Sifra Geijtenbeek

#ask-the-community - July 22, 2025 at 06:17 PM

<@U095UAU0FLN> <@U08A1P055F1> we're in a pilot with Monta and LVB at the moment where Monta is testing with Bol if they can be a FBMonta partner with the guaranteed next day delivery. Would be great if this works.

#ask-the-community - July 22, 2025 at 02:40 PM

<@U08A1P055F1> 1.5X CVR for LVB and shipping rates are better than Monta. For AMZ I would not suggest FBM as AMZ rates its own FBA is a as a 10/10 whilst for FBM you will be 'punished' if you do not score a 10/10.

#ask-the-community - July 22, 2025 at 08:03 AM

@Kasper - LABFRESH that's smart! The bestsellers and simplest products for marketplaces.

#ask-the-community - July 21, 2025 at 05:45 PM

Little side note: I've been a seller on Amazon since 2012, and I find it very time-consuming with very low margins. I don’t want to leave money on the table, so I stay. But if I had the choice now, I’d invest in other platforms. The hidden costs on Amazon, the expensive VAT compliance work, the high return rates, and the unresponsive “support” for sellers… Bol is much easier. That’s my positive feedback on Amazon 🤪

#ask-the-community - July 21, 2025 at 05:33 PM

I pay them per hour for these shippings. The larger easier shippings go from our miniwarehouse and are shipped by Amazon-UPS which I prefer most. This is also to cut storage costs at Monta because they are quite expensive for storage. But also beware of the storage costs at Amazon, with Q4 coming Amazon will double the price.

#ask-the-community - July 21, 2025 at 05:30 PM

I also work with Monta for shippings to FBA/LVB. But I only let them ship the small shippings which have a lot of 'picking' work. The nasty thing for the shippings to Amazon is that (at least for my product) you have to pack the SKU's in exact the right boxes. That is also a lot of work for Monta. For LVB this is not necessary.

#tech-stack - July 11, 2025 at 09:06 PM

@Leonardo Caracas if you need adjustments in the Givt app, I know the founder, I think he would love to think about adding it to ecom

#ask-the-community - July 11, 2025 at 09:02 PM

If anyone here ever gets problems with the Finanzamt Kleve, I have a contact overthere 😉 and also a very good German Tax Advisor from Moore if you ever have issues in DE.

#ask-the-community - July 11, 2025 at 09:00 PM

They let you know every month what to pay to who.

#ask-the-community - July 11, 2025 at 08:59 PM

@Rene Lukkien @Fred - Out'n'About this is something you want to arrange spotless. My former bookkeeper made so many mistakes that my Amazon account got closed by the Finanzamt Kleve. After the bookkeeper I worked with Taxually. They do their job more or less ok, but after my issues with the Finanzamt, I went to Staxxer. They are pretty expensive, but it is damage control.

#tech-stack - July 08, 2025 at 03:26 AM

@Leonardo Caracas thanks! would save a lot work here 😉

#tech-stack - July 07, 2025 at 10:03 AM

Hi all, any recommendations on a 'notify me' app for Shopify? We get a lot of questions if we have certain models/colours in stock. Tnx!

#growth-and-marketing - June 29, 2025 at 08:26 AM

<@U084JDEHDNH> It's testing what fits best right. We worked with the Scaling Up method of Verne Harnish. But I missed the operational decisiveness of the Integrator/COO.
If I ever need someone in the future, I think I’d look for a woman (mum) over 40 with experience as a purser, hotel manager, or hospital floor manager. Someone who’s loyal, great at multitasking, leads by serving, gentle in relationships, and strict with processes.

#growth-and-marketing - June 28, 2025 at 05:03 PM

<@U084JDEHDNH> I tried so I can tell you my learning. I hired a fractional COO via TwoBirds. That was not a succes. With several reasons: he came new in the organisation and didnt know the details (I would opt for someone in the existing team now), we did not have clear sop's and targets (so marketing spend was looked at instead of in control), he was not the entrepreneur (so 5pm was 5pm). Ofcouse this was my bad by preparing his job poorly. And I was so happy he came in that I jumped out 😉 and trusted the process 😅 where I should have checked it continuosly. If I should be in the same situation, I should rather hire an operational Manager/wingman.

#ask-the-community - June 27, 2025 at 08:01 AM

@Nick Marsden we're also at Monta and they're also located in the UK. Indeed not the cheapest, but they never let us down in 10 years and they are taking good care for their employees. I really think it is impressive. So, one of my best partners in business 😀

#ask-the-community - June 26, 2025 at 06:05 PM

Hi all! Does anyone know a good freight forwarder from Turkey? Fast and reliable?

#ask-the-community - June 26, 2025 at 12:51 PM

Thanks Kasper! Will take that one as a learning ✅

#ask-the-community - June 26, 2025 at 12:46 PM

<@U091N6KK6BY> cheap solutions can be very nice for P&L. We're not using anything at the moment so I'm looking around for the best option here.

#ask-the-community - June 26, 2025 at 12:37 PM

<@U091N6KK6BY> what made you choose for Richpanel over Gorgias?

#ask-the-community - June 26, 2025 at 12:19 PM

Hi @George very good question! I'm also looking for 1 app to combine customer questions of all our channels. We work with a customer agent in Suriname via Upwork. She works 12 hrs per week for around 800 shopify orders a month.

#ask-the-community - June 23, 2025 at 10:17 AM

@Koen van der List we started on Plus until I visited a life event of Ecom Fuel in the US. The US store owners thought it was really funny that we paid 2k for Plus/month where they all worked with Advance. I think the 'plus' would not be in the better CR rate but more in the hours you spend if you have several countries to manage. Than Plus can be helpful. We downgraded to Advance and did not see any difference (ah we did see it; in the P&L ;))

#ask-the-community - June 16, 2025 at 07:40 AM

Thanks @Gaia Tonanzi <@U08HMSS5FSB> I've used Gallagher (they do indeed US entities) and I've used leaderteam.ro but they only do US entities as a part of the EU entity and that makes it a little fuzzy.. The thing is that Leaderteam quoted at 20% of Gallaghers price, so yeah... 😅

#ask-the-community - June 15, 2025 at 06:41 AM

Thanks <@U08HMSS5FSB>

#ask-the-community - June 13, 2025 at 08:26 AM

Hey all! I'm looking for a (US) broker for the general liability insurance of our US entity. Does anyone have a recommendation? Prices vary greatly 😅 Thanks!!

#supply-chain - June 10, 2025 at 08:55 AM

<@U08JK12T422> I use Sellerboard connected to Shopify for the margins. You can adjust the COGS per date when prices are changing.

#tech-stack - June 06, 2025 at 03:09 PM

@Isobel Ridley - Lavender Hill Clothing @Patrick Crowley thanks!!!

#ask-the-community - June 05, 2025 at 03:51 PM

Hey all! Is anyone using AI to manage major processes in their company? Things like customer service, content planning, cash flow planning, stock planning, photoshoots, buying, or self-filling stores?
I'm really curious to hear about it! 🤓

#ask-the-community - June 05, 2025 at 10:38 AM

@Vilmar Bliekendaal right! we also had insta accounts for DE FR IT... tooooo much work.

#supply-chain - June 04, 2025 at 11:16 AM

<@U087S058V4Y> which company do you use for air shipments from China?

#supply-chain - June 04, 2025 at 11:15 AM

We were at Ziegler, but are testing Import4you know. They are cheaper than Ziegler.

#meta-ads - June 04, 2025 at 10:18 AM

We tried automatic campaigns to harvest low hanging fruit keywords, but it performs so well that we are testing in BE if we can fully work with automatic campaigns. If that works out we will also do NL that way.

#meta-ads - June 04, 2025 at 10:16 AM

<@U08HMSPPXFH> Bol does it for you 😉

#meta-ads - June 04, 2025 at 10:15 AM

Also interesting; my kids of 14 and younger think meta is for boomers, so if Tiktok offers this feature I would step in right away.

#meta-ads - June 04, 2025 at 10:11 AM

I think it can work for sure. We also see it working in Bol. There we have automated campaigns that are outperforming our consultants (with a rate of €100/hr.)

#ask-the-community - June 04, 2025 at 10:07 AM

@Fred - Out'n'About We prefer real photo's with real humans. That's mainly because we sell children products where I believe the right emotion and product details are very important. But I also hear good experiences with Upwork for rendering for stuff like sportswear or machines. You can just send iphone photo's from the factory and they render it too professional images.

#ask-the-community - June 03, 2025 at 08:18 AM

@Fred - Out'n'About thanks for the share! We have 1 solid partner in China and indeed negotiated better terms for the coming seasons. But 100 days after shipping sounds even better 😉

#ask-the-community - June 02, 2025 at 04:16 PM

@Kasper - LABFRESH thanks!! We do have an overdraft at the bank, but that's also expensive. We also work with pre-orders and customers are really willing to pay upfront. This could maybe be also interesting for you. Especially when you have more female customers. If they want it, they want it 😅 can be also quite challenging for our customer service (extra questions) and if you deliver later than expected they will be extra disappointed.

#ask-the-community - May 31, 2025 at 02:39 PM

I have a huge new customer with 25 stores, so we need to speed things up here 😉

#ask-the-community - May 31, 2025 at 02:35 PM

@Kasper - LABFRESH thanks! And what made you choose for another option? Too expensive?

#meta-ads - May 30, 2025 at 07:53 PM

We just started with Advance Media from Groningen 2 weeks ago. They are down to earth and fast, will see how results develop. The freelancers we had were already 2 years working for us and became kind of slow/not accurate enough.

#meta-ads - May 30, 2025 at 07:51 PM

We use Kendall in combination with Sellerboard to double check the netto margins per day for our Shopify store.

#ask-the-community - May 30, 2025 at 07:44 PM

<@U08AG6NPG11> in my experience the german market had a way higher cpc? Because more brands are bidding on the #1 position? (at least in Google and Amazon)

#ask-the-community - May 30, 2025 at 07:42 PM

Thanks @Micha Medendorp 🙏 I also found this one today: thisisocean.com, does anyone have experience with them? Sounds interesting.

#ask-the-community - May 30, 2025 at 12:14 PM

@Patrick Crowley thanks!

#ask-the-community - May 30, 2025 at 11:28 AM

Hi everyone!
I'm looking for experiences and advice when it comes to inventory financing. Does anyone have recommendations for inventory financing solutions with a term of 3-4 months, ideally at a reasonable interest rate and without requiring too much time for due diligence?
I've sometimes wondered whether it's possible to use ‘factoring’ for purchase stock invoices instead of sales invoices, essentially, having someone buy our inventory and us buying it back on a monthly basis, with a fee based on the COGS or even achieved ROI. As far as I know, that kind of setup doesn't exist yet. It could be pretty nice because a ‘buyer’ could see the volume and margins in the Sellerboard app of the past year(s). So risk is low. (From my point of view 😉) Thanks!

#ask-the-community - May 28, 2025 at 07:59 AM

<@U08AT406ZD0> @Micha Medendorp I did choose to use the brandname worldwide indeed, we sell in EU and US. I also bought Ukje.com a few years ago... 😉 so then I had to follow the chosen path. Customers in the US say it sounds cute and a little bit nordic 😉 so mission accomplished. So we will not use another brandname.

#ask-the-community - May 27, 2025 at 04:16 PM

<@U08AT406ZD0> our brand is named Ukje which is hard to pronounce for an english speaking person. It means baby in Dutch and that's exactly where we make our products for. I choose to use it worldwide 😉

#ask-the-community - May 27, 2025 at 08:33 AM

@Sierd Zijlstra I would be interested too! We are on shopify

#supply-chain - May 21, 2025 at 07:25 AM

And for China - US air freight?

#linkedin-love - April 22, 2025 at 11:28 AM

Hi all! We've launched our Ukje resale store today and shared the big news on Linkedin: http://bit.ly/3Y6qP9O This might be interesting for your ecom brand as well! Let me know if you like to have more information.