Shoper acquires Shoplo and increases market share

Shoper, owner of Poland's most popular e-commerce platform for running an online store in the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, has acquired the third most popular such platform in the country, with about 4,700 stores. Under an agreement with SumUp, Shoper acquired 100% of Shoplo Sp. z o.o. for PLN 17.5 million.

The acquisition is part of Shoper's strategy in the area of mergers and acquisitions, aimed at strengthening its market leadership in the segment of online stores in the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. By 2026, Shoper plans to operate more than 50,000 online stores.

- Thanks to this investment, we are significantly increasing the market share of online stores and expanding our customer base by nearly 5,000 companies engaged in e-commerce. They will gain access to a wide range of services that will support their sales development and operational efficiency," comments Marcin Kuśmierz, CEO of Shoper.

In the first half of the year, Shoper invested in a multi-channel (omnichannel) sales platform, ErpBox, enabling, among other things, sales through Polish and foreign trading platforms and integrations with CRM and ERP systems. The e-commerce market leader is carrying out a number of projects related to expanding its offerings for small and medium-sized businesses. Shoper platform users have also gained access to a new system of smart recommendations and financial services (buy now, pay later). In the second half of the year, Shoper plans to introduce, among other things, new logistics services (e.g., fullfilment) and expand its financial services offering (e.g., merchant development financing).

Shoper operates on the popular SaaS model of offering a service in the form of a subscription. In Shoper's case, there are several content-differentiated packages, allowing the solution to be flexibly tailored to the size and characteristics of a given business. The Company's business model is characterized by a high level of scalability, which improves margins as the number of platform users increases. In addition to the Shoper solution, which is distributed on a subscription basis, many additional services are billed under a pay-as-you-grow model, which involves correlating Shoper's revenues with the volume of turnover generated (GMV) by stores on the Company's platform. In the last 12 months, the GMV generated by direct stores on the Shoper platform increased to PLN 4.7 billion.

Shoplo, owner of the e-commerce platform, is a SaaS-based company. It was established in 2012 and has grown rapidly in recent years. There are about 4,700 stores operating on its platform, with Clothing, Children's and Hobby categories particularly strongly represented. The GMV of stores operating on the platform totaled in 2020. 537 million, and already 361 million in the first half of this year. Shoplo's revenue in 2020 reached about PLN 6.7 million, and in the first half of 2021 was about PLN 4.0 million.

- We expect numerous synergies resulting from this transaction, as Shoper and Shoplo addressed the same part of the market with their solutions and competed against each other. Customers will soon benefit from the same modern platform and multi-channel customer service," adds Marcin Kuśmierz.

The subject of the agreement Shoper concluded today with SumUp is the acquisition of 100% of the shares in Shoplo Ltd. Shoper acquired customers, contracts and business partnerships, and gained rights to the Shoplo brand and its Internet domains. Due to having its own state-of-the-art platform and properly organized structure and human resources, Shoper did not take over the technology and employees. Existing users of the Shoplo platform will benefit from the attractive solutions of the Shoper platform.

Shoper published its preliminary estimated financial results yesterday, August 16. Revenues in H1 2021 amounted to PLN 33.3 million, up 59% y/y, adjusted managerial EBITDA reached PLN 15.4 million, 45% more than in the same period last year. The GMV of direct stores on the Shoper platform increased from PLN 1.8 billion to PLN 2.5 billion, recording a growth rate of 41%. For the last 12 months ended June 2021, GMV has already exceeded PLN 4.7 billion.

The company made its debut on the main market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange on July 9 this year, the value of the public offering of shares was PLN 363 million. After the first month of trading, the share price was 31 percent higher than the maximum offering price for institutional and individual investors. In July, the Company was among the thirty companies listed on the WSE with the highest value of share trading.