, so I was more on the vendor side, connected to all our, let's say, promotional activities.

And then you start selling on your own.

And in our case, we were quite lucky because of the existing relationship with Ball.

We already have a really High brand awareness in the Netherlands or in the Benelux in general.

So brand is really known within the big audience.

So that was for us a big plus.

So it's easier of course, if people see the products with an existing brand to sell something.

So that was for us the biggest factor.

But of course you run into some challenges.

Of course you need to take care of logistics.

There are legal aspects coming into place, a lot of different things which usually shouldn't be taken care of.

So that gives it quite a challenge.

But I would say our biggest factor which made it easier was the integration partner.

Our agency, Comcreate, was taking care of the integration part and also our system plenty one.

So all the aspects that you need to have in place to set up a successful marketplace is already in there.

And if you really start with the basics, it makes it really easy to to get the business up and running, move forward and adapt to the speed that you need to have, especially in the Benelux.

Patricia, I'd like to push that to you because as you are mostly responsible for partner management for Bool and Martijn is just making a strong case for having good partners.

So would you elaborate on that?

So why do agencies, integrators, ecosystem partners come in and make a difference for sellers on board?

Absolutely.

Yeah, indeed.

The ecosystem, I always like to explain it as it's your toolbox with tools in it that you can use to make your e commerce business better.

So basically the toolbox that has logistical partners in it, that has integration partners in it, that has advertising partners in it that really help you automate so, so that you as a marketplace seller can focus on the important things of your business.

For example, an integrator that can connect a seller to their erp, their webshop and their systems to really automate, like product order, stock management or an agency, they can really help you also with your marketplace strategy, where to invest, get the flywheel, how we call it round, make sure you have good advertising also on your products.

Or for example, logistical partners.

If you fulfill yourself or you want to use like a 3PL provider, they can help you set that up.

So it's really like a toolbox where you can pick and choose what you need to automate your business so everything runs smoothly as well.

If you have to maintain your own order management, etc.

You really have to to be on point all the time.

Where else an ecosystem partner can really help you with that and it can just improve also your performance and your conversion.

Yeah, absolutely.

Martijn, you run now still the one piece site and also your own seller account by the side.

So that means if I get that correctly, there is you selling your own products on Bool, but there are also third party sellers selling your products.

So how does that work for you?

Especially the challenge in the beginning because on the vendor side of course, if you sell products, of course bull.com always has the buy box and that's also our goal in the end.

So if the vendor has the buy box, you don't want to interfere.

But in our case as a supplier, we also sold to other companies which were also actively selling on ball.com of other marketplaces.

So you get this situation where you have a lot of, let's call it 3P pollution within the market and that's quite challenging if you want to set up, I would say your own marketplace structure within the same ecosystem.

And in the beginning we really had a challenge with obtaining buy boxes and also our logistical setup was not particularly the best.

So we had three to five working days delivery time.

And that's especially I would say in the Benelux killing for your conversion and also the buy box ratio.

So those two factors were for us key to get fixed as soon as possible to be successful on selling on marketplaces.

And I would say the pollution for us, if I take it from a marketplace perspective, was quite, I would say big because we sold to a lot of companies, distributors everywhere.

So that was quite a challenge.

And also internally for us it was a wake up call that we need to do things differently.

Actually that's a quite usual topic in the marketplace business, right?

To have so many different sellers competing on price, but everyone has the same product, right?

And especially if you have products who have such a long product life cycle like yours, it's not like seasonal items who are like okay, the season is over now, okay, let's try the next season then it's especially more difficult.

What would you say?

How long does it take you to really be successful on Bool?

And how do you define successful as a marketplace business?

I would say it depends.

In our case it took us around about a year to get really successful.

But we were also lucky because of the situation back then because of course the COVID period started and we were quite lucky that we had some relevant assortment back then.

Thermometers, pulse oximeters.

So there was an increasing demand for these kind of products immediately because of the situation going around.

And also afterwards it was followed by the gas crisis.

People started to look for different products that could, I would say lower their electricity bill or gas bill.

And in our case we also have heating blankets under heating blankets.

So we were also a little bit lucky, I would say, to already be more successful in the first place.

But on average, I would say it will really cost you at least a year if you have all the factors set up in a proper way to become successful.

Because it's also trial and error.

You need to get used to that.

I would say the Dutch habit of consumers, they're really spoiled and high demanding.

So this needs to be in place before you can actually talk about growing as fast as you would like to see it growing.

Patricia, tell us a bit more about your spoil people.

Yeah, sorry, we as spoil, we kind of set the standard since 30 years of how to do marketplace business.

Indeed.

So yeah, as you mentioned, the Dutch consumer and also the Belgian one is slightly spoiled, especially with regards to delivery.

And I think that's, that's also what people often underestimate is how strongly convenience, speedy delivery and yeah, good customer care influence your conversion.

So that is really what you do want to have in place.

And yeah, the Dutch shoppers, they are really used to fast delivery.

So you also have to understand of course the geographical size of the Netherlands.

It is a small country, so a package can super easy be from spot A in spot B within a day.

So that's the standard they are used to by shopping on BO already since so many years.

And if you then come in as a marketplace seller, especially from abroad, you feel immediately if you cannot also match that same delivery speed, it really, yeah makes your conversion a bit slower.

And once you have yourself set up in a way that you can maximize the delivery speed.

So let's say I would say a maximum of three working days to be successful.

But ideally you can be into the next day delivery business.

You'll see that uplift in your conversion as well.

But also a couple of other factors is indeed like content.

So you want to have your content well in place so that it's detailed, that it's well translated, that people really understand what they are buying.

Again, the convenience.

The Dutch consumer doesn't want to ask questions about an article.

They don't want to have to send something back.

They prefer it clearly upfront, what am I ordering?

And then have that in place and don't have to, yeah, reach out to a seller or ball itself, be happy with their product.

And from a price perspective, I think what is interesting about the Dutch and Belgian consumer is they are price conscious, but they are also quality conscious.

So it doesn't always have to be the cheapest price, but the quality counts as well.

So we rather have a better quality that is well priced and fast delivered than really just looking for the price.

So Martijn, how did Madisana set up their logistical setup?

So how did you do this?

Yeah, in the beginning we utilized a German warehouse which meant three to five working days delivery.

And we already stumbled into a lot of complaints from the customers saying, why do I have to wait so long for my parcel?

And that made us realize that we had to change our logistical setup quite fast.

And eventually we made the switch to start with LVB logistics viable to put our top sellers on logistics viable because they fully take care of the logistical part of it and also the tickets from the consumers that might pop up if there's a question regarding the delivery.

And that already noticed that in our case there was an uplift of, I would say five times the turnover compared to the initial setup.

So that already made us realize that the logistics point of view is the most important thing you have to set up properly.

So that made us decide internally also because our strategy of course is an international strategy.

So you cannot put stock everywhere at every retailer because that's quite a time consuming project.

So that, that's when we made the decision to search for a third party logistics warehouse in the Netherlands.

And we changed our initial setup back then to Emergy Logistics, which was the former blocker retailer as well.

But unfortunately they went bankrupt as well.

So we had to switch again afterwards.

And now since slightly over a year, we are using QLS as our third party logistics provider.

And they are also really, I would say, close collaboration with BO directly.

So it's like a preferred logistics center.

And they, they basically take care of everything we need from a marketplace logistical point of view.

So that's for us, the perfect setup right now.

So I take it a partner network of people that are closely connected to Ball or understand the marketplace is key here.

It makes life easier, I would say, because they understand the business of Ball, what BOL is requiring from, I would say from a customer point of view, but also from a seller point of view.

And they know the drill, they know what they need to do and they know for example, also the service level agreement that you [email protected] so you need to of course have a specific percentage delivered on time or else you'll receive a strike.

So this is really important and they're really aware about all the factors that are important.

And also if something goes wrong, they also have their own context persons with ball.com so they can also inform them that there's something unusual going on, so that everybody in the same I would say ecosystem is aware about what's going on.

And that's for us, I would say make your life easy, because the marketplace business is already quite diverse and there's a lot of things going on.

So in my case, I would prefer to keep it as easy as possible.

Understandable, Martijn.

I mean, when we talk about how you started on Bull, we always hear the market is demanding the customers of Balls.

The marketplace itself is also qu famous for being demanding of their partners.

So they want to hear many KPIs from you.

You have to be really good on the fulfillment side.

Everything you talked about.

So how did Bool help you in the beginning?

What did they do for you during the launch time?

Yeah, I think in our case it's slightly different because we already had an existing vendor relationship, because Bool also has a supplier portal where you can set up all the content for the products and everything.

And this is connected if you have a seller account.

So in our case we had brand registration, so our content was protected.

So that made it easy for me to set up a Marketplace account on Bold.com and utilize our own content.

And usually, of course, you would have different contacts person, so you would have an onboarding specialist.

You would have a contacts person for logistics.

From the customer service point of view, there's a ticket system, so you would have a variety of persons helping you.

But in our case, we already are so familiar with the platform and the ecosystem that for us it was, I would say, easy to move forward because the steps were quite logical for us.

But I would say if you're a completely new seller on the platform, you would definitely have, I would say, a full onboarding.

I think Patricia can say more about this.

But yeah, I think I can explain a little bit how it is nowadays, because you also started in 20,.

So.

You're already quite a seller that is selling quite long on ball as an international seller.

And back then we lived like in the 2000s, technically wise for international sellers.

We've improved ourselves as well here.

So yeah, if you would start nowadays as an international seller, you can have several onboarding routes, which is either indeed via a new business developer, Frumple, who are one of our trusted ecosystem parties.

And what Martijn also says is like, you always have a person on your site, so whether or not it is a new business developer and an onboarding manager, or you have a specialist from the Ecosystem site that knows everything that you need to know, that really supports you through the process and helps you set up correctly.

And I think that makes us in the setting nowadays in the E commerce world and marketplace we're rather unique.

We have a English speaking partner service and there's always a real person behind it.

That means that is a customer service, especially for our sellers.

So they only help our sellers and one can reach them via phone, email or chat.

And there's always a real person behind it that can help you with every question you have and eventually put you forward to a logistical person, an advertising person, et cetera.

So yeah, and I think, yeah, I mean I work for Amazon, right.

And there is even the wholesale business.

Difficult to have one person.

So that's actually really, really nice to start because I think if you're starting the marketplace business, if you have like one person who's in charge of every different aspect of the onboarding, that's very helpful.

And if you want to meet actually Patricia and her team in person, you can do this as well because we have a, we have an event set up, our Marketplace Universe Connect event, the last event actually for 2026 in Munich on the 27th of October.

And if you want to take part then just go on our website marketplace minus universe.com and apply for the event.

And we hope to see you then on a quiet.

For a quiet nice networking event and food and drinks in Munich.

And yeah, I'm really looking forward to this one actually.

That's actually the one we are working in the background right now and yeah,.

Very excited as well.

So yes, please sign up.

We have a couple of spots left.

So very happy to see you guys there and talk in person.

Yeah, absolutely.

But before you close up and go to the end of October, I actually wanted to ask Martijn a few more things because we still have quite a bit of time and as you've been active on the Marketplace now since 2022, I was wondering how Bull has developed for you.

So what, what role does it play now?

What does Benelux play for your European strategy and how if you rank it among the many in the marketplaces you are on how important is it?

So many questions.

And once Martijn can handle that.

Now,.

I would say definitely Bol is for us.

It plays a huge factor in our business.

For me personally also as a Dutch native, I grew up with bol.com and I also see the development that Bol made and you already mentioned Amazon before and if you see the Dutch market, it's really astonishing how they, I would say half the current, I would say setup in the Netherlands compared to Amazon because everywhere where you see this big giant Amazon coming over, all the local retailers are struggling and Bolded come still keeps their, I would say ground and they're even growing.

So that says enough about how Ball is performing.

And also for us, it's one of our biggest customers when it comes to the vendor side, but also the marketplace side.

So for us, I would say Bold.com is one of the most forward thinking marketplaces with a lot of examples that they're also growing and trying to develop the platform With Brandon Charles, for example, you can participate in select deals.

They have a reward system since a couple of months.

So they're really trying to be ahead of the game.

And for us, we have such a strong collaboration that makes it really nice to also think about how to grow the business together.

And it's not only focused on how can Ball grow, but it's a combined effort how Ball can grow with their sellers or suppliers.

And that's for me, I would say key aspect is a joint operation and in the end it's all about the customer, the demand of the customer and that you can meet up to this expectations and I think they're doing a great job when it comes to this.

Wow, Patricia.

I think.

Patricia, I don't have to say anything.

You don't have to say anything.

I think so.

Okay, let's get just podcast episode for today.

Yeah, yeah, that was great.

Yeah.

Right.

Okay.

Actually, yeah, let's end it here because that was great insights from you.

Martijn.

Thanks for being so open and so transparent about what you're doing.

That was really interesting to hear that.

And Patricia, thanks for joining us again.

Always.

Pleasure.

And especially today for taking up a little bit of time of your.

Your own day for us.

That was really nice of you.

Right.

So thanks for joining us.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And if you enjoyed this episode, please follow and subscribe.

Of course.

You know, so into the all the birthday feelings, I totally forgot to make some advertising for ourselves.

So, you know, you know, it goes just you subscribe, follow.

Let's talk Marketplace on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, wherever.

Yeah, and that would really help us.

So see you soon.

Or in Munich.

Right, or in Munich at the end of October.

There you go.

You listen to let's Talk Marketplace, the.

Marketplace podcast with Ingrid Lommer and Vanari Dichtel.