Processes optimized, turnover quintupled: Kalitec’s success story
When Kai Lindemann founded Kalitec in Solingen in 2006, he focused entirely on online sales – at a time when e-commerce was still a niche market. Today, the company supplies electromechanical components to customers throughout Europe. What began as a small project has developed into a successful business with 30 employees. A growth that would hardly have been possible without JTL software. We visited Kalitec and spoke to Kai about how he managed to increase his turnover fivefold in just a few years – and why he relies on the JTL ecosystem.
JTL: Hello Kai. What exactly do customers find in the Kalitec store?
Kai: We mainly sell cable lugs and connectors for electrical connections, for example for battery cables. If you open the hood of your car, you will see black hoses with plugs and cables. We can supply all of that.
JTL: When did you start with e-commerce?
Kai: We started directly with e-commerce in 2006 – at a time when online retail was still in its infancy. We worked our way up step by step and made a name for ourselves in the industry.
JTL: How did you come to use the JTL software?
Kai: As we continued to grow, we realized very clearly that our processes were no longer efficient enough. We were printing out eBay orders and typing them back into the system by hand – try doing that with 300 orders a day! We even had to create the parcel labels manually – complete madness! At some point, it became clear that we needed something more professional. After we switched to the ERP system JTL-Wawi, it was like a turbo for our growth. The process optimizations in the warehouse and the ability to list many more items on different sales channels really pushed us forward.
JTL: What has changed for you since the introduction of JTL?
Kai: When we started JTL, we had a team of eight to ten people. Today we’re 30 – and that’s within the last eight years. Our turnover has increased fivefold. Before that, we had been stagnating at a sales level for years. Thanks to the opportunities that JTL offered us, things really went through the roof.
Which JTL solutions do you use?
Kai: Basically, we use everything that JTL offers – except the mobile POS app JTL-POS, because we don’t have a brick-and-mortar store. However, if we had a store, we would certainly use it too. We are completely part of the JTL ecosystem, and the fact that everything comes from a single source is simply ideal.
Since using JTL, the warehouse has been running efficiently and smoothly.
JTL: Of the subsidiaries in the JTL Group, you also use the GREYHOUND ticket system, right?
Kai: Exactly. All our customer inquiries and emails go through GREYHOUND. Inquiries are automatically assigned to the relevant departments. We don’t have to forward internal emails either, we can simply assign them to a colleague. This means they disappear directly from my inbox without having to deal with an eternally long email history. This makes communication within the team incredibly efficient.
JTL: And you do your international VAT with countX?
Kai: That’s right! We’ve been working with Amazon FBA for about a year and had planned to store the goods in Poland and the Czech Republic and work with countX for orders of 1,000 or more per month. That went faster than we thought – we were ready after just one month.
What particularly impressed me about countX: Within three months, we had all the tax numbers for all Amazon warehouse countries. Since then, rocket mode has been activated on Amazon. Working with countX is super easy. I receive email reminders for all to-dos such as upcoming payments. There is also a dashboard in the customer menu where the most important information is summarized. We have currently integrated all countries in which Amazon has warehouses into countX. If another country is added, countX will also take care of the next tax number. It is simply reassuring to have the whole issue outsourced.
JTL: Despite the high order volume, you only have two packing tables. How do you manage that?
Kai: It works because we work in a very process-optimized way. Every one to two years, we have our warehouse processes checked and optimized by the certified JTL service partner go eCommerce. The collaboration is great. If we need individual adjustments, go eCommerce implements them quickly. This keeps us efficient and saves us unnecessary work steps.
When we started with JTL, we had a team of eight to ten people. Today we are 30.
JTL: Almost every employee at your company works with JTL, right?
Kai: Yes, exactly. In the warehouse, our colleagues use the warehouse management software JTL-WMS. The office staff enter the orders. Even our content department uploads Amazon listings via JTL-Wawi. The system is easy to use, and that’s important to me. For example, the CN23 documents for export are created automatically. It couldn’t be simpler.
JTL: And what’s next for you?
Kai: We are currently looking at whether we can expand. A change of location is on the cards. Thanks to JTL’s flexibility, the move will be easy for us because we can adapt our processes quickly.
Thank you very much for the interview and good luck!
