Online marketplace Fruugo is seeing signs of online festive shopping picking up speed earlier than ever, as it reports its sales are up by more than 100 per cent year on year. A particular surge has been seen in its riding scooter category, which includes hoverboards, electric scooters and hoverseats in the run-up to Black Friday and Christmas, with sales up 1,237 per cent.
Fruugo’s online marketplace is specialised in cross-border commerce, with 85 per cent of its sales being international, and the interest for riding scooters is coming from consumers not only in the UK but also Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. Riding scooters – particularly electrically powered products – are growing in popularity globally and used both for leisure and as vehicles for short distance commuting in cities outside the UK.
By helping retailers with translations of marketing copy, currency conversions and staying on top of VAT rules, Fruugo is ensuring that they can maximise their sales of scooters across a few dozen markets, opening up previously untapped opportunities for many merchants who more than ever will rely on holiday sales to carry them over into the new year.
The online marketplace has seen sales on its platform grow steadily this year, with overall year on year sales up by as much as 220 per cent during the initial weeks of the first COVID-19 lockdowns in April and more than doubled in October. Sales are expected to continue rising to record levels as non-essential shops in the UK and many other key markets are closed and consumers have become more open to pursuing deals and purchasing gifts online.
Tony Preedy, managing director of Fruugo, comments: “This year’s holiday shopping is looking to be record-setting for online retail, and the sales surge of popular Christmas gifts such as scooters that we’re already seeing indicates that many consumers have started getting presents and cashing in on deals earlier than normal this year. With large parts of Europe now under new lockdown restrictions, which in most cases includes the shutting down of unessential shops, this shift of sales from the high street to digital channels is a truly international phenomenon that is also pushing retailers to start trading more across borders.
“We exist to help retailers of all sizes sell their products to a global audience by connecting them with over four billion potential customers in over 40 countries. At the start of the pandemic we saw how this can be crucial for many merchants and overall sales more than doubled year on year – to the benefit of many of our sellers.
“Our performance this year is testament to consumers becoming increasingly accustomed to using marketplaces for their online shopping, as it directs you to a wide range of products not easily found elsewhere all in one place – a benefit for shoppers looking for more unique or unusual products.”
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