“The marketplace platform will generate 27% of the orders and account for 22% of the total order value, or more than EUR100 million, this year. We expect it to double again,” said Iulian Stanciu, chief executive officer of eMAG at the eMAG Marketplace New Sellers conference organized in partnership with ZF on Thursday.
eMAG posted EUR353 million sales (its own sales plus the sales of its marketplace partners) last year and expects to overshoot the EUR500 million mark for the first time this year.
The electronic commerce is seeing a significant rise in Romania, so opening the eMAG site to competitors does not threaten the business of the company in any way, said Tudor Manea, general manager of eMAG.
“The e-commerce growth is so high that cannibalization between the marketplace and our retail operations is out of the question.”
eMAG recorded one million orders via the marketplace platform last year alone, where more than 750,000 products from 1,250 sellers are listed, said Florin Filote, marketplace manager of eMAG. The retailer has invested EUR4 million in the platform since its launch in 2011.
Marketplace platforms will see significant growth in the coming years and eMAG will continue to focus on development thereof, said Aarif Nakhooda, vice-president of strategy and operations at Naspers, eMAG’s majority owner.
“We want to be the first thing people think of even if it means losing money for a few years.”
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)