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Growth was exceeded once again compared to the previous year

25 percent increase in sales: 2015 was a record year for Mercateo

Mercateo AG is reporting another record year. Sales in 2015 increased by 25 percent to EUR 200.2 million compared to 2014 (2014: EUR 160.0 million). Mercateo is Europe’s leading B2B procurement platform where companies cover their business supplies and buyers and suppliers network with each other. Today, the company company operates in 13 European countries and has more than 400 employees.

“Despite extensive start-up costs for the future expansion of the business model from a pure procurement platform into an internationally positioned B2B networking platform, we were able to achieve a record year. What is remarkable in this context is that we said goodbye to paid search engine marketing in 2015 and massively expanded our sales team at the same time,” says Peter Ledermann, Director for Personnel and Finances at Mercateo AG, reviewing the 2015 financial year. “Under these circumstances, the growth financed by our own cash flow is even more important to us,” states Ledermann.

Sales increased across all customer segments but rose particularly dramatically, in fact doubling, in the core target group of SME customers. Another success factor was the positive trend of customers connecting their business systems to the Mercateo platform. These are primarily SMEs and corporations who optimise their electronic purchasing with Mercateo and use various Mercateo functions and services to achieve this. Developments on the supplier side also contributed to the growth: the Mercateo BusinessShop was positioned successfully as a product. By using Mercateo BusinessShop, suppliers offer their products in a shop on the neutral Mercateo platform. They also process their transactions through the platform. This generates additional capacity for their core business and promotes sales with existing customers and new target groups.

The company has ambitious plans for the second half of 2016: “Also this year, we want to achieve a similar level of growth as in 2014 and 2015. Profitability is to be increased at the same time. We want to develop the platform’s networking functions and lead all corporate areas towards this topic. As a neutral platform, we can support digitalisation and promote variety and direct relationships to buyers and suppliers through the network. “, the Management Board declares.
We also want to develop our internationalism even further. Peter Ledermann adds: “With our international platforms we enable companies to connect Mercateo to their merchandise management system European-wide and therefore use a standardised procurement solution for their national companies.” Mercateo founded its own national companies in Italy and Spain in the spring of 2016. The platform in Belgium that was previously only accessible to key account customers has been opened up to all business customers now. The go-ahead was also given for the business in Switzerland.