Cvetojević wants to build a logistics platform for small and medium-sized companies which are increasingly turning towards e-business.
Saša Cvetojević, one of the best-known business angels in Croatia and the owner of Insako, is expanding into micro-logistics. His plan is to become the leading logistics provider for small and medium e-businesses in the Adriatic region. To do so, he has contracted a franchise for the Adriatic region with Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE), a former member of the UPS Group from the United States, reports Poslovni.hr on November 22, 2017.
Cvetojević believes there is much room for expansion in the Croatian market, given the growth of e-commerce in Croatia. “MBE’s goal is not to offer the lowest price in the market but the best service. We want to open 60 offices in the region in the next two to three years,” says Cvetojević. According to the “State of Ecommerce Mind 2017” survey, all online merchants in Croatia recorded growth, and there was an increase in the number of online retailers.
Average spending per transaction is 7.6 percent higher than last year, and the number of Internet users who do not buy online fell from 12 to 9 percent. The data show that e-sales in Croatia rose nine percent to 2.7 billion kunas last year. Cvetojević says that, despite this, in Croatia, there is a lack of high-quality logistics services that would be focus specifically on an increasing number of small e-commerce companies, and that is why he has decided to do this through MBE.
“Returns of products are the biggest problem of Croatian web shops because they do not know how to do them, and the same problem exists in the United States as well. Offices like ours are the main channel for the return of products to Amazon,” he says.
In Malaysia, MBE continues to grow with online merchandise being delivered to their outlets, which opens up an opportunity for collaboration with delivery services. That could be a good solution for delivery of goods to customers and businesses in Croatia as well, because some e-shops do not ship to Croatia, while MBE can mediate internationally.
He plans to offer his services to exporters as well, especially those who send samples abroad. “In Sicily, local family farms use our services to send deliveries of olive oil and even tomatoes, while in Israel a large number of e-merchants order goods through Amazon, eBay and Alibaba, and then resell them under their own brand thanks to micro-logistics,” says Cvetojević.
He adds he has already found the location for the first branch. It will be located on Radnička Street in Zagreb, and he expects to open it in February. He will first cover Croatia and Slovenia, and later Serbia and the rest of the region.
Translated from Poslovni.hr.
Mail Boxes Etc., Inc. was founded in 1980 in the United States, and grew to be the world’s largest franchisor of retail shipping, postal and business service centers. In 2001 Mail Boxes Etc., Inc. was acquired by United Parcel Service. Starting in April 2003, Mail Boxes Etc. locations in the United States re-branded as The UPS Store. The UPS Store brand was later used at centers in Canada and India.
In 2009, for locations outside the United States, Canada, and India, the brands, marks, and operating system of Mail Boxes Etc. were sold to the Fineffe Group, based in Milan, Italy. The Fineffe Group is the holding company of the Fiorelli family business interests, operating since 1993 with affiliates for retail services under the following brands: Mail Boxes Etc., Western Union, Direfarestampare and Credit Planet. Founder and Chairman Graziano Fiorelli joins son Paolo, CEO, to direct more than 1500 worldwide associates from its Milan headquarters. The company generated consolidated revenue of more than €345 million in 2014.
