Otto invests 300 million in online

Towards 8 billion euro online sales

Otto sells clothing, shoes, toys, sporting
goods, leisure products and more. It does so through physical stores,
catalogues and more and more through the internet: the online channel is worth
5.7 billion in sales on a yearly basis, the coming years that should evolve to
8 billion euro.

Online sales are worth 57% of total sales of
the company, in its home country Germany that number rises to 62% – and the company wants to enlarge that share even further during the next few years. At the end of last year Otto invested in the takeover of the
name Neckermann.de. Worldwide Otto is the second most important online seller to
private buyers, after Amazon.

Targeting m-tail

Otto sells its products through about sixty
websites. Four out of five have been adapted for tablets and smartphones. Not
unimportant, because sales via these devices has tripled over the past few
years.

Otto focuses strongly on developing pure online
players: for example, it wants to bring sales of its online toyshop myToys.de,
founded in 1999, from the current 280 million euro to 500 million euro. A
project that focuses on young women is planned for the beginning of 2014.

Supporting start-ups

Otto also participates in start-ups: since the
fall of 2008 it has supported more than a hundred initiatives in Europe, Asia
and North and South America. Overall Otto has invested over 100 million euro in new businesses, who usually get five years to prove themselves.

Otto made the move towards online in 1995.
Within the next months it wants to launch its own payment solution, named
Yapital, which can be used by companies that have a multi-channel strategy.
Business from the company and third parties, like SprotScheck and Görtz, will
be using Yapital.