Sarantis Katsikis, Country Manager of Alve.com, the turkish branch of Skroutz S.A., explains the challenges and difficulties of expanding an established & successful e-commerce business in a foreign country.

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Welcome
Sarantis Katsikis
Country Manager, Alve.com

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Few things about Skroutz
Leading price comparison engine in Greece
2.7 Mil.
1.000+
Unique users
70 Mil.
e-shops
Top 5
in Greece
pageviews/month
Top 3000
worldwide

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Why further expansion
?
?
Passion
Belief in our
capabilities – product
Pursuit of new
challenges
?
Why not?

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Why Turkey
One of the fastest growing markets
Population of 75 million
Internet population of approximately 40 million
(53%) = 5th in Europe
€5.5 billion e-sales
16% annual growth in Value
Underserved by current price comparison engines
High user engagement and mobile usage

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Thus...
Born and launched in March 2013

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Internal challenges

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External challenges
New entrants
Users
Direct
Competition
Indirect
Competition
Shops

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Funding is an issue but not the most
important one
Most new ventures fail because of management shortfalls
Too much money helps cover up the problems that a company has
Eventually the game gets lost

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Alve today
60
e-shops
70.000
unique visitors
50%
growth rate
4
th
position in the market
in organic
(non-paid) visits
including many
major players
20%
300.000
from mobile
pageviews / month

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Global vs local summary
Sales & content team in Turkey
Development & design in Greece
Coordinated content & marketing from both countries
Customize but do not affect the core business model and your practices just for one
country (ex. credit cards, installments, content, language)
Careful use of funds

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