As previously announced, one of the largest on-line multi-brand clothes shops in Poland – Answear.com – goes ahead with its plans of regional expansion in Central and Eastern Europe. In line with the long-term strategy developed with its investor, MCI.TechVentures, the company is breaking into the Slovak and Czech markets. The Answear.cz website for the Czech market was launched at the beginning of April 2014.
The Polish, Czech and Slovak markets have the biggest e-commerce potential in the CEE region: (Poland – about 40 million inhabitants, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – 15 million). E-commerce is growing at a rate of over 20% per year. The above countries also have the highest annual average value of on-line shopping per person: EUR 581 in the Czech Republic, EUR 465 in Poland and EUR 212 in Slovakia.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia are not only attractive in terms of commerce, but they are also natural directions to expand to due to their location. The Answear.com logistics centre in Kraków allows the company to deliver products to Ostrava in the Czech Republic or to Žilina in Slovakia almost as fast as to Warsaw. What is also important is the support that the company receives from the MCI.TechVentures team. The team’s sound knowledge of the Czech and Slovak markets helped to find local partners and to structure the project of entering these markets.
– The expansion project was developed for a few months. Since customer satisfaction is the key, our biggest challenge was how to optimise the logistics process to ensure effective delivery – says Answear.com founder, Krzysztof Bajołek. – Today we can deliver our products to the Czech Republic within 24 hours.
The company is going to set up its office in Prague. The Answear.cz project’s partners are strong players in the Czech marketing, PR and sales sectors.
Entering the Czech and Slovak markets is a key element in the company’s strategy of becoming one of the region’s leaders in the e-fashion sector.