Samenvatting

This research project is a requirement for the fulfilment of a bachelor’s degree in international business studies at the Hogeschool Utrecht. The study is an export plan for B2C Europe’s Spanish branch, and it is written to investigate if the branch could successfully expand its services to the European market. B2C Europe is an independent service provider of international distribution services and return shipping services, with a focus on European destinations. B2C Europe has multiple branches across Europe. They mainly focus on the distribution of mail and packages. Their customers are primarily online retailers, postal operators and efulfilment companies. What makes the topic of this thesis useful for the company is that the Spanish branch wants to expand its operations. The main question of the research project is: What are the opportunities and challenges for B2C Europe's Spanish branch to start exporting into European markets and if there is a market, how to penetrate this market? The sub-questions of the research are: 1. Who are B2C Europe's potential customers, and how to target them? 2. Who are B2C Europe's competitors, and how do they differentiate themselves from them? 3. What are the trends and expectations within the mail, package and freight delivery industry? 4. What export strategy would be most beneficial for B2C Europe's Spanish branch to implement? 5. How does the logistical structure of the company need to change to anticipate on the expansion to other markets? 6. What are the costs and benefits for B2C Europe's Spanish branch with the expansion into the European Markets? The first chapter of the report will be an introduction. The second chapter will be a literature review, here will be discussed what is already known about the problem 6 and what the limitations in the research are. The third chapter will be the methodology, here the research methods and research strategy will be discussed. The fourth chapter will be the findings and discussions, in this chapter facts and data of the findings of the research will be given and meaning will be given to the data. The fifth chapter will be conclusions, in this chapter no new information will be provided but conclusions will be made from the findings and discussions. In the sixth chapter recommendations will be given to the company.