E-commerce retailers: Focus on continuous expansion

The value of the online shopping industry exceeded the threshold of 3.5 billion Euro in 2018, approximately 30 percent more than 2017, when 2.8 billion Euro were recorded, according to GPeC statistics and estimates, together with those provided by the main Romanian e-commerce players.

E-commerce holds an eight percent share of the total retail market. The entire Romanian retail market is estimated at about 45 billion Euro, according to Iulian Stanciu, eMAG CEO. The percentage is low compared to other developed countries but shows the huge growth potential of the Romanian e-commerce market in the coming years.

Romanians are using the mobile phone a lot more to browse the Internet, about 80 percent of the traffic recorded by major online shops being generated by mobile devices, up ten percent compared to 2017 and 30 percent over 2016.

According to 2Performant statistics, Romanians buy certain types of products mainly on mobile phones. For example, 78.5 percent of transactions to online shops selling children’s items are made on the mobile phone with only 21.5 percent on desktop. Also, 66 percent of fashion items are purchased on mobile phones, as well as 63.2 percent of cosmetics and beauty products.

As for electronics, home appliances and IT products, Romanians still prefer the desktop (57.3 percent) at the expense of mobile (42.7 percent), although the percentages are relatively close. The same applies to adult products (56 percent Desktop vs. 44 percent Mobile).

Vivre targets international expansion, focuses on innovative marketing programs

Having a solid customer acquisition strategy is an essential component for any e-commerce retailer, according to Monica Cadogan, CEO of Vivre, the leading e-commerce retailer in the home decor industry from Central and Eastern Europe. “Our strategy is executing periodical online campaigns and flash sales on our website,” she tells The Diplomat-Bucharest. “We have a permanent offer of over 100,000 products and a history of over 3.5 million orders successfully delivered. We reach our audience through newsletter, digital marketing, print magazines, and PR activities.”

Vivre constantly develops its website and mobile application in order to create an appealing and discovery-based shopping experience. “We want our customers to be inspired by browsing an endless stream of ideas and to fall in love with our products and home design ideas,” Cadogan explains. “As an example, we have available on the website over 5,000 sofas, different colours and models. Because we bring special products from all around the world, sometimes the delivery to the customers takes longer, but it is worth the wait, as they will be receiving the product that fits their personality. We ensure that as soon as the products are received and subjected to quality control in our warehouse, they will be shipped to the client, who can track the order status in their Vivre account.”

As the number of orders increases from year to year, Vivre aims to keep up with the business growth, which implies an ongoing investment in infrastructure and technology, team development, system, and process optimization.

“The entire logistics ecosystem is therefore constantly challenged to become even more performant and agile. The delivery time and the quality of the products sold on the website are strategic elements of the Vivre experience,” says Cadogan. “In order to optimize sales and operations, we chose to develop an internal platform for the management of the interactions between the supplier, carrier, fulfilment centre, couriers, and clients. We are integrated in real time with the couriers’ and suppliers’ platforms, and, through the website, with the clients. The Vivre platform helps us provide quick traceability, transparency, and settlement of the client’s requests coming from all the nine markets where the Vivre brand is present: Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, and Greece,” she adds.

Three out of four Vivre clients are women, according to statistics. Young and trendy, from a large city, aged between 25 and 45 – this is most often the profile of the person who decorates his home with Vivre’s proposals.

The Romanian buyer is becoming more and more open to online purchase of furnishings, decorations, and home products. According to the latest data for online trading, around one million Romanians use the Vivre platform that brings together furniture, decorations, textile and home accessories from suppliers all over the world monthly. At the moment Vivre offers more than 150,000 different products from more than 5,000 brands.

Vivre plans to expand to new markets, focus on innovative marketing programs and spot new trends ahead of competitors.

eMAG launches Instant Money Back service

eMAG launches Instant Money Back, the first instant money transfer service through which customers who make online payments with a saved card receive their refund within 30 minutes of returning the ordered products. To benefit from Instant Money Back, customers can use the cards already saved in the eMAG account or save the card at the end of the order.

Instant Money Back uses the Moneysend technology developed in conjunction with MasterCard to facilitate the rapid transfer of money between Mastercard or Maestro credit or debit cards and Visa Direct technology developed by Visa to allow fast transfer of money to Visa debit and Visa Electron cards. The services are provided through the online payment processor PayU, market leader in Romania, and the bank certified for this type of transactions, Alpha Bank Romania. The service is available to all customers who pay for online orders using a card saved in the eMAG account. Eligible cards must be issued by financial institutions in Romania.

“We believe that the introduction of this new service will give more comfort and confidence to eMAG customers who use the online payment option through the saved card. Instant Money Back is a way we want to reward the trust of over 700,000 customers with the card saved in the account, who can now have the money back on the card in a few minutes after solving the product return and will be able to reuse the funds immediately,” says Mircea Balica, Payments Platform Manager eMAG.

The eMAG group has achieved a 17.5 percent increase in revenues compared to the previous year, up to 4.77 billion RON. The results were supported by the expansion of its product offer, by the increase in the number of customers throughout the region and by investments in people, logistics, technology, and international development.

“The increase of the product range and the improvement of the payment and delivery services have led to an increase in the number of customers and the turnover. We will continue to develop through investments in technology. The potential is great, both in Romania and in the region,” says Tudor Manea, eMAG vice president.

Currently, eMAG reached 9.44 million customers in the region, 1,868,600 more than the previous year, of which 975,000 came from Romania. Around 52 percent of the products sold by the eMAG platform come from the 16,350 listed sellers.

By the end of 2020, eMAG’s goal is for the number of marketplace sellers to reach 40,000.

eMAG Marketplace is also a way of developing for small Romanian producers, social enterprises, and NGOs that benefit from preferential listing conditions through the Open Romania program. The 1,300 Romanian producers present in the program sold in 2017 over 170,000 products worth 12.3 million RON, and the new developments in the platform are intended to encourage other sellers to enter this program.

Special delivery services, such as planned delivery and pick-up from easybox lockers launched in 2018, along with extending the time to order with the next day delivery (from 18.00 to 23.59 for Bucharest) have helped to shorten the delivery time. By the end of October 2019, the easybox locker network will have 300 units in Bucharest and five other big cities.

Phones, laptops and tablets are the best-selling products before school starts, says evoMAG

Phones, laptops, tablets, printers, PC systems, PC components, and TVs are the best-selling products before the start of the school year and are already the subject of traditional Back to School campaigns.

The end of August and the beginning of September are synonymous with the accelerated increase in retail sales and, as evidenced by the consumer behaviour of evoMAG customers, is the best time to buy before the Black Friday campaign.

“We focus on this campaign on good quality products, but at a low price, so that every child in Romania has access to the IT&C products they need for school,” says Mihai Pătrașcu, CEO of evoMAG.

From August 26 until September 8, evoMAG runs the “Back to School” campaign and offers discounts of up to 70 percent on over 3,500 products.

“We expect this year to have an increase of 20 to 25 percent in sales in the next period, against the purchases generated since the beginning of the new school year,” says Pătraşcu, noting that a similar advance in sales will be felt throughout the entire market, online retail IT&C.

In order to combine both the desire for new technology and a good price, Romanians are closely following the retail discount campaigns and are attentive to every detail that can offer them additional advantages on the purchase, such as: free Windows license, delivery on advantageous conditions, extended warranty or purchases in instalments directly from the retailer.

Blugento attracts one million Euro investment to expand on several European markets

Blugento, a Cluj-based company specialized in providing ecommerce solutions based on the Magento platform, is attracting a strategic investment of one million Euro, following the signing of an investment agreement with the Polish group R22.

The partnership involved the sale of a package of 31 percent of the shares and aims to develop the platform and expand Blugento’s business on several European markets, the first being Poland and France.

This is the second investment that Blugento has managed to attract in two years. The first capital infusion, worth 120,000 Euro, took place in June 2017.

“The partnership with the R22 Group will help us reach our development goals, create the best e-commerce solution for small and medium-sized enterprises, and expand internationally. The R22 support includes not only financing for development, but also access to know-how and a base of over 250,000 clients of the Group”, says Sandu Băbășan, CEO Blugento. “In Romania, Blugento is one of the default solutions that retailers consider when they want to create a new online store. And our development is determined, first and foremost, by the clients’ recommendations.”

As a result of the new capital infusion, Blugento is valued at approximately 3.8 million Euro.

Blugento offers all the functionality needed for a successful online store, based on a monthly subscription, and is integrated with over 100 payment solutions, ERP, courier, marketing and other services that offer competitive advantages to online stores. Blugento also plans to expand the team with technology specialists and business specialists in eCommerce, whereby the end of the year it will reach 35 employees.

(From the print edition)