Two European online marketplaces will open for Czech customers and retailers – the Polish Allegro and the German Kaufland. Both companies announced this independently on Tuesday. Allegro, which recently announced that it is also buying Mall Group e-shops in the Czech Republic, is already making the Allegro.com platform available to the Czechs, and Kaufland on the Kaufland.cz domain announces the start next year.
Polish Allegro is one of the twenty largest e-commerce platforms in the world, Amazon is number one, eBay market number two is also popular in the Czech Republic. Until now, Allegro was only available in Polish, on Tuesday it was also joined by English, the possibility of payment in euros and delivery of goods within two to three days. However, the localization of the system into Czech is not yet planned.
According to the company, the platform is to bring together over 300 million offers of goods for customers from all EU countries.
“International expansion is our priority, and for us, one of the world’s most visited online marketplaces, this step represents a significant step forward,” said Allegro CEO Francois Nuyts. “Giving access to millions of Allegro offerings to customers and merchants across the Union is part of our European plans, which also include planned integration with the Mall Group in Central and Eastern Europe,” he added.
What is an online marketplace?
An internet or online marketplace is a website offering a variety of goods. In one place, within one structure, here can sell several different sellers or e-shops directly. Although the platform mostly has for the customer only one shopping cart, but in reality the goods are delivered by different sellers, which is often matched by various purchase agreements with sub-entrepreneurs or e-shops. Markeplace operates in the Czech Republic, for example, Mall, Alza or Heureka.
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It thus encounters last year’s record transaction, in which Allegro bought the Czech Mall Group and the WeDo courier service for 881 million euros, ie more than 22 billion crowns. The final price can be increased by up to another 50 million euros, depending on the performance of the Mall Group. The Office for the Protection of Competition approved the purchase of Allegro in mid-December.
When completed, it will be one of the largest transactions in Central and Eastern Europe and also the fifth largest store in the Czech Republic in the last decade.
In addition to the Mall internet marketplace, the Mall Group includes, for example, the e-shop with electronics CZC.cz. Until now, Jakub Havrlant’s Czech Rockaway Group has played the role of managing shareholder, but the key shares in the company were held by the PPF and EC Investments groups of Daniel Křetínský and Patrik Tkáč.
However, the transaction does not concern Vivantis, Mall Pay or Mall.TV and Košík.cz, which have already been separated from the Mall Group in the past and remain in Czech hands. The group also operates in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Croatia and Slovenia.
Kaufland Marketplace in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
In contrast, the German chain Kaufland is preparing to launch its online marketplaces Kaufland.cz and Kaufland.sk directly with the Czech and Slovak localization in 2023.
In Germany, the Kaufland platform currently offers over 30 million non-food items through more than 7,000 retailers. “Kaufland will bring a successful German marketplace concept to the Czech Republic and together with local retailers we will further develop the e-commerce environment on the Czech market,” said Stefan Hoppe, CEO of Kaufland Czech Republic.
According to the company, the opening of the market in the Czech Republic and Slovakia is “the starting point for launching the Kaufland Global Marketplace technology, which will offer quick and easy access to international online trade and at the same time start the digital expansion of the retail chain”. However, the chain did not provide details on the operation of the notified technology.
One registration should be enough for sellers after launching in the Czech, Slovak and German online marketplaces. “Dealers who register in advance can sell in both new markets for six months from launch without basic fees and no sales commissions. In addition, they will receive advertising support,” Kaufland said in a press release.
According to the company, the platform also offers services such as search engine marketing, payment processing or customer service support.
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