Romania's leading online retailer, eMAG, announced its strategic priorities for this year, including expanding to a new market and focusing on the marketplace operations, which will imply 2,000 new workplaces.

eMAG already operates in Hungary and Bulgaria.

The Romanian group postponed plans to enter the Polish market, arguing that "the market is more mature and requires a different type of investments" than initially envisaged, explained the former eMAG CEO and current Chairman of the group, Iulian Stanciu, Ziarul Financiar reported.

As regards the new country envisaged for expansion this year, Stanciu said that the group has two candidates on its shortlist at this moment. eMAG will grow more on foreign markets than at home and develop the marketplace faster than its own business, Stanciu explained.

"We will invest in new businesses, as we did with Sameday (courier) or Tazz (home delivery). We also have eMAG Ventures, where we will grow, we will invest in over 100 companies, which we will develop rapidly," Iulian Stanciu said, according to Profit.ro.

He estimates that the share of online retail in Romania has reached 10% [of total retail], which is not much compared to countries where online trade is 30%, such as South Korea, China, and the United Kingdom.

eMAG is controlled by the South African group Naspers while Iulian Stanciu is a minority shareholder.

andrei@romania-insider.com

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