Kaufland to open its marketplace in Poland and Austria

Kaufland, one of the larger ecommerce platforms in Germany, is expanding to Poland and Austria this coming late summer. Schwarz Gruppe, the owner of Kaufland and supermarket chain Lidl, has more online plans: it is allocating 200 million for Lidl’s ecommerce activities.

Kaufland, a well-known hypermarket chain in Germany, launched its marketplace three years ago, shortly after the acquisition of Real.de by Schwarz Gruppe. In Germany, the marketplace attracts tens of millions of visitors monthly. The assortment comprises more than 45 million products in over 6,400 categories.

Cross-border expansion

Last year, Kaufland already became active with its marketplace in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. According to Gerald Schönbucher, the CEO of Kaufland E-commerce, the platform is already among the largest marketplaces in those countries, with many local sellers. He considers expansion to Poland and Austria a logical step. With 245 stores, Kaufland is an established supermarket chain in Poland, where ecommerce is on the rise. In Austria, the chain has no physical stores.

Kaufland becomes a pure online player in Austria.

Despite the lack of physical stores, Kaufland claims to have a brand awareness of over 40 percent in Austria. Furthermore, the country has few local marketplace providers with a comparable wide product range; Kaufland sees an opportunity in the Austrian online landscape.

Fulfillment by Kaufland

The basis for internationalization is the ‘all-in-one solution’ Kaufland Global Marketplace. This allows sales partners to sell nationally and internationally on the different domains after registration. This year, the marketplace also introduces its international Fulfillment by Kaufland service, enabling faster delivery of orders to customers.

Lidl Digital

Kaufland’s sister chain Lidl is also heavily investing in improving its online activities. Parent company Schwarz Gruppe confirms to Lebensmittel Zeitung a capital injection of 200 million euros to reorganize and further develop Lidl Digital. This is deemed necessary to improve profitability. Although Lidl is experiencing growth in ecommerce, it tripled its loss in the last fiscal year.