Innovation Case Study:
Becloud e-Commerce by Belgacom
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Innovation
In March 2013, Belgacom launched its "Becloud eCommerce", a new product developed for SMEs and selfemployed customers who want to offer products or
services online but do not have the specific IT skills or a
huge budget. Becloud e-commerce is a cloud application
that enables SMEs to build their own customised
website/e-shop without much effort and technical
knowledge. It also integrates functions such as order,
delivery and payments.
Becloud e-Commerce is available from €20 per month
which is suitable for managing appointments and
reservations. A basic e-shop is available from €30 per
month. However, for more flexible and customizable eshop SMEs need to pay somewhat higher rates (depending
on the package they choose).
SMEs can also use payment and product delivery solutions
from Becloud e-Commerce partners at advantageous rates
(For payment option- €15/month + transaction fees).
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Service Provider
Success Matrix
Becloud was awarded as the
“Best
Cloud
Vendor”
in
Belgium in 2014 Channel
Awards (regarded as the
'Oscars' for the distribution
of ICT products in Belgium).
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Differentiation

An array of secured electronic payment options (Credit card, Bancontact, Paypal etc).

Integrated delivery option throughout the region.

Ability to build online shop with multiple languages.

Optimised for use on smartphone or tablet.

Tools to increase presence on web search results and social media such as Facebook and
Twitter.

30 day free trial without commitment.
Value Generation
In 2013, online sales in Belgium grew by 25.66% to reach EUR 1.91 billion. Furthermore,
89% of Belgians prefer to buy online. So from SMEs perspective, there is a huge potential
market in the e-commerce space. The value generation for Becloud e-commerce lies in
facilitating the SMEs to enter in to the online business. It does this by enabling them to create
an innovative and customised multi-language online shop, and to manage product portfolio,
order processing and physical delivery.
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Innovation: Uniqueness and Significance
Uniqueness
The service provides businesses with a cloud-based
platform on which they can offer new products and/or
services swiftly, while reducing operational cost and
without requiring a specific technical skill set.
Significance
Moderate mass market significance as this is an effort
by Belgacom to position itself appropriately to tap into
SME opportunities in its market.
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Technical Overview
Becloud is Belgacom’s cloud platform, which supports a range of managed services such as
hosting, housing and backup, web hosting, collaboration and application hosting. The Becloud
e-commerce application is built upon this cloud platform.
The range of e-Commerce products enables the SMEs or self-employed customers to create
fully-fledged online shops. Becloud e-Reservation is aimed at companies that work with
appointments or offer products or services that can be ordered. Becloud e-Shop is aimed at
companies that want to sell their products online and have them delivered to customers.
The products contain a payment module option which allows Internet customers to pay for
their purchases online via a wide choice of payment methods (credit card, Bancontact, Paypal,
etc.). In addition, a delivery module based on the GLS parcel business in Belgium makes it
possible for the purchases to be delivered. The customer can also personalize his website and
make it more visible via newsletters, promotion tools, links to social media, and functions for
stock management, delivery and billing.
It also use Search engine optimization (SEO) to place the website higher in the search results
of online search engines.
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Service Provider
Belgacom Group, a state owned incumbent, is the leading provider of telecommunications
services in Belgium. Belgacom Group offerings include fixed line communication through the
Belgacom brand, mobile communications through the Proximus brand and ICT services to the
professional market under the Telindus brand.
Partners
Becloud e-commerce is powered by ePages technology. ePages provides a platform for online
shops and more than 80,000 merchants across 70 countries are running professional websites
based on ePages products.
Belgacom also partnered with Docdata to take care of the online payments and GLS to take
care of the shipments. Docdata is a leading European provider of transaction-oriented
Internet services. GLS is one of the leading parcel service providers in Belgium. GLS with its
own national companies and partners covers 37 European countries and is connected to all
the major business centres of the world
Further information
http://www.becloud.be/en/becloud/Solutions-and-services/App-online/Becloud-ecommerce.html#.UwQytWKSy9Q
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