E-commerce has hit the food market with great force since last year. And to stay. But it is a still very unknown market where prices are not controlled as in other more massive ones. On MadeinSpain We are very clear about it: the most important thing is to reach the largest critical mass of people possible.

• Things have changed
• New playing field and new rules
• MadeinSpain.store: adaptable solutions for gourmet products

Flashback from my first time walking into a deli in Barcelona more than 20 years ago. Everything seemed from another planet, products that I had never seen elsewhere, and such extensive ranges of cheeses that just reading what they were made of made my mouth water. And when I came to see the prices ..., I almost lost the desire to continue looking at them. He made a great effort, on special occasions, and bought something, but it was impossible to shop there on a regular basis. This is how the idea was created that gourmet products were only for a minority with comfortable economic capacity and little else. The worst thing is that I remember that the most relevant products were always foreign. They seemed like the star products, the ones that should not be missing on our tables if we were talking about gourmet products. How wrong we were. And how sorry we are now that we row to reduce the distances with Italy and France!

Because it must be admitted that we are still very far from them in the positioning of our products -not in quality-, but that is the least of it when we are far behind in the heads of European buyers. And in terms of numbers, in sales, we are even further behind if possible.

Things have changed

However, factors such as the pandemic, healthy food, wanting to know the origin of the products, the enormous information that we have more every day, and in addition to the social networks that have democratized information, the scenario has changed 180 degrees. Now you can buy gourmet gastronomic products in optimal conditions on the internet. At last we have the network of networks at our fingertips. But then, why haven't gourmet brands sold like crazy through this channel?

Certainly, there has been an online revolution and there has been a great increase in sales and sellers through this medium, what happens is that it is done without regulation and without order. The Internet is not only about putting products for sale on websites, market places, Amazon, etc. Is much more!!

And since all the players come together on the same field, many get upset, because they want to play in the same place on the field. Error!!! In addition, we are a country that only see something when the one next to it has it, on the other hand, if we look with more perspective, we would see that what is about to be taken is much more attractive than what the other one has already taken.

New playing field and new rules

There are physical stores that are doing the double game, and I understand it, because they have the captive customer of the store, and they expand with the new one that does not come to the place, but may not even know that establishment, even if it is very emblematic. This has an important handicap, it usually works with good margins because the physical store worked like that, and online it makes a “copy & paste”, having normally high prices so as not to do the job. Hara-kiri with the physical store. And it also has another geographical limitation, that of selling almost exclusively in the national market. Although he can do it internationally, he does not consider it because he does not enter an eleven-yard shirt. The known good is better than tourist to know and above all that they speak in another language, uf what an effort, no please, we leave that to Italians and French, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The producers do not have it better, they can put the best price, they are the producers, but in many cases they do not want to compete with the distributors and stores so as not to have problems. And although internationally many times the same thing happens to them, fear of the distributor, some are more courageous and they do go ahead. The problems derived from this channel: that they do not usually invest in the brand and in international digital marketing and everything is left to chance, and that the effort that must be made to generate this way does not seem to be attractive enough for now.

MadeinSpain.store: adaptable solutions for gourmet products

We have been analyzing the market for almost 3 years now, and we did not launch ourselves until last year, knowing that the pandemic would distort our strategy on the one hand, and on the other it would accelerate the strategies that were the right ones. And what we were clear about was that we would think and act as final buyers, as consumers. Because there is nothing worse than wanting to sell something of high quality, a person who would never eat it or buy it.

What the internet provides is privacy and optimization of the time to carry out procedures. A rational / irrational purchase such as gourmet products (both are valid according to our mood and needs to be covered), means that we should invest a good part of our time to travel to different places to buy and then go home with that purchase. Time, travel, conversations in line until it's your turn, and then go back home loaded with purchases. That is if you have been able to find what you wanted in the places you have gone to buy. Or if you only go to one store, you have to settle for what they offer, without being able to discover new products if they do not bring them to promote them.

The ideal is to be able to buy relaxed in front of your computer or mobile, with all the possible information of each product and the ease of receiving everything at home and in the quantities that you want. That is what we propose in MadeinSpain.store, buy only what you want, but without geographical restrictions, and under the recommendation of people who have tried all the products and who will not push you to buy what is in stock.

We have already selected the producers and their products, and what we could not do is what made me angry when I was young: stick with the prices because you can buy them at the unit. We want people to know the Spanish gourmet products, and also that they can buy them, so we adjust prices, we agree better with the producers and we work as a team so that the community eager for these products grows every day and we are many more who demandOnly the best of Spain.!

If we are succeeding in Spain where we are discovering a niche of people who want to eat very well and regularly, imagine in Europe that they love our gastronomy when they come to Spain, they simply hallucinate with what we offer them online and directly to their homes.

Thus, eating Spanish quality and gourmet products well is becoming easier, and in MadeinSpain you can discover it from the first moment. Because for us each client is a salesperson / recommender for tomorrow. So we make an effort to talk to them if they want or need it, through all the channels we have open: whatsapp, telephone and email.

We have already helped many Madein Spain Lovers, and every day we are more, you don't want to be left out of our community, right? We await you with open arms, because sharing is an essential value for us and our producers.

AUTHOR: Israel Romero, CEO of Made in Spain Gourmet.