As a corporate start-up operating within the scope of Delta Holding, Ananas has the privilege of being able to constantly innovate, test and work swiftly to perfect solutions that will enable it to fortify its base of satisfied customers and partners who are motivated to operate via Ananas
Ananas is a complex ecosystem, the visible product of which is the first online marketplace in Serbia. It is precisely this ecosystem, alongside online sales and operations in areas like e-fulfilment, fintech and retail marketing, that also encompasses the indispensable tech segment that connects all these small and large components on our platform in order for everything to function flawlessly – proudly points out Ananas Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Marija Popović, before revealing some of the company’s plans.
Observed from the perspective of e-commerce, it was expected that this year would be marked by an improvement on 2022, given the upward trajectory of the online retail business in Serbia. What are the key elements that you would single out for the first half of the year?
I would first and foremost single out the absolute commitment of all of us at Ananas in our endeavour to build a giant of the region’s e-commerce sector.
An innovative and flexible approach to our work has enabled us to record significant successes compared to the same period of last year. I would like to highlight the Ananas mobile application – as the best mobile app for e-commerce in this part of Europe, and the fact that we will soon also open the most modern e-fulfilment centre in the region, as well as launching Ananas’s official presence in North Macedonia. I’m proud of the fact that our team is multiplying and that I am able to point out that nine out of ten customers would recommend Ananas to their friends and family. By setting such high standards for e-commerce, we are certainly contributing to the better positioning of the online retail business in Serbia and around the region.
Consumers today demand reliability and fast deliveries; they want the option to choose collection and payment methods, to receive information about discounts, promotions etc. How difficult is it to meet their expectations?
When we first established Ananas, we conducted research in an effort to gain a better understanding of the main motivators of online shopping, and it actually turned out that expectations were extremely low. People had grown accustomed to a poor service, to online shopping being something unreliable and even risky.
I’m proud of the fact that our team is multiplying and that I am able to point out that nine out of ten customers would recommend Ananas to their friends and family
From that starting point, we made it mandatory for couriers to ring customers’ doorbells, and the breakthrough factor was that we succeeded in delivering 97 per cent of all shipments from our warehouse to our customers’ doors by the next working day. This has all resulted in our customers’ expectations rising, which we are prepared for precisely because we aren’t only developing the marketplace, but also the entire business ecosystem.
Ananas isn’t just yet another online shop, but rather an entire e-commerce ecosystem. Where is the place of your ‘Click with Customers’ educational roadshow in that?
‘Click with customers’ is a project that we launched last year, in cooperation with Telekom Srbija and the E-Commerce Association of Serbia, and with the support of the Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Serbia. Its objective is to present the online retail business, primarily to the SME sector, as something that will reinforce and advance their business. The mere fact that we took it upon ourselves to visit a large number of cities and hold free workshops nationwide throughout Serbia says plenty about our commitment to developing ecommerce in the region. The plans that Ananas has are beyond ambitious. We have an ecosystem that encompasses retail and fintech services, marketing services and e-fulfilment, and these are just some of the areas covered by our operations, each of which has huge potential to develop and succeed. I am convinced that it is only by employing such an operational method that we can we justify the epithet of the largest regional project.