12 jan 2012Thuiswinkel.org increases members by almost a quarter

Lots of small webshops have joined the pressure group

Ede, 12 January 2012 - In 2011 the total number of members of Thuiswinkel.org grew by 21% in comparison with the previous year. In 2010 the association that promotes the interests of webshops in the Netherlands had 1,193 members. On the 1st January 2012 this number had increased by nearly a quarter to 1,449 members. Ed Nijpels, chairman of Thuiswinkel.org, announced these figures during the New Year's Reception held by the association for webshops in the Netherlands.

The number of smaller webshops among the members of Thuiswinkel.org is particularly noticeable. As Ed Nijpels, chairman of Thuiswinkel.org, puts it: 'If we include candidate-members, then 48% of all members of Thuiswinkel.org have a turnover of less than 100,000 euro and 80% of all members have a turnover of less than 1 million euro. A very large number of small webshops, from starters to the smaller webshops, are consciously opting for our quality requirements and finding their way to our association. This means that the members of our association form a true representation of commercial relations.'

Large group of candidate-members
In 2011 16% of members were candidate-members. These are starter webshops that do not as yet have annual figures. Candidate membership can be converted to 'normal' full membership, by the latest within 2 years, by means of a financial verification. In 2011, 27 (63%) of the 43 webshops in this position managed to convert their candidate-membership to full membership.

Thuiswinkel.org parted company with 203 members during 2011. Almost half of this group (49%) had ceased their business activities. Thuiswinkel.org terminated the membership of 38 members because they did not fulfil the certification requirements of the Thuiswinkel Waarborg. Fewer than 20 members (10%) terminated their membership for financial reasons and two webshops were declared bankrupt.

Dynamic and growing market
Thuiswinkel.org expects the number of its members to grow in 2012, just as in all previous years since its inception in 2000. Ed Nijpels: 'This is an enormously dynamic, growing market in which we operate, with an abundance of opportunities for starting entrepreneurs. In times of economic crisis, our branch emerges as solid and manages to keep on coming up with positive figures. Employment opportunities in e-commerce are also increasing in the Netherlands. As a result, e-commerce is increasingly becoming an important economic motor. 'Out in the marketplace, Thuiswinkel.org provides a safe home-base for webshops that want to distinguish themselves qualitatively in the market', says Nijpels.

Thuiswinkel.org feels it is their mission to extend their role in promoting the interested of webshops even further during 2012. Ed Nijpels: 'This is a new sector we are dealing with, in which a lot still has to be discovered and recorded. For example, we spent years working towards a good and reliable payment system for consumers. It is partly due to our efforts that iDEAL has become what it now is: the most frequently used and favourite online means of payment. There are currently numerous matters at stake, such as our recent appeal to Dutch municipalities to take webshops – as new retailers – into account in their zoning plans and our efforts to realise proper cookie legislation that takes the interests of webshops into account as well as the rights of consumers', says Nijpels.