What is Shöpping

 

Umlauts are not often seen in the names of online marketplaces. Indeed, e-Commerce players usually try to choose names that fit with English, the language most often used in the industry. Not to mention that umlauts in domain names may cause problems for users.

 

Clearly, Shöpping has other ideas. Although its domain name translates the “ö” into a safer “oe”, this Austrian online marketplace proudly features the predominantly Germanic character in its brand name.

 

Never seen it before? Well, time to get familiar with it, because Shöpping is about to enter the international scene.

 

Click here to discover other interesting European online marketplaces.

 

 

Introduction to Shöpping

Founded in 2017, Shöpping is the e-Commerce subsidiary of the Austrian postal service. The marketplace aggregates products from diverse Austrian traders and delivers them in a carbon neutral way via the national post. This, according to Shöpping, is a win-win-win situation for businesses, customers and the environment.

 

 

Screenshot of the homepage of shoepping.at

 

 

Customers can browse categories like electronics, fashion, books, toys, gardening, as well as regional specialities and wines from the various parts of Austria. In line with Shöpping’s environment-friendly approach, the marketplace also features a refurbished category for pre-owned goods.

 

Find out all about the rise of refurbished products in e-Commerce!

 

Shöpping has around 367 thousand monthly visitors, which makes it the 18th most popular website in the e-Commerce category in Austria.

 

Traders wishing to sell their products on the marketplace have to contact Shöpping to receive a draft contract. After signing and emailing the document back to Shöpping, you can upload your products or simply synchronise your existing webshop with your new Shöpping store.

 

The Austrian post takes care of shipping, and in case you want to, even fulfilment. As for payment options, Shöpping accepts all major credit cards as well as PayPal, Google Pay and Klarna.

 

The marketplace charges a monthly fee of 39 euros for a seller account. On top of that, each transaction costs sellers 0.39 euros, and depending on the product category, a further amount between 5-15% of the selling price.

 

Although Shöpping mostly features Austrian sellers, vendors from other EU countries have also recently gained the option to register an account on the marketplace. And as of the end of this year, customers in Germany will also be able to shop on Shöpping (or as they say in Shöpping lingo, to shöp.)

 

 

Shöpping in Germany

According to Robert Hadzetovic, Managing Director of Shöpping, the marketplace has seen a steady rise of interest in Austrian products from German customers. Thus the decision to expand to Germany will help these customers to access Austrian products more easily, and will also be beneficial for Austrian producers and sellers by enlarging their market.

 

The expansion is planned for the fourth quarter of 2024 and runs parallel to Shöpping’s call for more EU-based sellers to join the marketplace.

 

Considering that Germany has one of the largest e-Commerce markets in Europe, Shöpping sellers could definitely find new opportunities there. However, with global marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, as well as local brands like Hood and Otto already present and popular, competition is quite fierce in the country’s e-Commerce industry.

 

Newcomers like Shöpping have to adhere to specifics of the German e-Commerce market, like language, laws and a unique selling point (USP). Luckily, thanks to the common language and the interesting niche (local Austrian products), Shöpping can skip translation costs and may already have a way to grab the attention of local customers.

 

 

Screenshot of https://www.shoepping.at/t/regionale-betriebe showcasing a regional wine producer

 

 

Online brand protection on Shöpping

No marketplace is immune to the problem of IP infringing listings, especially those that work with third party sellers like Shöpping.

 

Find out all about third party sellers here!

 

Although Shöpping doesn’t allow the sale of IP infringing products, the responsibility of adhering to this rule lies with the sellers. This means that unless and until someone alerts the marketplace to the presence of an IP infringing listing, fraudulent sellers may operate freely.

 

Since this is standard procedure for most online marketplaces worldwide, it’s easy to see why rights holders need to set up an online brand protection programme to watch out for damaging cases of IP infringement.

 

Luckily, globaleyez’s services were developed with just that in mind.

 

With the aid of our state-of-the-art software tool traxster, our marketplace monitoring service sifts through millions of listings on over 150 marketplaces worldwide. Keyword-based searches allow us to flag any listing that features your brand name, product name, or a misspelt version of them. Thanks to built-in filter options, we can quickly discard authorised listings and focus on the ones that infringe on your IP rights.

 

Not all fraudulent sellers cause an equal amount of damage; the larger the volume, the more extensive the potential damage your brand may suffer. This is why we developed our marketplace monitoring service: to pinpoint the sellers with the highest volume and transaction numbers. Once we have the data of these sellers, we know how to prioritise our actions.

 

Gathering information is crucial before entering a new market. As an added bonus, the information you gained through our service gives you a clear picture of the market, which helps you to decide whether to enter a new market or not.

 

Since fraudsters often use images to attract customers, a round of image monitoring would be perfect to complement the results of marketplace monitoring. With flexible reverse-image searches, we can detect your stolen images, or any copies of them fraudsters may have created themselves.

 

However, a product listing or picture may not provide enough information about the seller or the origins of a product. In case we need more information, we recommend a test purchase. Buying the product gives us a lot more to go on when it comes to enforcing your rights. Armed with all this information, we approach the marketplace and demand the removal of the infringing listings.

 

 

Conclusion

If all goes according to plan, Shöpping will be available in Germany by the end of 2024. Check out the marketplace and see for yourself whether your brand would benefit from appearing on Shöpping.

 

However, don’t forget that regardless of what you decide, fraudsters may try to sell your products on Shöpping (or anywhere else on the internet). Don’t let this ruin your brand; contact us and let’s set up an effective online brand protection programme for you!