EasyGroup is “entering mainstream online retail” with the launch of a marketplace spanning 21 countries later this year.
The UK site – set to go live later this year – will sell a range of ambient and frozen food and drink, alongside health and beauty, cleaning and petcare products.
EasyShop.com “represents a major move by EasyGroup into consumer retail, applying one of Europe’s most widely recognised brands to a new sector at an international scale”, the company said.
The EasyShop marketplace is being built on the proprietary marketplace technology of OnBuy.com, the largest UK-owned online marketplace. OnBuy will provide the “infrastructure and operational framework required to support cross-border trade”, EasyGroup said.
The OnBuy platform has already been proven internationally through OnBuy’s own marketplace, which has grown more than 86% over the past three years and supports over 100 million products across Europe, with several markets delivering quarterly growth in excess of 150%.
“The Easy family of brands has expanded into many new sectors by focusing on simplicity and value for money,” said Stelios Haji-Ioannou, creator and owner of the Easy family of brands.
“I believe an online retail marketplace using a great domain like EasyShop is a natural next step. Exciting times for the Easy family.”
The “straightforward, value-led” new marketplace has already commenced seller onboarding. Its pitch to sellers is focused on the platform’s ability to launch products “simultaneously across multiple countries, without the complexity typically associated with managing multiple local marketplaces or building infrastructure market by market”.
It is expected consumers will be able to make purchases from the site in the fourth quarter of this year.
“EasyShop removes many of the barriers that typically slow retail expansion by operating as a pure marketplace without inventory, logistics, or local infrastructure,” said Cas Paton, CEO and founder of OnBuy.
“Working with the Easy family of brands brings together one of Europe’s most recognisable consumer names with proven marketplace expertise, accelerating awareness and enabling retailers to reach customers across multiple countries much more quickly.”
EasyShop will operate as a pure marketplace, with no retail competition from OnBuy, “giving retailers a fair and transparent platform designed to support long-term growth”, he added.
Easy Group is best known for its EasyJet airline – which this week caught the eye of US investment firm Castlelake for a possible takeover, according to reports. Other easy brands include EasyHotel, EasyCar, EasyBus, EasyGym, EasyCruise, EasyStorage, EasyMoney, EasyBet, EasyEnergy, EasyBitcoin, Easy Sim and EasyFerry among a total of 386.
It is not Haji-Ioannou’s first foray into food and drink selling. In 2016 the group launched EasyFoodstore, with ambitions for a chain of stores “dotted around the country”. Only one was ever opened: in Park Royal, northwest London, in an EasyBus depot off the Hanger Lane gyratory.
In 2017 it launched EasyFood, a restaurant delivery app to compete directly with Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats. It can still be downloaded on the iPhone app store, but not Android’s, while its social media accounts have been inactive for more than a year.
No comments yet