PIKITO, a unique concept in Europe, now in Romania!
E-shops can expand offline in a successful way
PIKITO, the project that connects online and offline shopping through shared physical commercial spaces, is now operational in Romania. The Czech-owned company inaugurated its commercial space at Lemon Retail Park in Bucharest.
What is PIKITO
PIKITO simplifies the process of providing brick-and-mortar store facilities to e-shops, that easily obtain a physical space where they can sell their products, a space shared with other retailers on the market, however not direct competitors.
PIKITO offers these main advantages to partner e-tailers:
- Increased brand awareness and trust, through local brick-and-mortar store presence
- A space functioning as a showroom of the best-selling items
- First-class customer service, through trained staff and in-store professional customer support
- Higher conversion rate, briskly growing in-store sales
- Pick-up and return in-store points
- Zero financial investment into the brick-and-mortar store, just a monthly full-service flat fee (easily covered through savings on postage, returns and complaints costs)
- A new marketing channel (BTL communication methods with the intended target audience)
- Omnichannel possibilities (In-store vouchers, impulse shopping, POS selling)
Traditional retail has huge obstacles to get into environments like centers or retail parks, however PIKITO is offering a solution for opening your brand-own store in premium localities. PIKITO offers state-of-the-art technology (pickup points, skilled service trained by e-shops and brands and a modern background and design), all shared within one place.
The first such shared store was opened in Prague, in August 2022, with monthly traffic growing significantly. To be more precise, in just 6 months, due to the diverse assortment and segment of shoppers at the shared store, the conversion rate to purchases at pick-up is now situated between 5-10%. All Pikito facilities are currently fully occupied in the Czech Republic.
Marcel Vargaestok, owner of PIKITO, comments: “Romania is a key market for e-shops expanding within CEE, where the potential is given not only by size but also by relatively small competition. Localization is also important for success on the Romanian market, through local addresses, phone numbers or customer support. Ideally, the e-shop should also have some form of brick-and-mortar presence in the country – according to surveys, up to 40% of online users in Romania do not trust an e-shop if there is no brick-and-mortar store or branch in the country at the same time. Therefore, PIKITO is offering cross border brick-and-mortar service for building trust and increasing conversions in CEE markets. Furthermore, PIKITO makes opening a store within weeks simple, without investments or difficult legislation processes, offering advantage on the market.”
Following the launch in Romania, PIKITO founders have opened a shop in Bratislava, Slovakia (also fully occupied), followed by further potential launches in Central and South-Eastern Europe.
PIKITO, the affordable omnichannel solution for e-tailers
PIKITO is a real opportunity for businesses currently conducted exclusively online, especially from a financial perspective. The essence is the sharing of costs between non-competing e-shops. A sales unit between 500-1,000 m2 can contain up to 12 stores. They would have a common background, service area, fitting rooms and, above all, well-trained staff. Through PIKITO you can reach customers from locations where it would not be profitable to open a physical store on your own.
In addition, increased support is offered to online sellers, who are often not familiar with offline retail, especially considering that there are many decisions that could affect the smooth operation of such a physical store.
PIKITO in Romania
The shared commercial space in Romania can house up to 14 e-tailers; currently, collaborations have already been concluded with Kulina, Made In Japan, Nedeto, Parfimo – and more are in the pipeline.
PIKITO’s internal data shows that up to 40% of customers choose to have orders delivered in-store, if that particular store is situated in a nearby area – and founders are betting on similar figures where the local market is concerned.
In Romania, PIKITO aims at becoming the go-to-solution especially for medium and big e-shops who want to capitalize on the brick-and-mortar experience, without extreme financial burdens. For such e-tailers, a shared common space store is the best solution in terms of profitability. In this way, each of the e-shops will get a high-quality and modern outlet or showroom, at affordable costs.
Agatinsvet.cz, the biggest seller of creative toys in CZ and PIKITO partner e-store comments: „We know how much work it takes to open and run a store. Therefore, we can appreciate very well when a partner takes these worries on his shoulders and allows us to present our goods in a nice and professional environment and offer customers another point of sale. We appreciate the varied selection of e-shops that do not compete with each other and, on the contrary, complement each other well with their offer, in the Pikito space. In addition, they have one important feature in common: they are dynamic e-shops that work on each other, and mutual cross-selling therefore makes sense for all of us.
And let’s not forget about this important fact: brick-and-mortar stores are the place where the relationship with the customer is fulfilled. They are an extremely valuable source of information from customers: about their preferences and shopping habits, about their needs and expectations and so on”.
About PIKITO
PIKITO is a project based on a unique concept in Europe, which means that e-shops can easily open a physical store, by sharing the commercial space with other successful non-competing e-shops on the market. Financial investments are minimal and they are represented by a monthly fee for full services.
PIKITO is owned by Czech Kulina Group, a premium home & lifestyle online shopping gallery. Kulina Group was founded in 2009, is active in 5 European countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania) with a market value of ~EUR 15 billion and counting, houses 70 brands, 8,000+ products in stock and has had 80,000 unique customers since 2020.
Antonín Štětina is the CEO of PIKITO, with Vladimír Komár (experienced investor, CEO, and owner of the Czech cosmetic brand Dermacol operating across Europe & in 60+ countries worldwide) and Marcel Vargaeštók (co-owner of Kulina Group, operating in the CEE region) as investors.
About Nine O’Clock
Nine O’Clock was the first exclusively daily publication to appear in English language in Romania. The first issue of the Nine O’Clock newspaper came out 32 years ago. On October 9, 1991 a group of foreign-policy Romanian journalists came up with the initiative to release, for the first time in Romania’s history, a publication solely in English. From 2023, the new owner of the newspaper is Mihai Manea.
