Written by Lotte Andkjær Christensen
Andlight is Europe's leading online retailer of high-end design. Based in Copenhagen, Andlight has been on a mission to guide people in their search for luxury lamps and other interior since 2007.
At Succeed Abroad 2023 in Copenhagen, we met up with Mads Saabye Jørgensen, CEO and Partner at Andlight. We spoke to him about some of the learnings from Andlight's impressive growth story now covering an international webshop alongside 13 localised webshops across Europe.
Among other things, we spoke about the allure of Germany. Mads mentioned how:
"Being able to succeed in Germany [is crucial], if you succeed, you have a really good business case" .
The sheer size of the German market makes it an attractive expansion target for lots of different brands and retailers why succeeding there is a strong indicator that you are doing something right, and that there is a demand for what you do.
For Andlight though, the interest was not just peaked by Germany. The Netherlands is a market very similar in taste and preferences to the Danish market in regards to design. With that in mind, being "able to succeed in a design-oriented market, with high competition, that was proof of concept for us" was something that Mads and his team also found to verify their business case. Even though the general preferences between the markets are similar, actually being able to enter, compete, and succeed there is a different story. Again, this further solidified Mads' and Andlight's belief in their brand being able to succeed abroad.
A solid foundation as been a key to success for Andlight, where everything from language to online shopping preferences and marketing is localised. Mads shares that, for Andlight, the first conversions come easy, perhaps because of the solid foundation the brand builds from day one. It's the further positioning and broadening of the brand that is difficult:
"You hit a roof, and then you have to expand the funnel and go broader, and that's where you have to be careful and be clever"
You can see the full interview with Mads from Andlight below: