Media Markt expands online and offline in Belgium

Media Markt will open its online store in Belgium next week. The electronics product chain will also open ten more brick-and-mortar stores in the European country, while many existing stores will get an upgrade. In total, Media Markt expects to invest some 30 million euro on this operation.

The first brick-and-mortar store is expected to open on the 27th of November in Mechelen, while the online store will open on the 19th of June. “We’ve tested the shop several weeks now to guarantee we’ll have a flawless launch. We are ready now and we have the ambition to generate 10% of our Belgian sales with this online channel over time”, says Philippe Depautex, Managing Director Media Markt – Saturn Online Benelux.

In an attempt to keep up with the competition from pure players, Media-Saturn recently acquired Redcoon. They already owned a part of the company, but now they are its only owners. According to Media Markt Redcoon.be is a ‘little player on the Belgian market with great potential’. The Belgian/Luxembourgian branch of the Media-Saturn Group was founded in 2002 and had a turnover of 697 million euros last year. In three years it wants to generates sales of about 1 billion euros while holding 20% market share. Nowadays it’s some 14%.