Make a Bear has been bringing love and cuddles to you for a number of years now. Over the years, the website www.maakeenbeer.be has grown. Not only have more soft toys and outfits been added, but translations too. The website has attracted more visitors, and Make a Bear’s eco-friendly soft toys have proved very popular, and not just in Belgium. In addition, there were also a great many changes taking place behind the scenes. And eventually, these became too much to manage.
MAKE A BEaR EUROPEAN
Across Europe, people are looking for the ‘Build-a-Bear at Home’ concept offered by Make a Bear. We can see this from the website visitors who come from all over the continent and the enquiries that follow. To give all those people from other countries the chance to enjoy Make a Bear soft toys, we translated the website into English last year. This made the website more accessible to people who weren’t from Belgium or the Netherlands. As a result, we soon found ourselves not only sending soft toys to Belgium and the Netherlands, but also receiving orders from Germany and Luxembourg.
MARKETS AND EVENTS
The Make a Bear website wasn’t just an online shop where you could place orders. It also served as the catalogue and stock management system. Without the website, people often didn’t know what to order, and it wasn’t clear how much stock was left of each item. The website has therefore always been the backbone of Make a Bear. This was also the case at markets and events.
When we were out and about with the caravan, the website was absolutely vital. It allowed us to show people what we had in stock, all the different cuddly toys available, but also simply to get in touch with Make a Bear.Wanneer we met de caravan op pad waren, was de website enorm belangrijk. Om mensen te tonen wat we allemaal op voorraad hadden, welke knuffels allemaal mogelijk waren, maar ook gewoon om contact te zoeken met Make a Bear.Â
AND THEN IT ALL WENT WRONG
Maakeenbeer.be had been experiencing growing pains for some time. And in March 2026, things went completely wrong. The website had to be moved to a new hosting provider but never went live with the new hosting partner. Make a Bear was no longer accessible at that point.
WITH THANKS TO 2MPROVE
Fortunately, we’d already been working on a new website for a while. Just as the previous website broke down, we were about to start building a new one. Building a new website can take quite a long time, but luckily we found a great partner. 2mprove managed to build the beautiful little work of art you’re looking at right now in just a few months. During those few months, they were also able to put up a page displaying our contact details. That way, Make a Bear wasn’t completely off the radar, and we’re now ready to get back into the swing of things. Please do let us know what you think of the new website.
And a huge thank you to the team at 2mprove
