Crushing the competition
The company's sales forecast for this year, at zł.32 million, a 45 percent rise from 2003, has caught the attention of everyone in the Internet sector. This comes amidst an e-commerce industry in Poland that was worth over zł.300 million in 2003, and a spectacular rise is predicted this year.
The shop launched at the beginning of 1999, the offspring of mother company Prószynski i S-ka, a publishing house. Starting from scratch with just several employees from the web-design section of Prószynski, it quickly outran the competition. "No e-shop could compete with our prices because we were and still are buying directly from publishers and producers, not from wholesalers," explains management board member Mirosława Puczko. That, and cooperation with international e-commerce giant Amazon.com, gave the company a good push at the beginning.
Being one of the pioneers on the market, Merlin.pl had to shoulder the burden of promoting Internet sales in Poland and changing customers' habits. Not an easy task, considering that Poland falls below not only Western Europe but even Lithuania and the Czech Republic in Internet availability. To achieve the goal, an individual approach to each and every order ensures the effectiveness of point-and-click buying. And it won't result in any suspiciously large drafts from the customer's checking account.
With Merlin.pl receiving their one millionth order this September (the lucky millionth customer got their order free), this most popular Internet retailer in Poland has clearly convinced the public its service is easy and safe.
"Our key resources are the trust from our customers and reliability," says Puczko. Merlin.pl has held off on launching any promotional campaign to avoid clogging its servers with new orders and instead concentrates its efforts on the existing level of orders, making sure to optimally service each and every order.
Merlin.pl boasts of providing 90 percent of all media products available in Poland. Other stores have to limit their offer due to lack of space. As Puczko puts it, "our investments in infrastructure allowed us to have everything always in stock." And investments topping zł.9 million in five years are of unprecedented scale in e-biz. The resultMerlins market position is out of competitions reach.a
The shop launched at the beginning of 1999, the offspring of mother company Prószynski i S-ka, a publishing house. Starting from scratch with just several employees from the web-design section of Prószynski, it quickly outran the competition. "No e-shop could compete with our prices because we were and still are buying directly from publishers and producers, not from wholesalers," explains management board member Mirosława Puczko. That, and cooperation with international e-commerce giant Amazon.com, gave the company a good push at the beginning.
Being one of the pioneers on the market, Merlin.pl had to shoulder the burden of promoting Internet sales in Poland and changing customers' habits. Not an easy task, considering that Poland falls below not only Western Europe but even Lithuania and the Czech Republic in Internet availability. To achieve the goal, an individual approach to each and every order ensures the effectiveness of point-and-click buying. And it won't result in any suspiciously large drafts from the customer's checking account.
With Merlin.pl receiving their one millionth order this September (the lucky millionth customer got their order free), this most popular Internet retailer in Poland has clearly convinced the public its service is easy and safe.
"Our key resources are the trust from our customers and reliability," says Puczko. Merlin.pl has held off on launching any promotional campaign to avoid clogging its servers with new orders and instead concentrates its efforts on the existing level of orders, making sure to optimally service each and every order.
Merlin.pl boasts of providing 90 percent of all media products available in Poland. Other stores have to limit their offer due to lack of space. As Puczko puts it, "our investments in infrastructure allowed us to have everything always in stock." And investments topping zł.9 million in five years are of unprecedented scale in e-biz. The resultMerlins market position is out of competitions reach.a
