myShop

"WorldEmp's method is aimed at doing it together. That's been embraced with us. We don't just want to outsource work in a low-wage country, they have really become colleagues."

- Marcel Ambriola - Co-owner myShop

Get in contact

myShop

"WorldEmp's method is aimed at doing it together. That's been embraced with us. We don't just want to outsource work in a low-wage country, they have really become colleagues."

- Marcel Ambriola - Co-owner myShop

Get in contact

More and more companies are working together with colleagues and teams around the world. It is a beautiful development, but for colleagues of myShop.com this has long been the most normal thing in the world. Since the start of this company more than 20 years ago, an international team has been working together. And everything happens online and from home. "We started in the year 2000 under the name mijnWinkel.nl and switched to myShop.com in 2012. With our ecommerce platform, people can easily develop their own online store." explains Marcel Ambriola. He co-owns the company and has been at the helm since 2012. "Customers can open an account and thus come directly into a CMS, a content management system, this is also called the back office. In it, they easily build an online store and, for example, they can apply a design or corporate identity themselves, add products, choose a payment method and add shipping method."

The platform was developed for their own purpose and use, but because it has been around for over 20 years, the possibilities and the number of functionalities has also grown rapidly. "We increasingly notice that our customers and clients are looking for their own style and appearance and want to add many functionalities. This can make the development complex, but we can help with our team and partners."

The team of myShop.com is growing fast and is located all over the world. Finding staff abroad is not always easy but at myShop it has grown naturally. "It started with a colleague who lived in Groningen and wanted to see more of the world, so he moved to Argentina and continued to work remotely for us. That's where it actually started." Every time myShop grew and the next step in the company development arrived, the company searched for the best people through its own network. "Through our colleague in Argentina, for example, we found a lot of good people there and because we have always worked from home, that was no problem." myShop mainly sought new colleagues through their own network, until they bumped into WorldEmp. "Frank came by for an introductory meeting and explained the concept of WorldEmp. That appealed to us directly because we were looking for a number of experts who were difficult to find through our network." One was a full stack developer.

myShop has colleagues in Brazil, Argentina, Pakistan, Italy, the Netherlands and Romania. The expertise and function varies from country and colleague. "In Romania there is a partner who is responsible for a large part of the web development. They build the templates for our platform and in Italy and Brazil there is part of the support team. And for the past two years we have been working with developers from India. The beauty of this concept is that we can indicate what we need, and WorldEmp starts recruiting, takes several interviews and then put together a shortlist for us. We only need to have a few more conversations and make a choice." In this way, myShop quickly found a suitable full stack developer and soon the second colleague will follow. "The great thing is that they really are colleagues who belong to your company. You're not outsourcing work but add someone to your team you will work with for a long time. In our case, it's been a year and a half."

Working with an international team can be a challenge, but at myShop they are not used to anything else. "Every morning we start our virtual office via zoom. One by one, we trickle in and go to work." The fact that not everyone starts at the same time depends on the different time zones. Marcel stresses that working together online is not so much aimed at controlling progress but above all it has a social function. "The mutual contact creates a team feeling. This is how we see and speak each other every day and the lines are equally short. With questions, we open a separate chat or live connection and we can easily deliberate." Of course, working remote and working from home also comes along with several challenges. "You have to handle a certain responsibility. You have to be able to work together remotely, but also be able to distance yourself. You are inclined to continue working on weekends. Sometimes I still get e-mails from colleagues on weekends, and this should not be the case!"

Marcel considers the time saving one of the great advantages. "Recruiting new staff takes much less time and is easier through WorldEmp. In addition, we are very happy that our colleagues in India are working under good conditions." WorldEmp arranges a workplace for all colleagues abroad, including hardware and in an area with good public transport. "It is also important for us that people have normal working hours in addition to a nice office, with good lunch and sports facilities. So no working days of 12 hours a day or more, but just up to 9 hours so they can also spend enough time with their families. In addition, it is nice that they share an office, because in case of any questions they can also fall back on a team of experts." myShop will continue to grow considerably in the coming period and also makes use of the possibilities at WorldEmp. "Working from home is in our DNA, so this way of growing internationally suits us well."