With its web shop, www.trgovina-oven.si the company OVEN Elektro Maribor has already achieved visibility and a presence in the region, and in this way citizens and enterprises in Serbia can also browse and order all products
“We live in times of fast changes and often too little time remains for the important things and people in our life,” says Miroslav Prešern, Director of OVEN Elektro Maribor, d.o.o. (Ltd.).
What are your experiences in selling green-related products and services on the Serbian market, given that you’ve announced the start of sales for July this year?
– In the second half of 2017 we, at the company OVEN, set up a webshop with related products for electrical mobility (e-bikes, scooters, hoverboards), heating (IR heating panels), cooling (air conditioning units), smart home products (LED smart lightbulbs, smoke detectors, water sensors), nature and health (nutritional and cosmetic hemp products), electricity (electricity storage facilities, industrial lighting), water (wastewater treatment systems and rainwater reservoirs), accessories (solar phone chargers, power banks, VR goggles), along with the option of renting e-bikes and hoverboards and buying other services.
We are very satisfied with the effects and response, both in the sales of products and placements of services. We have also translated our webshop into English, to allow for marketing in other countries; the catalogues of services will be redesigned for international markets early in 2018.
Our products need no supporting infrastructure at all. We are definitely interested in developing business models in larger cities in the region and in Serbia
As a new feature, at the end of the year, we prepared a catalogue of practical business gifts that can make your work easier and your free time more fun. We live in times of fast changes and often too little time remains for the important things and people in our life. At Oven, we have sorted products into four sets, to help everyone find the perfect innovative gift. The catalogue of business gifts can be viewed here.
As for the services we offer on the market, they will be orientated primarily into self-sufficient or combined microsystems for producing electricity from renewable sources.
We also expect Serbian consumers and enterprises to respond to our extended offer of products and services in the future.
Appropriate infrastructure is required for urban E-mobility and the use of your products, and your company has itself specified that it will not invest in that infrastructure. Given that OVEN products represent the “future” for existing conditions in the countries of the region, what is their status on the market?
– Our products need no supporting infrastructure at all. We are definitely interested in developing business models in larger cities in the region and in Serbia. The conditions in the countries in this region vary a lot, of course. At the moment, the high price of e-bikes is quite a challenge.
Here we are counting on state subventions and other initiatives, though we are confident that in time the absolute prices of these products will drop. In any case, the business models of rental and purchase of e-bikes are future-orientated, and therefore unlikely to yield large profits in the first few years of business. That’s why we need to take the long view on this matter and remain persistent and patient.
Already on 1st February 2018, we are starting a new serious project – a rental service with 15 e-bikes, which will also be offered to tourists in various interesting packages. In this way, we will enable people to have a genuine experience of Maribor and the surrounding area. Our company will only undertake the sharing of e-bikes; we will not be building any charging stations.
OVEN’s plans in Serbia, according to what we’ve been able to hear and read publicly, are clear –mini-hydropower plants. What have you achieved in this field in Serbia in the meantime, in tangible terms?
– Yes, our plans are clear: small hydropower plants. From the time of signing the memorandum with the Serbian government in previous years, and then finding suitable locations, we are now in the middle of serious negotiations about a larger project. We will continue to carefully and keenly observe the Serbian market since we are mostly interested in buying existing operational small hydropower plants.