British Ao.com expanding to more European countries

The British electronica store Ao.com is building a new distribution center and offices for the European mainland. From there the retailer wants to expand in Germany and around. A launch in markets such as the Netherlands or Austria seems just a matter of time.

The new warehouse gets a storage floor of more than 35.000 square meter and will be rented for 10 years. The opening is planned for the first half of 2017 and it replaces the current two fulfilmentcenters that the company has in use. It should have plenty of room for the current growth on the German market but it also should be able to ‘facilitate the first expansion to the countries around Germany’ said the company in a trading update.

‘Ao.com to become the best electronics retailer in Europe’
Ao.com (‘Appliances Online’) is already active in the UK and Ireland. Last year Germany was it’s first stop on the European mainland. The company said to be satisfied on the first results of this expansion. Early this month CEO John Roberts claimed that Ao.com ‘has to become the best electronics retailer of Europe’. The CEO aims to become market leader on all markets that it is active on. He expects market leaders to own about a third of the electronics market within the next 10 years.

Roberts already confirmed that they are looking at countries such as Austria and The Netherlands. The Dutch market is ‘geographical interesting’ but of course in Austria the language makes a cross border adventure easier for the company that is already growing fast in Germany. Dutch ecommerce magazine Twinkle noticed that the Dutch domain name and Chamber of Commerce registration are both already done. The same counts for the Belgium name and registration. The magazine forsees a big fight in The Netherlands with Coolblue, a local online player in electronics that is currently one of the fastest growing online stores in the country.