Christos Kalogerakis “Due to Covid, we sped up our e-commerce strategy for a new marketplace”
Created in 2019 through the merger of Public (part of Olympia Group in Greece) and MediaMarkt Hellas (a subsidiary of German Ceconomy), PMM Group reported online sales growth by a factor of 9 during the Covid-19 lockdown. Christos Kalogerakis, C.E.O. of PMM Group (€460 million and 70 stores in 2019) explains to Global Retail News why he increased the deployment of an e-commerce strategy and developed a digital marketplace.
Christos Kalogerakis, C.E.O. of PMM Group
Please describe PMM Group.
PMM is a combination of two strong Greek retailers called Public and MediaMarkt. We are in a similar business to the French firm Fnac-Darty. We sell household appliances, consumer electronics and entertainment products. We consider the business to be closer to a modern, omnichannel platform (offering huge choice and an extended customer base) than to a traditional retailer. Only a platform like ours can support the different needs of a 1.5 million strong multichannel consumer base with 2.2 million products. We have 70 stores covering multiple formats, ranging from 100 sq.m to 4,000 sq.m. We operate 4 e-commerce websites in Greece and Cyprus. Public.gr, the leading e-commerce store in Greece, represent more than 21% of total turnover. On an annual basis we host more than 100 million visits both on and offline.
How have you updated your strategy since the Covid crisis?
We decided to speed up the growth of our marketplace (see Mirakl p3). Initially this activity was supposed to be launched on a large scale in January 2021, but we have changed our priorities following the crisis. We have more than 1,200 merchants, compared to only 246 at the beginning of the pandemic. By the end of 2020, we will reach 2,500 merchants, offering an even wider selection of products. Today we offer 2.2 million products on public.gr, and 600,000 come from our partner merchants.
