From Online Store to Marketplace with a Single, All-in-One eCommerce Platform

Standaard Boekhandel (SB) is one of the oldest and largest bookstore chains in Belgium, with over 150 stores and annual sales reaching €200 million.

Case Study Overview

Standaard Boekhandel (SB) is one of the oldest and largest bookstore chains in Belgium, with over 150 stores and annual sales reaching €200 million.

Years after launching the first online store to strengthen its online presence, the company embarked on an ambitious journey to expand its business model beyond traditional retail. The SB team aimed to transform their store into a full-fledged marketplace by allowing external merchants (i.e., publishers) to sell their products. This required jumping from 4M to 15M+ SKUs in a matter of months.

However, the legacy ecommerce system prevented smooth scaling and caused operational disruptions. Its ERP system couldn’t handle real-time inventory updates across online and offline channels, making it difficult to provide fast and accurate product availability for customers.

To tackle this complex marketplace transformation, SB chose Virto Commerce and delaware IT consulting firm to build a truly scalable and adaptable ecommerce platform and avoid future replatforming.

Today, SB’s marketplace processes 1,000+ daily orders, handles data from 200+ offline stores with continuous updates to 25M+ product SKUs and stock levels from offline and online channels.

Virto’s Commerce Innovation Platform empowers long-term innovation and equips Standaard Boekhandel to adapt to any digital commerce changes in the future.