The Netherlands’ ‘best department store’ now accepts bitcoin

Just last year, fonQ.nl was voted the best online store in the Home, Hobby and Gift category in the ThuisWinkelAwards, a dutch competion for retailers with annual sales of more than €4 million.

“Fonq.nl is contemporary online department store with more than 50,000 colorful and special products that make life just a little more fun.”
— – fonQ.nl

In September, the online retailer won the department store category of the ABN AMRO sponsored Webshop Awards. More than 296,000 consumers rated over 400 online stores across 30 categories. Participants were asked to consider value for money, prices, discounts, assortment, delivery and customer service.

While FonQ.nl is the first site in the group to accept bitcoin as a payment option, the site is a relatively small part of a much larger business.

FonQ operates four online stores, fonQ.nl in the Netherlands, fonQ.be in Belgium, fonQ.fr in France, and fonQ.de in Germany. Customers can also buy fonQ products across europe, through local Amazon websites.

In winning the Webshop Award, the site beat Bol.com, Hema, IKEA and Wehkamp. The later is owned by the same parent company, RFS Holland Holding (RFS).

RFS is the second largest Dutch e-commerce company, with three major online subsidiaries, all headquartered in the Netherlands; Wehkamp, fonQ, and Create2fit.

The Twinkle100, which lists the largest online retailers in the Netherlands, ranks RFS as the second largest online retailers in the country this year.

Ahold, which operates bol.com, the number one online retailer in the Netherlands, tops the chart with €910m in revenue. Amazon and eBay are minor players in the Dutch e-commerce market and did not make the list.

Among the RFS subsidiaries, Wehkamp is the best known, and generates the most revenue for the company. This e-retailer, which counts ~90% of all Dutch households as customers, offers more than 180,000 different products from more than 2,000 national and international brands. Create2fit, a separate subsidiary, operates eight specialized Internet shops.

Wehkamp’s revenue in the 2014/2015 financial year was €546 million, which accounted for approximately 77% of RFS’ total revenue – €711 million. FonQ generated just over €49 million in 2014.

However, fonQ has consistently shown the highest sales growth rate of the group. In 2014, fonQ.nl’s sales grew 35 percent. For the first half of 2015, its sale increased 25 percent, which is much higher than Wehkamp’s 9 percent increase in the same period.

According to CEO Patrick Kerssemakers, Patrick Kerssemakers more than half the sites traffic comes from tablets and smartphones.

"Smartphones are becoming an extension of thoughts and therefore the start of purchasing behavior. The battle among retailers is now being fought on phones.”
— – Patrick Kerssemakers, fonQ.nl CEO

Alongside the adoption of mobile technology, the Netherlands has also been quick to adopt bitcoin. Arnhem, a large city in the East, has been labelled as "The world’s most Bitcoin-friendly city," by a local group running the arnhembitcoinstad.nl website.

The “Bitcoincity” project was started in May 2014, by bitcoin enthusiasts who started out by giving lectures about the currency and technology. They soon wound up running their own Bitpay-like payment processing company, BitKassa.

After being inspired by a similar project in Berlin’s suburb of Kreutzberg, the Arnhem team decided to canvas the neighborhood for local vendors who would accept bitcoin. They literally walked into every establishment on the busiest Arnhem streets, and asked store owners to start accepting bitcoin, teaching as much as they could along the way.

Within just a few months, Bitcoincity surpassed their German counterparts efforts, establishing a higher density of bitcoin accepting merchants. A year ago, they persuaded a local Spar franchisee to start accepting bitcoin too. The project has been growing ever since.

Today, coinmap shows over 100 bitcoin vendors in Arnhem, all with a physical brick-and-mortar presence. This high concentration makes the city one of the most densely-packed for bitcoin adoption globally, even ahead of Aracaju, Brazil, where we’ve seen unusually effective bitcoin merchant adoption efforts.

Since most of Arnhems vendors use the BitKassa platform, the Bitcoincity team is able to provide some statistics on bitcoin sales.

With over €3,000 in sales so far this month, it is becoming clear that Arnhem bitcoiners have an appetite for spending the digital currency, and aren’t just holding it as an investment.

Of course, Arnhem is just one city. Amsterdam has another 45 merchants, according to Coinmap, and there are even more spread across the countryside too.

It helps that there are often other bitcoin-related activities nearby. A year ago, an event called "Bitcoin Congress,” sponsored by Dutch state-owned megabank ABN Amro, was held in Amsterdam.

The local University in Arnhem is also involved, claiming to have given 500 students two Euros worth of BTC each, last year. Although the effectiveness of a public ‘air drop’ like this one is still in question, it’s clear that Arnhem’s next generation is going to find it easier to understand, acquire, and spend the digital currency.

Meanwhile, RFS is undergoing some internal changes. In July, leading international private equity company Apax Partners reached an agreement with RFS’ shareholders to acquire the company. “The injection of capital from and expertise of Apax Partners will enable Wehkamp to implement innovations even faster with an emphasis on customer experience, a broader assortment and the best service,” states RFS press release.

The internal changes appear to have had a positive effect on the company’s bottom line. RFS has seen a healthy profit of €46 million during the 2014/2015 financial year, although this includes pre-July figures.

Over the past year, fonQ.nl has also been focused on improving its services, and boosting revenue. The site has introduced Sunday deliveries and has been promoting brand awareness through a national TV ad campaign. Now, fonQ seems to be trying to edge out the competition by offering bitcoin as a payment option.

If fonQ sees positive growth from offering bitcoin payment, it is conceivable that RFS would add bitcoin payment options to its other ecommerce stores, including wehkamp, providing 90% of Dutch households with further exposure to bitcoin.

For customers looking to find another Black Friday deal, FonQ.nl is offering a Black Friday discount of €10 off on a minimum purchase of €75, some brands excluded. With this new payment option, “Bitcoin users in Europe can start their Christmas shopping early,” tweeted Bitpay.