20 years Mango Internet presence birthday online: the pioneer in online sales in textiles seeks to reach 1,000 million revenues in this channel by 2021.

"Customers in many countries where the company did not have a physical presence began to contact us to be able to buy products in some way", begins Elena Carasso, the first person to bet on the launch of Mango e-commerce and one of the heavyweights in the heart of the textile chain.

Faced with this new reality that was opening up, the current director of the online business and customers understood that they had to do something. And most importantly, they had to be the first. It has been 21 years since she herself presented to Isak Andic, president of the group, a proposal not without risk:
launch online sales. Andic understood that it was a "real opportunity" to reach out to his clients and capture new ones.

20 years Mango Internet presence birthday online

In 2000, Mango became the first Spanish group to launch the online channel in all its lines of business and throughout the European Economic Community (EEC). Since then, many things have happened.

Today, the e-commerce of the Catalan company is available in 85 countries on 5 continents. At the end of 2020, more than 260 employees worked in this division, 30% more than the previous year and a figure that reflects the growing role played by the online channel.

In the last results of Mango, corresponding to 2020, online contributed 766 of the 1,842 million euros in turnover. That is, 42% of the income.

By 2021, Mango's goal is for the figure to climb to 1,000 million.

20 years Mango Internet presence birthday online

It was the year 1996 when the company launched its website with the aim of publicizing the brand worldwide both in the countries where it was already physically present and in those that were not. Four years later, the next step was to open online sales in 15 European countries, including Finland, Portugal, the United Kingdom and, of course, Spain.

The Catalan company advanced Inditex 7 years in the launch of e-commerce. The Galician giant tried first with his home division and not with Zara, his flagship, which would take 3 years to land on the online channel. Since then, its progression has been exponential and the Internet sales of the company founded by Amancio Ortega already contribute 32% of its turnover or, what is the same, 6,612 million euros.

Mango was a pioneer and, if in 2003 the turnover of the online channel exceeded one million euros, 7 years later, with Zara taking its first steps on the Internet, Mango's revenue stood already at 21 million euros, with an annual growth of 80%.

20 years Mango Internet presence birthday online

Since then, expansion has been sustained. In 2010, online sales landed in China, Russia and Turkey. Three years later, it exceeded the threshold of 100 million revenues, coinciding with its launch in 8 countries in the Middle East.

"The road was not easy," says the board. It could not be because, in part, the path was not even drawn: "Most e-commerce were generalists in terms of offer and services; many worked only locally and, those who did it internationally, did not adapt to the needs of each market".

20 years Mango Internet presence birthday online: Mango's vocation was international and omnichannel and, therefore, he understood that the best thing was to develop its own technology to gain flexibility and adapt to the needs of each country. With this premise, he proposed web that was initially available in 4 languages: Spanish, French, German and English. Today, there are more than 20, with rates, local currencies and services adapted to each country.

This part, Carasso acknowledges, was the most complex. Both at a technological level and for the need to understand each market. Having a network of physical stores already consolidated was key:"It helped us enormously because we already understood well the singularities of each geography".

With the pandemic raging with everything in its path, the textile trade faced an unprecedented debacle: the sector closed 2020 with a turnover of 10,619 million euros, 41.26% below the previous year. This figure was accompanied by another equally negative figure: 14,800 fewer shops and the destruction of 26,700 jobs, according to the employers ' association Acotex.

20 years Mango Internet presence birthday online: The impact took its toll on the entire industry; also on large groups. Inditex's sales fell by 27.9%, to 20,402 million euros. In the Swedish chain H & M, the decrease was 19.5%, to 18,474 million euros, and reached 30% if it took the Spanish market as a reference.

Mango, in its case, came to close its best historical year:in 2019, its sales reached 2,374 million. However, with the pandemic, turnover fell to 1,842 million euros in 2020, 22% less.

In such gloom, the online channel shone brightly. In one year, it climbed 18 percentage points in one year, to represent 42% of the group's turnover, pushed by the nearly 3 million new customers. Carasso points out that, in 2019, Internet sales already accounted for almost a quarter of revenue, a higher figure than in other players (in Inditex, it was 14%).

20 years Mango Internet presence birthday online: The more than 2 decades of Mango in the online world were a great competitive advantage. The group's rapid response allowed for an unprecedented stock movement: more than 200,000 garments went from the physical to the online channel.

To the forced question of whether there is room for the physical store in an increasingly digital environment, it is clear: "We do not understand the future of fashion without the physical channel". In fact, the chain added 43 points of sale to its network in 2020 and intends to renew 800 establishments in 3 years, marking distances with the withdrawal in the streets of Inditex or H&M.

Mango's forecast is that the online channel will represent 45% of revenue in 2021, always hand in hand with the physical store, and that its contribution continues to grow: "The ceiling is where you put the limit and in Mango we have not marked any. We can reach 50%."

20 years Mango Internet presence birthday online

More news:

The CNMV approves MásMóvil's BID on Euskaltel for almost 2,000 million euros

The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has given MásMóvil a free hand to take over Euskaltel for almost 2,000 million euros.

The regulatory body announced on Monday 5 July that the public takeover bid (TAKEOVER BID) of grupo MásMóvil for the entire share capital of Euskaltel, composed of 178,645,360 shares, can proceed at an offered price of 11 euros per share.

The offer will be effective only if MásMóvil manages to get at least 75% of the share capital plus one share, or what is the same: 133,984,021 shares.

For the operation to materialize and the takeover BID to go ahead, MásMóvil will have to spend, therefore, at least 1,473 million euros.

The company led by Meinrad Spenger increased its revenues during the first quarter of 2021 by 18% to 527 million euros, and announced in March that it had an acceptance commitment from the 3 main shareholders of Euskaltel, representing 53.32% of the capital: Kutxabank, Corporación Financiera Alba and Zegona.

The CNMV also details that MásMóvil has presented guarantees from 10 financial institutions worth 1,965 million euros. That is to say, you can buy 100% of Euskaltel if you want, and shareholders will have 24 days of margin to decide whether to accept the offer from the time the announcement of the offer is published.

MásMóvil accounted for 17.45% of the mobile phone market at the end of last year according to these data from Statista, and with the purchase of Euskaltel it would add about 840,000 residential and business customers.

The fourth mobile operator in Spain will become a reference operator in northern Spain if the takeover bid progresses, and strengthens its commitment to continue growing to compete with Telefónica, Orange and Vodafone.

The great players of the mobile board see how the last guest consolidates his position in the game when the sector more drowns by the low cost offer.

MásMóvil assures that the operation "will allow to accelerate the investments in necessary infrastructures in the current context and that they will benefit the Spanish consumers".

The employment and headquarters of Euskaltel will also be maintained in Euskadi and Galicia, says MásMóvil, which will also maintain the brands Euskaltel, R, Telecable and Virgin.

According to MásMóvil, the sum of both groups will allow to bring together about 14 million lines and will obtain an estimated income of approximately 2,700 million euros.

The process of the takeover bid, however, has conditioned the participation of the 2 operators to the auction of the band of 700 megahertz (MHz), key to the deployment of 5G.