Skroutz – the Greek miser

Greece not only for holidays

The ancient land with its charming islands is a holiday destination often chosen by Poles. Quite the opposite is true of online sales. This is a pity, because Greece is a relatively large market with great opportunities for development. That is why it is worth taking an interest in it, and start your Greek adventure by selling on Skroutz.com, which has recently actively opened up to foreign sellers.

From comparison site to marketplace

The history of the Skroutz platform is similar to that of our native Ceneo. Founded in 2005, the service started as a price comparison engine. In fact, this is not the only similarity to Polish platforms. The name Skroutz from Greek means Skąpca, and yet Skąpiec has also been operating on the Polish market for many years. Along with the dynamic development of the platform, a decision was made to expand the service by adding a marketplace function, which allows users to make purchases directly on the platform (earlier Skroutz only aggregated offers and then redirected them to an online shop, where transactions could be completed). Currently, both models – both the classic comparison with redirection and the marketplace sale – operate on the platform. 

How do I start selling on Skroutz?

First of all, you need to fill in the registration form available at the link https://merchants.skroutz.gr/merchants/marketplace. Importantly, after although Skroutz still allows you to redirect traffic to your website we can choose to sell exclusively in the marketplace model, which does not force you to have an online shop in Greece. After completing the registration form we will need to complete the documentation and go through the KYC process. Fortunately, the KYC process on Skroutz is standard and should not pose any additional difficulties. The whole process will take about 7-10 days and if there are any problems, we can count on the fast help from the support team, who communicate in English without any problems. 

I already have an account, what do I need to do to list products?

If you have successfully activated your account, we can move on to placing your first offers. Here, the similarities to our native Ceneo are once again highlighted. In order to list products, we need to prepare an XML file. Skroutz offers two options for the format of the XML file. We can prepare the file in a dedicated format or use our own format, which then needs to be mapped in the administration panel (that is, we need to adjust which fields from our XML have the data required by the comparison engine). However, we recommend using the Skroutz standard, because then you can be sure that everything will be loaded correctly.

The preparation of the file itself can be solved in two ways. As we mentioned at the beginning, the Greek platform has opened up very much to non-Greek sellers. One expression of this is the integration with Baselinker. The integration allows you to list your products in the way known from the Polish integrator, and then on the basis of the listings, it creates XML, the link to which must be provided in the platform’s panel. The second method is to create the XML file yourself, using the services of partners such as shumee, for example. Once we have the link to the XML file and have completed it in the profile, our products will start to appear on the platform. If our product has previously been listed on the site (even by another retailer) it will appear instantly, this is because the products are grouped by EAN number. If our product has not been made available before, the process of adding it may take a few days, provided that we have provided all the necessary data.

On the subject of completing data, it is worth noting that Skroutz is trying to make it easier for retailers outside Greece. This is why, for example, the list of categories is available in both Greek and English.

Fulfilment of Greek orders

The order fulfilment process does not differ in any way from other European platforms. The important thing to remember is that every order must be accepted. Skroutz sets the time for order acceptance depending on when the order is placed, during the working day it is several hours, in case of weekends the time for acceptance is extended. If the order is not accepted within the set time, it will be cancelled and the funds returned to the customer. Repeatedly cancelled orders may lead to the account being blocked. 

The order handling itself can be done using the Baselinker integration, either directly on the platform or via its own integration (Skroutz provides a very accessible API). In the case of the Baselinker integration, it should be taken into account that currently, if products are not issued by Baselinker then there will be no possibility to download orders to Baselinker. Work is underway to unbundle this process, but as of the date of this article it is unclear when this will be unbundled. 

As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, Greece is not only the mainland, but also many larger and smaller islands. Before we, as shumee, started selling to the Greek market, we feared that we would have to sell limited to mainland Greece only (having experience from the French market, for example, where some couriers exclude island addresses). It turned out that nothing could be further from the truth. The courier network is very well developed and it is not necessary to impose any restrictions on product availability. Delivery itself takes a few days and depends on the destination. Of course, as with all other overseas shipping, the problematic part is the shipping costs, which range from twenty-something zloty to several dozen depending on the weight. Given how important price competition is, it is worth taking the time to find optimum solutions using cross-docking, for example, as is the case with shumee.

Skroutz is not always a problem

Although the name of the platform refers to a not necessarily favourite type of customer, it is worth starting to sell on the Greek marketplace. It is a great complement to sales for western markets and, as it is not the obvious choice, allows for higher margins. An additional advantage is that the Skroutz team is actively committed to developing a network of international sellers, so they are happy to provide help and advice. Finally, it is worth mentioning that in addition to the Greek market, Skroutz is increasingly active in the Cyprus market and all features available for the home market are also made available for sale in the Cyprus market. Due to XML requirements, as well as logistical considerations, we encourage you to start selling with the help of a partner, so that the process of starting the sale is not a problem.