Web store Biocontrole: Fighting vermin via the Internet

Environmental awareness is the trend and a plague of insects is very annoying and sometimes disastrous for gardeners. Biocontrole from Wapserveen has been supplying biological pesticides for both the professional and amateur gardener for ten years. Metaware developed the new web store for Biocontrole, which seamlessly connects to the business processes of this flourishing enterprise in Drenthe.

The demand for biological products has been slowly rising for years. More and more farmers and growers make the switch to ecological farming. But ecological cultivation also means biological pest control. And that is where Biocontrole comes in. By using natural enemies, most plagues of insects can be quickly eradicated. Most people know that ladybirds are very effective in the battle against aphids. Other plagues can be fought in a similar, natural way. The government is also banning more and more chemical pesticides. And with time, pests also become resistant to chemicals.

Silvia Hellingman is a biological pesticide specialist and started Biocontrole in 1998. Recently her husband Guus joined the company as operational manager. He is now a fulltime employee of the company. For years, Silvia had been selling her products via a national distribution network of agricultural specialist stores. In the past, she mainly concentrated on professional gardeners. A few years ago, the service was extended with a web store, but it no longer met their needs. “Maintaining the website cost me too much time and we had to hire an external party. We also received the orders via e-mail, and processing these sometimes caused problems. Some e-mails got stuck in our spam filter,” says Guus Hellingman about the old situation. “We did not have an order form and customers couldn’t pay online.”

And that while the consumer market was becoming a growing sector in Biocontrole’s activities. “Hobby farmers also want to look after their garden in an environmentally-friendly way. And there are many sports clubs and golf courses that have to battle insects. The traditional garden centers usually do not have enough product knowledge and customers then go on the Internet to try and find solutions,” is Hellingman’s explanation about the rising demand. Now, a quarter of the turnover comes from the consumer market, and Hellingman expects this to rise even further. To meet the demand, Metaware developed a new web store, which on the one hand connected to the existing processes of Biocontrole and on the other hand was easier to maintain. “It is actually as easy as using a word processor. And we can now receive payments via iDeal,” says a very satisfied Hellingman. “I experienced the implementation of a new website from up-close in my previous career, and it was bedlam. The cooperation with Metaware was extremely good: short lines, quick actions.”

The new site went live in January and Biocontrole has already received countless positive responses. Also from the competition, according to Hellingman. “The amount of traffic to our site is not shocking yet, but we are getting more hits than last year. We are developing plans together with Metaware to improve the findability of Biocontrole on the Internet. We have to try and get higher up in the result lists of search engines. Hellingman is looking forward to spring. "That is when the gardening season starts.”

Visit the website www.biocontrole.nl