In Finland, the Marketplace operates under the name of HobbyHall.fi, a brand that has been well-known to Finns since 1962.
The Marketplace already have 140 sellers who have gone through all the necessary steps and are successfully onboarded. They added around 84,000 products to the range of Hobbyhall.fi Marketplace. Activating of other sellers who are ready to start trading in Finland is ongoing.
"A few years ago, we also started the history of Marketplace in the Baltics with a few sellers and a few hundred first orders. Today we have more than 4,000 sellers and more than 5,000 orders per day. With our experience in the Baltics, we are rolling the model out for the Finnish market – with the aim to become the strongest local Marketplace. With this launch the Finnish customers will have access to a much wider range of products that they need", says Florin Filote, CEO of PHH Group.
According to him, the Finnish Marketplace plans to increase the number of active sellers to 700 this year. "At the same time, we are helping to strengthen business ties between different countries and opening up new markets for SMEs. We are celebrating a historic date that marks a new strategic milestone for our Marketplace and the beginning of a success story in Finland," says Filote.
Although the e-marketplace operates under different names – Pigu.lt in Lithuania, 220.lv in Latvia, Kaup24.ee in Estonia and HobbyHall.fi in Finland – sellers only need one account to trade in all 4 markets with a total population of more than 11 million.
The new Marketplace area, Finland, is home to 5.5 million people. By 2027, Finland is expected to have around 4 million e-shoppers.
According to Mr Filote, in order to ensure the stable operation of the e-marketplace in Finland, sellers will be connected to the new marketplace in a phased manner. The first sellers to be activated are those who already have experience of trading on the Marketplace: they are familiar with the trading processes and are ready to work in Finland, with good quality product descriptions, translations and photos.
"This will be the critical mass to start in a new market. All other concerns, including customer service, sales campaigns and product logistics, are taken care of by Marketplace," says F. Filote.
A Finnish company Hobby Hall started out as a telephone ordering company selling fitness equipment and leisure products. The company has been trading online for 23 years.
Pigu.lt is owned by PHH Group, the largest e-commerce company in the Baltic States. It was formed after the merger of Pigu.lt with the Finnish retail company Hobby Hall. PHH Group operates e-shops platforms in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Group's Marketplace ecosystem (e-marketplace) has more than 4,000 sellers and a product range of more than 3 million products. The number of sessions per year is around 150 million.