Skroutz: a year in review

Although Skroutz became an adult last year closing 19 years of operations, this is the third time we have completed the journey from infancy to maturity. First as a hobby/side job to a real business, then as a small service to the most visited site in Greece, and finally, from a 5 million GMV marketplace to a 575 million one (or 850 million according to 2024’s crystal ball). As of now, our marketplace penetration rate stands at 70% and continues to grow steadily.

All this is the work of a fantastic group of people, from the ones who joined 18 years ago to all new Skroutzers, SLMers, and EveryPayers. Being an old and grumpy co-founder, I often find myself focused on identifying and resolving problems neglecting to praise the team as much as I would want to.

The list below serves exactly this purpose: to let us take a step back and see all the things we have accomplished throughout the years especially in 2023 which was a fully transformative year. It is also a way of saying thank you to all teams in the Skroutz group for their persistence and courage to pick all the hard battles and win.?

2023 in a nutshell:

• Marketplace GMV of 575 million € (+60% year over year growth)
• 2 million active buyers
• 300,000 Plus members
• 1.3 million active app users (iOS + Android)
• 8,700+ sellers on the platform, marketplace sellers with 100% YoY growth
• User NPS: 65, User CSAT: above 70%
• 25% of our orders were express (next-day delivery) with a reliability of ~90%
• Οver 500,000 SKU reviews and 20,000 short product videos submitted by our users
• 25% locker delivery share (the year ended with 1800 lockers in 1500 locations)
• More than 30,000 product-related services sold (product insurance, product assembly, etc)
• Marketplace merchants grew their GMV by 85% on average

And of course, we launched a ton of new products:

• We partnered with MyMarket and eFresh to help people shop for their groceries online (yeah for queue-less Saturday mornings)
• We launched a new warehouse ready to scale and offer a much faster and more reliable delivery experience
• We created several new tools for our sellers helping them control and accelerate their growth
• We migrated to the cloud after maintaining our infrastructure for 18 years
• We opened the CY market to our sellers and onboarded international merchants to improve the available product selection for consumers
• We successfully fulfilled our first 10,000 orders to Europe
• We selectively rolled out our wallet function to a segment of our users.
• We introduced new tools for merchants and brands to advertise their offerings effectively and boost revenue.

So what about 2024?

Regarding our core offering, the focus this year is on service. While significant progress has been made over the past three years, we aim to further improve by ensuring that the majority of our product selection is delivered within the next day by year's end. To achieve this goal, we are investing in our warehouse infrastructure and expanding our locker network by adding 2,000 new lockers to the existing 2,000 already in service.

Additionally, we recently launched our Consumer to Consumer offering allowing our users to sell their items to other users while taking advantage of all the benefits that our marketplace is offering, from flexible financing to using our locker network for product drop-offs and pickups. Both buyers and sellers can transact confidently, backed by our zero-doubt guarantee. No more concerns about meeting strangers or the condition of delivered items – we've got it covered.

Did I mention that you can keep the money from those transactions in your wallet and use it to buy your groceries or that new pair of sneakers you’ve been eyeing for quite some time?

With our app, you can do product research, watch inspirational videos, buy your groceries, seek advice from our community, and sell your unused items. With thousands of merchants and a consumer base of over 2 million, Skroutz is your everyday tool, a vivid community, and the best matchmaking service in Greece. It’s your Everyday App.?

On the merchant front, we will continue to invest in new tools and optimize our processes to further accelerate their growth. However, our most significant initiative this year is to provide merchants with access to advanced warehousing services and capital for their sourcing needs. Marketplace merchants utilizing our warehouse will have access to a competitive capital facility, empowering them to expand their inventory and grow their businesses further.

Last but not least, our journey to expand across the borders will continue, both by on-boarding tier 1 international merchants and by increasing our focus on neighboring markets where logistics make sense.

On a personal note, having been through this journey for 19 years, from a few merchants to thousands, a few users to millions and from not knowing what GMV is to 1 billion in 2023, I still feel the same excitement as the first day. And I am extremely happy that this time it's not just me and my co-founders, it's an entire organization of talented and like minded individuals eager to build and improve a product used by millions of users.