Latin America has literally ideal market outlets for our system. Despite local companies highly demand the tool for expansion to Europe, there is basically no presence of e-commerce omnichannel systems providing such service. During the discussions with local businessmen, we had the possibility to recognize what their biggest problems are. Ability to expand to Europe, where they face issues such as many languages, currencies, payment methods and lots of different marketplaces, is a too high barrier to sell products in Europe for them. That is also a pity considering the repeal of duty with EU countries. Yet Retailys, in which the companies can easily make specialized European webshops in one system, has a clear solution”, summarizes system’s advantages Petr Heller, who represented the company during the mission.
During the tens of meetings, the system was presented to members of significant trade associations such as Lima Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá (CCB), National Business Association of Colombia (ANDI) and Agency for International Cooperation (ACI). Representatives of local governments and governmental institutions with whom the company discussed not only the possibility of investments were also interested in the system.
Heller had an important meeting in Ruta N, a major innovation hub in Meddelin, Columbia, linking innovative start-ups, universities, and state sector. With about three million inhabitants, Medellin is considered to be one South America’s main technology centers, as evidenced by many awards such as the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize awarded by Singapore for the rapid development of the city in recent years, as well as the fact Medellin became a fourth industrial revolution network’s affiliate centre. On the other hand, in the rankings of crime, it occupies the last place nowadays and is one of the safest countries in Columbia, which contrasts sharply with the city’s history associated with Pablo Escobar.
“We started as a start-up as well, so it felt literally like home to me. There is a fully prepared infrastructure for start-ups providing coworking space, student practices, acceleration programs to angel investor contacts and venture capital funds. Sometimes I felt like in Estonia or Singapore, known for their support of innovative start-ups, and where we already have business,” adds Heller, adding that the city’s support for innovative businesses is one of the reasons why the company considers establishing another branch here. In addition, e-commerce is growing rapidly in both regions, while in both countries the year-on-year increase in Internet merchandise sales exceeded 10%, and large local markets, especially Mercado Libre with around 200 million users, even report double-digit growth.
“Traders clearly want to make use of internet technology. It turns out that the cloud service concept, which includes a unified solution for creating European e-shops in one administration, which we are one of the few in Europe to develop, is truly global. We are now starting to translate the product into other languages with the help of our partners, to make it easier for local businesses to sell to Europe with Retailys,” concludes Heller.
About Retailys.com
Retailys is originally Czech company developing cloud system for international webshop management with the possibility of product export to global marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay. The orders, products from each webshop or marketplace is possible to manage from one administration so companies save costs considerably and thanks to the new sales channels can sell their merchandise in other countries. The company has been growing rapidly in recent months, employes approximately 20 software and international e-commerce experts, and prepares to launch activities in other countries in addition to its existing offices in London, Prague and Singapore.
