The past months have been extraordinarily exciting for us in Euroeat, but especially for me personally. 2020 ended up really high, we broke all past sales records and so far 2021 has continued on those same tracks.
We had also kicked off “Project Dragon” in the AGM 2020, a transformation project which just came to a close end of February. As an end result of the project, I got nominated as the CEO of Euroeat and we got a new Board of Directors (well, 3 out of 5 are new anyway).
I’m one of the original founders of Euroeat, so I know the company, partners, markets, and customers well enough. But of course, taking on the responsibility of the company as the CEO means new perspectives to all this, new challenges, and the responsibility to take the company to the next level with the team. And to take care of the team so that we get the results we aim at.
We have recognized at Euroeat that we have not been sharing much of our ventures during the past years. This is one element we will change: as the first step of open communications & transparency, I want to share with you this short overview of where our market (e-commerce in China) is at the moment, where it is heading & where are we in the middle of all this.
I hope you find this interesting, and like it or not, will come back in the future with new updates like this!
The e-commerce market in China
Despite all the anxiety & uncertainty in the markets during the past year or so, this is an exciting time to be in online business. Especially in the Chinese online business. While Covid-19 has created economic challenges to many, the economies as a whole have fared pretty well, at least so far. Especially in China.
The Chinese GDP grew by some 2.3% during 2020 & they are expecting some 6% growth again for 2021. So all things considered, the economy took the pandemic hit very well & is again back on the growth track!
And due to the limitations & restrictions, trading in China, like everywhere in the world, has moved even faster to online channels. A trend we expect to strengthen further: while the consumer good retail sales shrank some 3.9% during 2020, online sales grew by 10.9% (and online sales of physical goods were up a whopping 14.8%)! And the e-commerce growth will greatly outpace the GDP growth also during 2021 and beyond.
Livestreaming e-commerce is of particular interest with volumes skyrocketing: this particular market has grown from 19bln RMB (2,5bln EUR) in 2017 to 961bln RMB (124bln EUR) in 2020!!
As many e-commerce companies have grown, even towards monopoly, promoting fair competition and protection of consumer rights and data privacy have been put on the agenda of the Chinese government. In 2021, we will see more regulation of e-commerce giants in China. This should be good news for Euroeat. It should help create a healthier e-commerce environment for both firms and consumers, leveling the playing field.
Get, Keep, Monetise
So, what does all this mean for our Euroeat? First of all, the overall business environment is going exactly in the right direction. More spending in online channels, new features introduced to make consumer experience even more compelling, and a more level playing field through tighter regulation is the fuel we need to take our company forward in the marketplace.
Since the beginning back in 2015 Euroeat has been consistently building its operations & logistics machinery in China, and it is ready to scale & deliver, with unbeatable quality & accuracy.
We have now seven different sales categories (like toys, merchandise, kitchenware, etc) approved by the largest online marketplace in China, TMall. This is the precondition for proper visibility & bigger volumes. Our digital silk route to China’s online markets is more open for business than ever before.
Additionally, during the past year, we have been focusing on enhancing our own business-making capabilities: financing, communications, tools, processes & online capabilities to monitor our business performance in real-time.
2020 was our turnaround year. Revenue grew by some 70% from 2019. This year, 2021, is the year of breakeven: we aim to quadruple our revenues. And thereafter we will be finetuning our business, looking for healthy & profitable growth, building our own ecosystem further & making our name known in the overall Chinese e-commerce market.
We have been able to steadily grow our customer base throughout the years. We need to keep growing the base, while keeping the customers engaged with our offering, minimizing the churn. And we need to keep up our good work on converting visiting customers to paying customers, to monetize the base.
So far so good.
The demand is out there, it is our turn to deliver.
Heikki Lassila
CEO
+358 40 589 5926
heikki.lassila@euroeat.com