Humlegårdens Ekolager (Hops farm) - "I didn't have a thought of starting the company in the first place" - Textalk Abicart

Humlegårdens Ekolager was not only the first in Sweden to bring in products for breweries, they have also influenced the entire Swedish development of small-scale beer brewing. Since its inception, they have been the leader in their market in Sweden and have made an incredibly awesome journey. Below you can read Svante Ekelin's story about Humlegården's journey:

From hobby business to market leader 

What do you sell in your shop?
We sell high quality raw materials, equipment and literature for advanced home brewers and small breweries. In the beginning when we started our company, there were less than 10 breweries in Sweden and very few individuals brewing beer as a hobby. But over the last 10-12 years, a lot has happened, both brewing and homebrewing as a hobby has grown enormously and it has been very cool that we have been able to be part of that journey. Today there are around 500 breweries in Sweden and the homebrewing hobby has grown enormously in recent years.

You only sell your products on the web, have you ever thought about setting up a physical store in addition?
We have considered offering our customers a physical store as it can be nice but our niche and market caters to a rather small target group that is spread all over Sweden. This has led us to the conclusion that an e-commerce is a better fit for our products. However, if you live nearby, our customers have the option of coming to our customer reception and picking up their order from our warehouse. So we don't offer shelf sales but you can at least choose pick up from our warehouse as a delivery method. In the beginning we took orders via email given that the web was not that developed yet and after a few years I found a shopping cart solution that we used. But it had some shortcomings, for example it didn't keep track of the stock balance so every day we had to manually upload a new file to maintain the stock and customers could only pay by invoice and postal advance.

What is the best thing about running your own business and online store?
The best thing about running your own business is that you can influence your own life and you can work with your interest. In our case, we also got to influence the whole Swedish development in small-scale beer brewing and it has been a very fun and interesting experience. For me it started as a hobby, I discovered that you could get really good beer by brewing it yourself. I didn't have a thought of starting the company from the beginning but when we discovered that there was a shortage in the market, it was my wife Eva who came up with the idea that we should start a company and offer this niche to the Swedish market. We started our company back in 1992 so we were very early, this was before the web took off which meant we had to be persistent in the beginning. But the positive thing about it all was that we were the first in Sweden with this niche, which I think has contributed to us becoming as big as we have become.

Why did you choose Abicart as your e-commerce platform?
When we wanted to invest in a more advanced webshop solution in 2009, we did thorough research to find the platform that suited us best and we ended up using Abicart. The reason we chose you was because it is an extremely affordable platform and we had just started using Specter as our business system and Abicart offers an integration that connects Specter and Abicart. This means that everything sold on the website automatically changes in the stock balance in real time, which we appreciate very much. This connection between Abicart and Specter was an important element for us and one of the reasons why we chose Abicart as our e-commerce platform. Another integration we use is Trustpilot and that is very important to us. We are very happy with Abicart as a platform and we have had it since 2009 without wanting to change.

Which of our subscriptions do you use and why?
We use the Pro subscription at Abicart and we have had it since the beginning I think. We've grown big in the last few years so for us it's absolutely essential to have that subscription to drive our business forward and to be able to use the integrations that we want and we get a lot for the money. Until now we have had a common online store for the homebrewers and for the small breweries but now we are creating a multi-store system. Abicart is helping us to develop a sub-store that will be entirely focused on breweries. So in a few weeks we will be running two webshops on Abicart's e-commerce platform, one for private customers and one for businesses. It will be exciting to see how this develops going forward.

Svante's best tips for others who want to start an online store:

My tip is to find something you are interested in and good at. You will benefit in the long run and your work will also be more fun if you have a genuine interest in what you are selling. If you combine that with products and a niche that is not so common so there are few established companies on the market, there are very good chances of establishing a large e-commerce business. 
Another important thing to consider when running an e-commerce business is customer service. You should always aim to keep the customer happy, especially when you are working towards a niche market. You are often unknown to new merchants and it is important to show that you are a company you can trust, for example by sharing your reviews on Trustpilot. This provides reassurance to new visitors and customers. 

Take a look at Humlegården's cosy online store!