August the 23rd, 2023 – The Croatian Bazzar platform is now heading towards bagging a million users, and is expanding to neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, Bazzar, which is currently the largest domestic web platform of all, is expanding to neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina’s market. This will be the third market on which the Croatian Bazzar platform will operate after taking its first business steps outside of Croatian borders. That move was made back in November 2021 to Serbia.
“We’re now in the final stage of preparations for the launch, and it should start in September,” Tana Zimmermann, the co-founder of Bazzar, announced.
An economic boost in the form of jobs in Bosnia and Herzegovina
To begin with, as she says, they will employ about 30 new people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, entering that particular market is far from the only innovation that this domestic company, which recently celebrated ten years of doing business, is preparing for the beginning of autumn 2023. The management of the Croatian Bazzar platform has also announced the launch of a mobile application (app) for all three markets on which it is currently present – Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Expansion plus purchases on the Bazzar platform via their upcoming mobile phone app should be the basis for further growth of the company whose goal is to “conquer” the markets of Southeastern Europe. The decision for the next expansion to be in Bosnia and Herzegovina was based on analyses which, according to Zimmermann, showed that it has the greatest potential of all. After expanding to Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro were also mentioned as the most likely new markets.
“That was the original plan, but through market analysis and from our experience from Serbia, we came to the conclusion that at this moment in time, it would be smarter to start with the market in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The number of inhabitants in that country is much higher than the number of people living in Montenegro or in Macedonia. On top of that, the average salaries earned, and thus purchasing potential, has increased significantly. Perhaps the most important thing is that we have no competition to fight against on that market,” explained Zimmermann.
A big plus for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s residents
The arrival of the Croatian Bazzar platform in Bosnia and Herzegovina should bring a number of pluses to its residents. First of all, it will be the first major web shop through which residents will be able to purchase various categories of products. The trend of e-commerce is only just really breaking into that country’s market in a big way.
Tana Zimmermann explained that today, Bosnia and Herzegovina is approximately where Croatia was ten years ago in terms of online buying and selling. Its “conquest” will therefore be challenging, but they are very optimistic about their future plans there.
“Many avoid such markets, but we see this challenge as an opportunity. People had an issue when we set ourselves up in Serbia, asking why we didn’t go to Slovenia. Today, however, everyone is setting up in Serbia, which is estimated to have the greatest e-commerce potential over the next three years. People say the same about Bosnia and Herzegovina, but our expectations are very high. We’re sure that we can achieve a similar result there as we did in Serbia,” she said.
Serbia saw them smash their goals in a short time
A little more than one year and a half after expanding to the Serbian market, the Croatian Bazzar platform exceeded all the goals they’d previously set for themselves. They have about 300,000 registered users and about 500 partners. Here in the Republic of Croatia, they have 600,000 registered users and around 700 partners.
Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina should soon have access the extensive range of products they offer at Bazzar. Tana Zimmermann pointed out that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they will start out with 200 to 300 partners to begin with.
“Every day we have hundreds of attempted orders from Bosnia and Herzegovina. I say ”attempted orders” because, unfortunately, at the moment we cannot deliver from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The desire is very much there, there’s no offer yet. We’re here to provide them with an offer, and an offer of as many products as possible in one place and a simple and safe purchase process ensured,” she said.
