The Polish company belonging to the CCC Group is one of the flagship examples of a perfect sense of the e-commerce trend. It was established in 2006 when online sales were still in their infancy, but it developed very dynamically. Sales revenues increased from $6M in 2012 to $550M in 2020.
Today, eobuwie.pl is the largest e-shop with footwear in Poland and one of the major ones in Europe, being present in 16 countries, including Sweden, Romania, Greece, France, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic. No wonder that as much as 67% of its revenues is generated outside Poland. The opening of a distribution center in Romania, which serves three countries, including Bulgaria and Greece, should be considered a milestone in developing international operations.
In July this year, the company also opened in Prague, the first interactive brick-and-mortar store with footwear and clothing outside Poland under the brands eobuv.pl and Modivo. Instead of shelves with shoes, there are tablets on which you can order products brought by staff. If shoes or other selected products are not available in the store, they can be booked via the website or the application, and after a few days, you can try them on in the store. The store with the warehouse in the backroom occupies 1,800 sq. m., offering over 100,000 products – apart from shoes, clothing, and accessories. The showroom is fully digitalized, offering all the services that are available in Poland.
All this is the beginning of the expansion of the Polish company’s international fixed-line network. This model has already caught on in Poland, and there are already 26 stores with the eobuwie.pl logo. If the situation is similar in the Czech Republic, more stores of this type will also open in other countries. Eobuwie.pl stores are another distribution channel that educates customers and complements the company’s e-commerce activities. Despite the pandemic, there is still a group of customers who are not convinced to buy online.
The latest element of the international development of eobuwie.pl is the esize.me service – the application scans the customer’s feet and can match them with shoes from the store’s offer, regardless of their brand. Initially, the service was available only in Poland, but from this year also in the Czech Republic, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.
A global investor has recently appreciated the company’s development. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 has invested $125M in eobuwie.pl. The capital is to be allocated primarily to further international expansion.