Otto wants its own payment service provider

German ecommerce company Otto wants to found a subsidiary to handle all payment functions. It’s the latest step, and a bold one, in the further development of Otto as an online platform.

The major German ecommerce group Otto Group is still busy changing its flagship brand Otto.de from an online retailer into a marketplace. The idea behind the transformation is that, following Amazon’s example, third-party retailers will provide a large part of Otto’s sales in the future.

A subsidiary to handle all payment functions on Otto.de

Now, Otto has made a decision to further develop its platform. The German company wants to found a subsidiary that will handle all payment functions on its marketplace. “For us, setting up our own payment service provider is the next big and logical step on the path of our transformation from an online retailer to a platform operator”, CEO Marc Opelt says.

Setting up our own payment service provider is the next big and logical step.

5% of total sales

Opelt says the expansion of Otto’s marketplace is running at full speed, even during the corona period. “Every day, new dealers come to the platform, and by the end of the year there will be well over 1,000”, he predicts. This would mean the number of marketplace dealers have more than doubled this year. Currently, third-party retailers account to around 5 percent of total sales of Otto’s platform.