Ecosystem

Logistics certainly benefits from well-connectedness. Apart from Slovak post, which is an option used by many, the most common couriers are DHL, DPD, PPL, Geis Parcel, NeoShip, and GLS. Tracking orders, getting notifications and prompt communication from shipping companies is a norm. With the rising popularity of pick-up options, Zásilkovna and Uloženka are getting a strong hold of the market: consumers can collect their orders (almost) anytime while the shipping cost stays budget-friendly. 

Legislation / administration. VAT registration is compulsory after a turnover of 49,790 EUR in a maximum period of 12 consecutive calendar months. Standard VAT is 20 %. Slovakia also offers a reduced 10 % VAT on  books, selected foods, selected medical devices, accommodation services, and goods and services within the social economy.

In terms of payment options, it’s simple math: two thirds pays cash on pick-up, one third opts for a card payment (or bank transfer and other e-wallet methods). 

Delivery is certainly a field that has undergone the biggest transformation in the past couple of years. While not long ago, 83% of online shoppers had been in favour of home delivery, convenience and flexibility had become increasingly important in lifestyles of (urban) Slovaks. Pick-up points usually have longer opening hours (often including weekends) than post office or tight couriers’ windows for home delivery. In cities, self-service boxes are available day and night. The combination of an online store with a brick-and-mortar showroom is particularly popular, because one avoids the shipping cost. Bear this in mind: less than half of the customers leave the shopping cart before ordering goods due to insufficient shipping options. 

Candid insights before we go on:

We mentioned Slovakian e-commerce market is tightly connected to the Czech Republic’s. As a result of historic background, Slovaks are used to buying from Czech companies, listening to Czech TV and following Czech media. Interestingly, it doesn’t always work the other way around. The biggest Czech e-commerce players and present (and successful!) in Slovakia, so if you are one, you should build your presence too. 

How do businesses typically go about it? A notion still taken by many is to enter the new market copy-pasting all that’s working in your homeland. To gain a lot, you also want to spend a lot on different marketing activities, right? While in theory, risk-taking is essential to entrepreneurship, expansion is not like throwing spaghetti on the wall, waiting what sticks. Unless you have unlimited budget to spend, Laszló Szabó, Google Certified Trainer for Export in the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well as co-founder of Growww Digital, believes that planning ahead (and making your first mistakes in Excel sheet!) is the way towards fast growth in a new market. “We believe businesses exporting abroad should calculate their business potential and go for the low hanging fruit,” Szabó adds. Turns out, you don’t need to copy-paste everything. Why don’t you start with one or two channels? Or better yet: keep an open mind for an out-of-the-box solution. An audit with Growww Digital often turns out exactly that way!

Deep dive into digital marketing

Getting sales and becoming visible in Slovakia requires a set of skills. Both fast, bold actions, as well as continual effort, are needed in those first months (or years, for that matter). After all, you are running a marathon. But make no mistake: there are a couple of sprints waiting around every other corner. Get ready: PPC including Google Shopping, a very vivid landscape of social media and growing tendency to consume content, especially when it’s authentic, are here for you to grab and use. To make it to the finish line, you might want to have a dedicated partner by your side. 

Price Comparison Shopping Optimization

Comparison engines are typically a go-to marketing strategy in any CEE country, Slovakia not being an exception. Abroad players, new brands without (yet) established presence as well as segments typically performing well on price comparison sites (from electronics to home to everything baby care) would certainly benefit from employing Heureka.sk. A synonym for price comparison and a member of Heureka Group, it gathers and showcases a variety of products from thousands of stores. Pricemania, Najnakup.sk, Glami (fashion and accessories), Favi (home and deco) and Biano (housing) are other price comparison platforms.

In order to benefit from presence on such platforms, price competitiveness, consistent and quality product feed, as well as optimization are necessary. Simply put, there are three steps to success. First, you need precise XML and right categorization of your products. Second comes getting the Trusted badge (you become eligible when you’re rating above 90%). According to Zoltán Flekács, Head of Performance at Growww Digital, it is key to build trust with customers on comparison sites. Third is using bidding on product level to boost your sales numbers or effectiveness significantly. “We use automated tools and our broad expertise to fully capitalize on comparison shopping that may take up 10-40% of all your sales revenue as an e-commerce store merchant,” Flékács gives a peek into Growww Digital’s behind the scenes. 

PPC Advertising

Another low hanging fruit with potential to bring growth are Google Ads, Google Shopping and Facebook Ads campaigns. According to DPD’s 2019 research, 27% online stores experience significant increase in demand after investing in PPC ads. “As a results-first focused agency with senior specialists native in 6 CEE languages (incl. Slovak), we’ve seen the power localised campaigns can bring to an exporting business, even if it’s a first-timer,” László explains what they do at Growww Digital, and what you want to be doing too. He elaborates: “if a campaign is not profitable either in the short or the long run, that’d be a failure. Whether it is a tactical special deal offer or a comprehensive social media brand development project, we always look at the numbers and adjust our efforts accordingly to make sure we’re on the right path to hit the target. With our success fee based business model that is tailored to your needs we are in the role of real owner of your campaigns and manage them as our own ones. Your goals are our goals, after all.”

Apart from PPC, Google Shopping has been present in Slovakia since September 2019. According to Flékács, it is the single most effective way to enter a country with just a minimum level of localisation that can be done by any PPC professional not even speaking the language. “Shopping is the quickest win of them all,” he knows from experience, “and when it comes to Google Shopping, activating the 20% discount on CPC by a CSS/CSP provider is a no-brainer from a business point of view. Your competitors already use that advantage, so should you, too.”

SEO

Review your content and technical search engine optimization. We recommend having your technical (off-page) SEO centralized, meaning it is set in the same way across countries you export to. Make sure you localize off-site link building to Slovak pages. On-site wording and localization is a must. “With our in-house senior experts native in 5 CEE languages, we translate and localise your site’s metadata, while our proven local link building partners help to maximize the link juice to your sites. All of this to ensure long-term organic traffic and conversions,” Zóltán summarizes what steps would follow. Having a localized version of your store, in EUR and in Slovak language will enable you to have your store indexed in Slovak search engines. 

Social Media & Brand Communication

You don’t want to continually build your brand and business solely based on PPC or price comparison engines, do you? Although those definitely are the number one tools at the beginning, in the long run you want to diversify platforms you depend on and build a trustworthy brand that stands on its own. Right upon expansion, you can build a strong brand foundation by: 

• facilitating reviews on social media and forums
• obtaining references such as Heureka’s Verified by customers 
• as well as on your Facebook’s fan page. 

Being aware of your brand’s DNA and tone of voice is an integral part of the localization process. Authentic and value-driven brand communications builds trust and loyalty. Your strategy can be focused on goals such as sales, lead generation, or follower growth.

Content Creation

Content marketing means creating regular content that your audience finds useful, interesting, relevant and entertaining. It further boosts your brand goals. The whole communication is strongly tied to your business goals. As László says: “Whether you commit to growing 10% or 100% requires a whole another set of decisions, actions and tools.” For Growww Digital, with 7 years of experience in 7 countries, going all in in order to deliver results is the way of living. No wonder their average customer has grown by 84 % in the past five years. Take it from those who have results: 

Building a well-oiled content machine means you plan your content, build channels and systems. All that purposeful content should be pointing eyeballs in one direction and one direction only: to your website. To the places where conversions happen. “Localising and proofreading Popgrom’s pneu website helped boost conversion rate and increased effectiveness of all campaigns,” Alexandra Mezei, Head of Social Media and Brand shares. 

Conclusion and (your) next steps

Although smaller in popularity when it comes to expansion (we all want to catch those big fishes like Hungary or Romania, don’t we?), Slovakia is a market with steady e-commerce growth rate, relatively strong buying power and digitalisation across segments. Let’s be really blunt here because it’s the truth: if you are in the Czech Republic, it is a must to enter Slovakia, too.

Your first step can be really simple, yet highly actionable: deepen your market insight in this Facebook mastermind, a closed community of committed exporters, or get in touch with us if you need help with export. And if you know precisely what help you need in any area of digital marketing, talk to us directly and we will create a tailored offer that boosts your business results.