The Delamode Group is pleased to announce the expansion of their vertically integrated online delivery service „EshopWedrop“
with the purchase of Lithuanian based cross-border online delivery service platform PirkAnglijoje.lt.
Historically, customers in Eastern European countries have been limited in their ability to purchase goods from Western European online retailers, due to prohibitive delivery costs. In 2012, Rimtautas Rekus, founded PirkAnglijoje to provide a cost-effective way for customers in Lithuania to buy goods from UK online retailers and transport them back to Lithuania. Since then PirkAnglijoje has grown rapidly and has established a customer base of over 19,000.
More recently, Delamode Group launched its own similar e-commerce offering in the latter part of 2015, EshopWedrop, to customers in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Romania. The service overlays Delamode’s existing European general cargo freight-forwarding operations to consolidate online purchases made in Western Europe, the goods are then transported to the destination country before “final mile” delivery is carried out by local distribution partners, or delivered to strategically located collection points
Consumers across Central and Eastern Europe are increasingly coming to value the benefits presented by buying online, as they become more familiar with the secure and cost-effective options available to them. This is reflected in the European-wide 2016 B2C e-commerce turnover growth rate forecast of 12.3%, with Baltic countries forecast for growth in 2016 of 15.1% [European B2C E-Commerce Report 2016].
The integration with EshopWedrop allows PirkAnglijoje’s customer base additional access to e-commerce markets in Germany, Italy and Poland as well as access to EshopWedrop’s sophisticated user IT platform and services.
Owner of PirkAnglijoje, Rimtautas Rekus, said “This transaction is a natural fit for both parties. We are matching our customer base with Eshopwedrop’s strength in logistics and fast ability to open up new markets. This is good news for our customers as we can now offer more access to more products, sooner, at a better price.”
Mircea Bandean, Managing Director of EshopWedrop, commented “Expansion into Lithuania represents a move into a dynamic market. With 320,000 of the 650,000 Lithuanian e-shoppers making cross-border purchases, clearly there is a strong appetite in Lithuania to purchase online goods and services from abroad. By integrating the PirkAnglijoje customer base we will have approximately 5% of the market share of all cross border online shopping deliveries to Lithuania.”
Stephen Blyth, Delamode Group Chairman said, “We are very pleased to announce the Group’s acquisition of PirkAnglijoje, and look forward to developing a good relationship and expanding PirkAnglijoje’s impressive customer base in the region. The integration of PirkAnglijoje will create a step change in volume levels across our e-commerce routes and we believe there is significant untapped demand amongst the eastern European consumers to take advantage of.”