With 10,000 orders per month and a turnover of €6.5 million a year, stating that De Gele Flamingo is doing well is an understatement. Sophie Claes started her webshop with about thirty products stored in a room in her own house. Now, she has a team of fourteen, a large warehouse, and a concept store in Zoersel. The children's store has been successful from the very beginning, thanks to a wide range of baby products, easy-to-create birth lists, and a user-friendly webshop with Mollie's checkout.

When Sophie launched De Gele Flamingo in 2013, she was an exception in Belgium—a pioneer, if you will. Ecommerce had not yet found its way, neither in businesses nor among consumers. "People were already buying plane tickets online at that time, but that was about it," recalls Sophie. Buying baby products through a webshop was unheard of, let alone creating birth lists.

"My daughter inspired me to go for it," she says. "When she was born, I looked for special or unique items to dress her or decorate her room. But I always ended up on British or American webshops. It was clear that they were far ahead in ecommerce, but I found it annoying to have something small shipped from abroad every time. Could I really be the only one in our country looking for cute baby items?"

Challenges in the Early Days

The only thing she definitely wasn't. Sophie noticed this immediately when she founded De Gele Flamingo. "I created a Facebook page to promote my products. It wasn't done much at the time, so it was easy to get a lot of followers. My products sold quickly, and little by little, I started building a larger stock."

As a webshop specifically focused on baby and mama products, and since 2016 also birth lists, the path was open for Sophie and De Gele Flamingo. Easy peasy, right? Not at all. "In the beginning, it was difficult to convince brands—and especially the Belgian ones—to let me sell their products. The concept of a 'webshop' was not only new, but it was also unclear to them how it could possibly be successful. They were a bit scared."

But those first ecommerce customers didn't know how to look at webshops either. "There were certainly doubts among customers about shopping online," Sophie remembers. "Will it be like in the photo? Will it arrive safely? I often got asked by customers how they should pay. Should they send an envelope with money in it?"

One click and it's done

Sophie finds it amusing, not necessarily because of the question itself—"Ten years ago, it wasn't such an absurd remark"—but because today, we do nothing else but shop and pay online. "Ecommerce has progressed quickly."

No one now wonders how to pay online. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't pay attention to that payment process. "A smooth checkout is extremely important. Especially in recent years, you really can't fall short there, or customers are gone," says Sophie. "In the beginning, customers could pay with us using PayPal, bank transfer, or credit card. Meanwhile, there are many more payment options, including Bancontact for webshops in Belgium and iDEAL in the Netherlands."

De Gele Flamingo has worked with Mollie for payments from the beginning. "We have never had another provider simply because we are very satisfied with Mollie," says Sophie. "It's easy and user-friendly. Sometimes I hear from other webshop owners that they have problems with payments or that it takes a long time to implement a new payment option. Then I always think, 'wow, with us, it's just one click and it's done,'" she laughs.

Looking Beyond Borders

De Gele Flamingo is a fixed value in the ecommerce landscape of children's stores, but more and more customers are finding their way to the webshop. Offering the right payment methods is becoming more important. "I like to research which countries prefer to work with which payment methods, but I know I can also turn to Mollie for such questions. They have that experience, and I'm sure they will guide us if we need it."

And if she gets to dream beyond her current success? "Then I would like to launch my brand someday," she smiles. "I love the products in our webshop, but sometimes I think: with this motif or with this improvement, it would be even better. Last year we improved our logistics, this year we focus on marketing, but who knows, next year the start of our own brand?"

While she thinks for a moment about that step, she inspires many other starting webshop owners. Via webinars or talks at events, she gladly shares her experience with fellow merchants. "In the beginning, I had someone who gave me a lot of support and whom I could turn to with my questions. Now that I have gained a lot of experience myself, I like to do the same for others. It's also nice to inspire novice colleagues and show that you don't need a large budget or a huge stock to start. If there is passion, you will succeed."