Alex Trelinski
AN ILL WIND like this year’s Covid-19 pandemic in Spain has blown in some new opportunities for businesses to expand including the Costa Blanca-based online furniture dealer, Don Baraton, with all of their great deals right now on their English language website: https://donbaraton.es/en/
Don Baraton has a showroom in Almoradi(near Torrevieja) which is open to the public in addition to its large and expanded warehouse facility in Rafal for its extensive online operation.
The company started trading in 2015, and despite the fact that it was growing fast, the ironic effect of Spain’s lockdown from March to May was that it helped trade to go through the roof.
Things were quiet in mid-March as the State of Alarm started but it didn’t take long for customers to realise that life had not ended, as orders started to come in like crazy.
Home delivery was never curbed by the lockdown measures, and that meant that Don Baraton could continue business as normal, along with the necessary protection measures like wearing masks.
People were forced to spend more time at home and they started to pay more attention to what was around them.
The company discovered that they suddenly wanted new sofas, beds, mattresses and other furniture items.
With the traditional stores all closed due to the State of Alarm, from April onwards, Don Baraton discovered that they had lots of new customers, who were mostly Spaniards doing their first ever bit of online shopping!
Company co-founder, Andrew Cherkashin said: “It was quite extraordinary as the new customers needed a lot of support as because they had never used the internet to buy anything, let along expensive items like furniture.”
“Paying between €500 and €2000 in advance was a bit scary for most of them, and we spent hours explaining how to pay with a card or how to make a bank transfer from the comfort of their home!”
To add to the hectic times for the Don Baraton team, the company that provided customers with credit walked away due to the economic uncertainty caused by the lockdown and Don Baraton had to find another provider, which they successfully did.
Andrew continued: “Having a lot of products in stock ready for immediate delivery helped us a great deal, as well as giving customers quick access to their orders.”
“With factories closed during the lockdown, we took the fundamental decision to clear our showroom display on a temporary basis so that we could get as much furniture in as quickly as possible to keep up with the online boom.”
With some sense of normality returning in recent weeks, Don Baraton’s Almoradi showroom has reopened in addition to the new warehouse stretching over 1200 square metres to hold as much stock as possible.
Don Baraton now delivers to anywhere in Spain, Andorra, Portugal and France, and with increased business, delivery is quicker as the vans can take three to four orders to one area.
Andrew Cherkasin explained that the delivery side of the operation was developed by themselves in order to meet the highest possible standards.
“We now deliver the majority of orders ourselves with a team of several delivery men. We just couldn’t find any reasonably priced and fast delivery services that we could hire, so we decided to do it ourselves.”
“Delivering a 200 kilo item is not as easy as delivering a single kilo one, especially if it all needs assembling when it arrives at our customer´s home. But rest assured that we have all the expertise needed to get things sorted, be it big or small.”
The economic downside of the coronavirus pandemic was that the share of British expat customers fell by around 30 per cent, but that was heavily compensated by the massive boom in Spanish trade.
“We miss our expat customers who are not able to come to Spain and we hope that the situation will get better soon,” Andrew added.
One way of getting them buying is the Don Baraton deferred delivery service, which is proving to be very popular as Andrew explained:
“You place an online while in the UK or any other country and then we deliver the item on a set date when you are back in Spain. Many products are in stock but some require some more time for delivery and so it is a good idea to order in advance, especially if you are ordering a series of items, which can then be delivered and installed all at once”
The deferred service also gives peace of mind to customers out of Spain with so much uncertainty over travel rules and restrictions.
Andrew Cherkashin added; “If a customer is stuck in the UK, then we will hold their order in our warehouse until they can get over. And don’ forget that if a home owner has a key holder, then we can still make delivery arrangements.”
Whatever kind of furniture you are after, have a look at what Don Baraton can do for you via the website https://donbaraton.es/en/ or phone 634 167 957.
