Welkoop’s Story: A Complete Digital Transformation

Welkoop, an award-winning retailer for pets and outdoor living, has experienced rapid growth in recent years. The 50+ year-old company has invested heavily in creating a modern customer journey. We spoke with IT Director Tim Holweg and Emixa’s Bart van Boven about this impressive digital transformation. What happened behind the scenes to make this possible? And where does Welkoop stand today?

Ambiteous Growth Paths

For many generations, Welkoop has been a well-known store for everything related to pets and outdoor living. In 2021, the retailer reinforced its ambition by focusing on improving omnichannel retail and customer experiences. Of course, the company already had a webshop, but a truly seamless experience between store, webshop, and emerging channels was still missing. On top of that, Welkoop had—and still has—ambitious growth plans. It was time to think about a future-proof IT strategy and system landscape. That’s where Emixa came in.

Making the Right Choices

Bart van Boven, Emixa’s omnichannel retail expert, explains: “We’ve helped many retailers make decisions about their IT architecture. Welkoop asked us to support the modernisation of its entire IT landscape. We organised a series of workshops with both IT and business teams, because IT decisions must align with business strategy, processes, and organisation.”

During several sessions facilitated by Emixa, the current system landscape was analysed, strategic options were compared, and a new direction was chosen. The outcome? A set of future-proof solutions combined with a smart integration layer across all channels. Emixa also assisted in selecting the right tools and partners.

A Massive Undertaking for Welkoop

The process revealed that several core systems needed replacing: the Product Information Management (PIM) system, the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, the Order Management System (OMS), the webshop, and all related integrations. The latter involved more than 150 integrations—a huge task. That’s when Tim Holweg stepped in as IT Director.

With a strong background in IT and retail, Tim had led many projects before. Still, this was a major challenge: “There was a huge roadmap ready. Welkoop was on the brink of a complete digital transformation. That also meant something for the IT team: they had to deliver the project while developing digital skills for the future.” Emixa stayed on board to guide the programme and manage sub-projects.

Getting the Basics right

Tim continues: “In essence, we had to rebuild Welkoop’s entire foundation. We immediately started with some basics: a secure internet environment for all company-owned and franchise stores, a solid cybersecurity policy, and replacing several core systems.”

Replacing a PIM, CRM, and OMS is no small feat. These systems form the backbone of many business processes. Changes here are not only technical—they also impact how people work day-to-day.

Impact Across the Organisation

Bart adds: “The impact on the organisation is enormous. When implementing such large-scale changes, you need not only specialised external expertise but also strong coordination and leadership. Emixa took on that role.”

Emixa managed the programme, safeguarded the target architecture, and set up governance. The team ensured decisions were prepared, made, and communicated to all stakeholders—from management to shop floor—keeping everyone involved throughout the process.

A unique challenge at Welkoop was that the people managing some core systems had already retired. Tim explains: “They were fortunately willing to return temporarily to share their knowledge and ensure a smooth transition. But that also shows how urgent this transformation was.”

A Smart Integration Layer

Alongside the go-live of CRM, PIM, and OMS, the integration layer was next. A new system had to replace around 150 separate integrations. This affected the entire organisation: logistics, finance, marketing, category management, customer service, and HR.

Bart: “An integration layer is a key component in your IT landscape. It ensures seamless exchange of product, customer, and transaction data—and enables that omnichannel customer experience, now and in the future.” Thanks to this new integration layer, Welkoop can easily add new systems, channels, and partners—essential in the fast-changing retail sector.

A Future-Proof Landscape

Tim: “We’ve worked hard on technical foundations, and now we’re at the stage where we can use our new applications to serve customers better.” Recently, the new webshop went live, offering far more possibilities: product bundles, delivery options, personalisation, loyalty programmes, improved searchability, and more.

Tim: “This allows us to serve today’s customer even better. Not only are we easily accessible online, but customers can also check product information and in-store stock availability online. Plus, the new webshop is not just a sales channel—it’s an inspiring platform for advice on gardening and pets.”

Advising Customers

This is what Welkoop is all about: providing practical products and expert advice to anyone who loves the outdoors or cares for animals. A great example is the watering advice service—a point in the store where staff advise customers on watering plants correctly.

Bart: “It really shows how Welkoop goes the extra mile to build customer loyalty. It was fantastic to be involved in creating such a service concept — from the initial idea to developing an app and testing it in-store.” The water management module is now live in all stores.

Smooth Delivery

After three years, Welkoop now has a future-proof IT landscape ready for the future. How does Tim look back on the collaboration? “Such a large programme affects everyone in the company. That’s why having Emixa on board was invaluable. Their consultants kept the business engaged and guided projects smoothly. They’re young, entrepreneurial types who completely took the burden off our shoulders. Brilliant!”

There is no such thing as an IT Project

What tips does Tim have for others embarking on such an intensive journey?

“You can’t just ‘do’ an IT project on the side—not even from the business perspective. There’s no such thing as an IT project: it belongs to all of us. That’s why it’s important to free up people from the business or accept that things may take longer. You really have to do it together!”

Next steps with AI

What’s next for Welkoop? Tim: “There’s still plenty on the agenda. A new data platform, for example. We’re also starting with AI. Last year, we joined Emixa’s Advanced Analytics Hackathon to improve our promotion forecasting using external variables like weather data. Because we’ve got our foundations in place, we can build on them. In short, we’re ready to grow even further!”