Despite the plans on the Czech market that Allegro has declared in the past, it has not yet communicated much with Czech customers and traders. This will now change after three months of trial operation. The company presented new campaign in which he wants to present Allegro to the Czechs as a platform with the widest range.
“We have a relatively generous budget for the campaign, in which we want to get firmly in the awareness of Czech customers,” Wojciech Bogdan, who is in charge of the data department and marketing in the Allegro group, told e15. The goal is that after the first year on the market, the brand of the Polish online marketplace will be as well known as the Czech e-shops Mall.cz and CZC, which Allegro bought from Czech investors for more than 23 billion crowns two years ago. However, this year the Polish group admitted that the purchased Mall Group, i.e. the Mall.cz marketplace, the CZC e-shop and the carrier WE|DO, has half the value.
Although Bogdan describes the familiarity and popularity of both brands as a valuable asset, Allegra’s management expects that sales cannibalization may occur. “We know that a certain part of customers may spill over from Mall.cz and CZC to Allegro, but we do not see cannibalization in this, because both Mall and CZC are also an important part of the Allegro platform. On the contrary, we believe that thanks to Allegro, people will shop online more than before,” says Bogdan.
According to the latest quarterly results, Mall.cz lost 370 million crowns in the first quarter of this year, and in the coming months the company’s management expects another drop, which should be even bigger. It’s the same way also the CZC e-shop, which is struggling with a drop in sales in the hundreds of millions of crowns. “The future of the Mall.cz and CZC brands should be decided by the Czech customer. We haven’t made any decisions in this regard yet, we are investing proportionately in both brands and will continue to do so,” says Bogdan.
According to Bogdan, since the launch of the localized pages in Czech, 500 traders from the Czech Republic and another two thousand from Poland and other markets have signed up for Allegro.cz. At the same time, up to 4,500 external sellers were active on Mall.cz in the past.
The Polish giant wants to target the Czech Republic mainly with a wide range of offers and low prices. “We know that the Czech consumer is one of the few in the world who is already satisfied with what he currently has,” Bogdan realizes the demanding nature of the Czech customer. They will try to reach local consumers, for example, by guaranteeing the lowest prices for selected products or by giving them the opportunity to try the Allegro Smart subscription program for free. Bogdan identified home and garden, electronics, fashion and goods for children as strong segments.
Bogdan praises the initial three-month launch on the Czech market, according to him, Allegro did not have to deal with any major problems. During that time, over 300,000 Czechs made purchases on the Polish marketplace. “Technically, our platform is a good product, but of course we have a lot to work on, especially in terms of delivery time, service level and the like,” admits Bogdan.
However, for example on Heureka e-shop comparators a few negative reviews from Czech customers have already appeared. It is a question of how the Czech market will react to the concept of an online marketplace, i.e. a store where external merchants sell and the Allegro-type platform is only an intermediary. However, Allegra’s ambition is clear at this point. “We want every trader and customer who is in the Czech Republic,” declares the goal of Bogdan.
At the same time, Jitka Dvořáková, the former longtime head of the CZC e-shop, is skeptical about the success of Allegra. “Allegro assumes that the Czech customer is only interested in the price and the marketplace is the preferred platform. Both Alza and CZC are proof that this is not the case. In addition, we are ten years ahead in e-commerce – in Poland, Allegro, thanks to its dominant position, determines the direction of the market there, so customers behave according to what they want,” said Dvořáková recently for Hospodářské noviny.
2023-08-01 15:45:00
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