When you’re looking at a new marketplace the first thing you need to ask yourself is where are the buyers?
That’s one of the main reasons Rakuten has just folded in the UK – sellers were signing up and almost without exception telling us that they weren’t getting sales. 20 years ago when eBay came to the UK one of their biggest programs was to sign up sellers. Nowadays online retailers are so accustomed to marketplace they’ll sign up for pretty much anything so long as the turnover is forthcoming.
So which European marketplace is showing the most promise? Laurence Guy of Pentagon recently attended a Cross Border Fashion Conference in Warsaw for the Polish marketplace, Allegro and their stats are impressive.
Pentagon say that “Polish ecommerce is outpacing the rest of Europe, with 23% growth year-on-year compared to 18% in the rest of the single market. Moreover, the Allegro marketplace accounts for more than 50% of the Polish ecommerce market and has 14 million registered users, making it the number one destination for British brands looking to export to the country”.
If you’re interested in selling on Allegro and have branded goods they’ll welcome you with open arms, they’re actively looking to recruit British retailers for their dedicated Brand Zone.
Of course we know that selling on Allegro isn’t quite the same as selling on eBay or Amazon in the UK. There’s the language barrier, different service expectations and likely even your multichannel software provider doesn’t support Allegro. This shouldn’t stop you simply signing up as a retailer on Allegro and getting started.
Of course if you want some expert help the guys and gals at Pentagon will also be more than happy to assist launching your brand on Allegro.
