As part of United Group, Southeast Europe’s leading telecommunications and media company, Shoppster strives to bring change, to innovate and invest constantly, in order to ensure customers always receive more and better
In just three years, Shoppster has become the first Serbian “Amazon”, a place to buy everything from A to Z – says Ljiljana Ahmetović, before revealing how this platform, together with its users of all ages, have shifted shopping habits in Serbia.
Your aim was to make Shoppster a platform that brings together global brands and offers a wide range of products, as a “one stop shop”. Have you achieved all of that?
When we presented the first and largest integrated online and TV platform to consumers in Serbia, we knew that we were doing the right thing and believed in its success.
Three years later, it has been confirmed that we are innovative and unique; that we were the first to bring to Serbia the highest quality armchair shopping experience, with just one click, and that we have become a reliable partner to both consumers and suppliers, such that today Shoppster represents a place of safe and secure shopping. And here I’m also referring to the habit of shopping online that we all acquired during the pandemic, the introduction of the first parcel lockers, and the option of paying our couriers by card.
We have become synonymous with a top offer adapted to users and we also keep pace with the trend of retail personalisation, while our enduring cooperation with numerous suppliers has provided us with a price advantage in many categories. Our focus from day one has been on ensuring we have satisfied users, and I’m proud of the fact that we grow with that vision every day.
Do you think you have earned the full trust of both consumers and suppliers? That isn’t easy to achieve today, given that everyone has such high expectations.
The numbers are rising constantly. We started with 20 categories, or with several thousand groups of non-food products, while we’ve since enriched the range in all categories and expanded the offer to also include a packaged foods segment. We have been working the whole time to educate the market, particularly our suppliers. We have attracted a large number of domestic suppliers, while we secure part of our supply through imports.
We today have 180,000 products and more than 3,500 brands in 25 different product categories
We today have 180,000 products and more than 3,500 brands in 25 different product categories. What also differentiates us from the competition is our Shoppster TV channel, where you can familiarise yourself with selected products in detail at any time, while for suppliers this means that their products can be seen by more than two million viewers at any given moment.
Does the fact that around four million Serbian consumers already shop online indicate the great potential for e-commerce to develop further?
Our team, which brings experience from Amazon, Allegra and other similar companies, worked diligently for two years to prepare the project prior to launch, and has since spent the three years after the launch working around the clock to educate consumers and build awareness of all the possibilities and benefits of online shopping, including specific Shoppster benefits for customers.
We are also innovative in our communication with consumers, through all channels at our disposal. The detailed regulating of e-commerce is an excellent way to counter the grey economy and protect customers, but also to support small businesses and entrepreneurship, and to create new jobs.
Are you satisfied with the impact you’ve had on the business environment in Serbia?
When it comes to the transformation of the market, we are just part of a big wave. It is actually the rapid development of the internet over the past 20 years that has enabled the kind of e-commerce services that we have today, but I believe it’s crucial to realise the right ideas in the right way. I’m satisfied with our progressive growth over the previous three years, and that motivates us to work even harder and better. The best is yet to come.