Ramon Martinez Salmeron (Lleida, 1987) is the CEO of Dentaltix.com, which has experienced great growth since its foundation in 2014. With more than 400,000 available references, Dentaltix expects to reach a turnover of 7 million euros in 2019, after closing 2018 with nearly four million invoiced.
To learn a little more about this eCommerce and its future plans, we have spoken with Ramón.
Interview to Ramon Martinez Salmeron, Dentaltix
You founded Dentaltix in 2014: even though it was only 4 years ago, eCommerce has actually changed a lot since then. How do you remember that time? Why did you decide to found Dentaltix?
I remember 2014 as a time of a lot of illusion for launching a new project.
When we started we had very little competition, there were very few distributors who sold online or who considered e-commerce as a relevant channel. In return, at that time we had to evangelize a lot, since there was still a lot of distrust on the part of customers to buy online and to enter their payment data on a website.
For example, in 2014 the percentage of orders by credit card was less than 20%, because customers preferred to pay by bank transfer, although the order takes longer to arrive that way, so as not to enter their bank details on the web. This year, the percentage of orders by credit card will be more than 70%.
Once it was launched, how were the first few months? Was there a time when you thought that Dentaltix was not going to succeed?
The first months were exciting but hard, because from the first moment we set out to finance the company with sales without using external financing. So we had to be super careful with spending, and at first, Bea (co-founder of Dentaltix) and I had to do everything for very little.
Still, launching the project without external funding was the right decision, because it has imbued the company with a austerity culture That allows us to be more efficient.
With all this experience… what would be your top piece of advice for someone thinking of launching their own digital business?
My main advice is that when you go to launch, try as cheaply as possible before doing so. Almost all digital businesses can be tested for viability with virtually no investment. Once they have proven the viability of the business, my advice would be to Reserve 90% of the budget you intend to invest in the project for marketingthat is what will allow them to grow.
How is the profile of your users? What type of products are the most purchased? What is the average ticket?
Our clients are dental clinics of all kinds, from small one-office clinics to chains with 40 or 50 clinics. At Dentaltix we have available more than 40,000 different productsbut the best sellers are consumables (latex gloves, disposable bibs, composites, etc.).
Working with professional clients, our average order has 8 products and we have an average receipt of more than €200.
Are they loyal customers? What kind of loyalty policies do you carry out?
Customer loyalty is the main focus of the companywe make a great effort to always try to meet delivery deadlines, provide exquisite customer service and have a stock of all the products that a clinic may need.
In addition to this, we have launched Dentaltix Pro, a purchase management software that allows the clinic to automate its orders, know its stock in real time and have a flat shipping rate in exchange for a very affordable monthly fee.
You have a presence in France, the United Kingdom and Italy. What differences are there between customers in these countries and those in Spain?
Each country has its peculiarities, and we have been realizing them over time. Customers from outside Spain normally have higher acquisition costs, because eCommerce is more mature in the UK than in Spain, but they also tend to place higher orders, because selling from Spain we are very competitive in price in those countries.
Will you continue with your expansion in the short term?
That is the idea, since we started the company, practically every year we have doubled the sales of the previous year, and for next year the goal is the same. The plan is to consolidate growth in the markets where we are already present and open Portugalwhich is a market that makes a lot of sense by sending the products from Spain.
What would you say is Dentaltix’s main competitive advantage? What do you do better than others?
Our main competitive advantage is being digital “pure players”, which makes us very agile and face the problems of the sector in a different way. We are helping to digitize a fairly traditional sector. We invest a lot in facilitating dental clinic purchases using technology, something that has not been done in the sector until now.
All online stores wait (and fear) the moment when a giant like Amazon enters their market niche. How do you assess this situation in your case?
I’m sure Amazon will eventually enter the dental market, though there is still time, since it is a very niche sector, with many references, where specialization is important.
Furthermore, this is a market in which prescription and customer advice are very important. At Dentaltix we are specialists in dental products and we can give that advice. That has been one of our focuses so far and will continue to be in the future.
Imagine that you could travel back in time: what advice would you give to the Ramón of 2008?
My main advice would be make decisions faster. I have rarely regretted the decisions I have made, but I have regretted having taken too long to make them.
Let’s do a bit of futurology: what headline would you like to read in Marketing4eCommerce in a year?
I would love to read that eCommerce continues to grow in Spain and that Dentaltix has beaten its forecasts for 2019
And a little more difficult: imagine that we take a leap forward in time: how do you imagine Dentaltix in 2023?
Our main objective with Dentaltix is to have a real long-term impact in improving the management of dental clinics. Our aspiration is that in 2023, Dentaltix will be a European benchmark for innovation in eCommerce.
Quick Quiz:
- What is the first social network you open in the day? I’m not much of… The first thing I open in the morning is the analytics, to see how many orders there have been that night!
- iOS or Android? iOS
- App or website? Web
- In which eCommerce and how long ago did you make your last online purchase? In Barrabés, a week ago.
- And it was? a climbing rope
- Last book read?
- Recommend us a fiction series
- What is your favorite thing to do that has nothing to do with digital? Climbing is an excuse to escape to the countryside as soon as I can.
- Let’s spin a magic chain: Which acquaintance of yours (from another company) do you think we should interview? Why? To Jose Carlos Cortizo from Brainsins, because he always has a good anecdote about e-commerce or to Lakil Essady from Crawlo, who of the people I know is the one who knows the most about eCommerce.
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