093 - Rozwój sprzedaży elektronicznej w Grupie LPP - Mikołaj Wezdecki

Hi Mikołaj? Hi Marek. Thank you very much for the invitation. I must admit that I myself am a listener of the 'Sztuka e-Commerce' podcast, and I greet all the people who are with us today and are listening to us.

Sure, with pleasure, but before I talk about what I do daily, let me first guide the listeners through my career so far, because not everyone knows me. If I were to sum up my career in one sentence, I'd say that over the last 15 years, I had the opportunity to work and co-create three of the five largest e-commerce companies in Poland – RTV Euro AGD, eobuwie (now known as Modivo), and currently LPP. My journey began with my parents' skate shop in Warsaw, where at 17 I convinced my father to set up an online store. After three months, the online store had higher turnover than the physical shop. That was my first 'aha' moment about the power of the internet. Then I went to hopla, an early e-commerce startup that was too early and struggled with supplier relations. At RTV Euro AGD, I built the e-commerce from scratch to about 2.5 billion zloty in sales, scaling from a 4-person team to over 300 people over 12 years. There we faced the challenge of price consistency between online and offline, which led to the launch of OleOle as a pure player. I then moved to eobuwie, where I helped organize the rapidly scaling business and launch Modivo, a fashion marketplace that now drives the group's growth. My experience in these companies taught me how to scale e-commerce businesses and build an omnichannel strategy. I also participated in raising investment from SoftBank, which emphasized customer retention and retention metrics. Now at LPP, I initially worked closely with Sinsay for its first 8 months, focusing on customer acquisition, repeat purchases, and 360-degree marketing communication. For the last 3 months, I've been at Citycodes, LPP's in-house software house, responsible for iCommerce – the development and maintenance of e-commerce platforms and mobile apps. My goal is to ensure consistent, seamless customer experiences across all channels – omnichannel strategy.

I think the biggest change over these 15 years is the full professionalization of e-commerce. It's like moving from a schoolyard game of football to professional soccer – you need specialization. Today, e-commerce is divided into roles: SEM, social media, email marketing, CRM, etc. When I started at hopla, I did everything – setting up products, running Google campaigns, even accepting returns. That's unthinkable today. Now, when I hire young people, I advise them to find their niche and become the best in that area, because e-commerce has become very competitive.

Sure. One key difference from my previous companies is that LPP designs and manufactures its own products, rather than being a marketplace or House of Brands. That requires creative, trend-spotting, and production skills – competencies built over years. In LPP, both left-brain (analytical) and right-brain (creative) people work together, which I find refreshing. The group has five main brands: Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito, and Sinsay. There are also two critical subsidiaries: Citycodes (a 700-person IT house) and LPP Logistics (handling warehousing and delivery for all channels). The e-commerce share jumped during COVID to nearly 30%, accelerating our tech and e-commerce investments. The group is now present in nearly 40 markets and shows great agility, quickly redirecting focus from Russia to Western Europe after the war started.

Sure. First, return rates: in Western Europe, especially Germany, returns are on average twice as high as in Poland. This is because Germans buy impulsively, use free returns, and often use buy now, pay later (BNPL) methods, which encourages spontaneous purchases. In Romania, cash on delivery still dominates, similar to Poland 10 years ago. Regarding product preferences, we see clear differences in color and climate. Central-Eastern Europe prefers more subdued, muted colors, while Southern Europeans go for brighter, more vibrant colors. Climate also affects timing – in Poland, we start selling winter clothes in October when temperatures drop below 10°C, while in Southern Europe it's one to two months later. So while we create a common product range, distribution of models and colors varies per country.

Well, obviously some markets are harder and some easier. From an e-commerce perspective, the biggest challenge is profitability because e-commerce has a different cost structure – logistics can be 20-25% of sales, plus performance marketing. I think our products could conquer any market, but we can't achieve the assumed profitability everywhere. The further from Poland, the higher the logistics costs. For example, currently it's difficult to achieve profitable sales in Spain – delivery costs are high, return rates are high, and there is strong competition from Amazon in both logistics and marketing. So we haven't been 'beaten' but we make conscious decisions about which markets to invest in based on ROI.

We see ourselves as a vertical e-commerce business, not a horizontal one like Allegro or Amazon that host many brands. Our strategy is to develop our own brand through quality and design. A marketplace would go against that. Our advantage is our own unique product, which allows for higher margins. In previous companies, the same product was available in many stores, forcing price competition. Here, our products are exclusive to our platform, so we focus on improving our collections rather than adding a marketplace.

The biggest difference from previous companies is our use of data. We have a large data‑science team that uses algorithms to decide which product goes to which store or country. Second, we use distributed logistics. During the pandemic, we turned physical stores into mini‑distribution centers using RFID to know exactly what’s in stock. When you order from Reserved, you might get a package from an FDC or directly from a store, depending on cost and speed. We now have four FDCs—two in Poland, one in Slovakia, one in Romania—and we plan to expand further. Short delivery time is key to customer satisfaction.

It starts with shared goals. If e‑commerce and physical stores have separate goals, they compete rather than cooperate. At LPP, we now have common sales goals. The e‑commerce team works closely with the stores and product teams, often in the same department. This avoids price differences and ensures a consistent customer experience. The most valuable customer is the one who shops both online and offline—they buy more often, have higher baskets, and stay loyal. We aim for synergy: online + offline should equal 3, not 2.

We decided in 2021 to create Silk Coders, now 700 people, as a daughter company with its own culture. It’s like an internal software house. We could buy services externally, but by building internally we stay close to the business. The product managers work with developers on business KPIs and product vision. We define three strategic directions and break them into a roadmap. This alignment is hard to achieve with an external partner. Still, we don’t close ourselves off—we also use external platforms like Dynamic Yield for recommendations. It’s about what’s cheaper or faster.

First, geographical expansion: we opened Serbia late last year and will open Bosnia and Herzegovina this year. These non‑EU markets have higher entry barriers but less competition, so it’s easier to gain customers. Second, mobile apps: we invested heavily in apps, and they now drive significant traffic and sales. App users have higher lifetime value. We also use our physical stores to boost app downloads. Third, we’re migrating from a monolithic platform to a microservices architecture to increase stability and speed up development. These are the three main projects we’re working on.

My role has changed a lot in the last year. I used to be strongest in performance marketing; now I manage a team that knows much more about technology than I do. I focus on setting strategy and moderating discussions. My week is structured: Wednesdays are project reviews, Thursdays with my boss Jacek Kujawa, Fridays formal steering committees, and Monday–Tuesday for deep work. For knowledge, I read 30–35 books a year on marketing, leadership, and e‑commerce. I follow blogs and news on Medium and subscribe to newsletters like Bartek Pucek’s. But the most valuable knowledge comes from working with great bosses. My advice: be active, try things, don't fear failure. Life promotes people who stay active. Even the small things—like running an online store for my father—gave me unique experience that helped me later.