Worten has become one of the main electronics and appliance distributors in Spain and Portugal although, over the years, the offer of its marketplace platform has extended far beyond these categories, being able to find us on its website from a laptop to a highchair for a baby.
In 2021, the company made a profound change in the direction of its business in Spain, focusing on the online market and becoming the only eCommerce in the country specialized in the sale of large household appliances. But, what has been the evolution of this company of Portuguese origin? How were your beginnings in Spain? Keep reading that we tell you this and much more 😉.
History of Worten: Table of Contents
History of Worten: the beginnings
back in the nineties sound, the Portuguese retail group, decides to create a new brand as part of its specialized retail business area. That’s how in nineteen ninety six Worten is born, which inaugurates its first store in Chaves (Portugal). Since then it has not stopped growing, earning its fame for the sale of televisions, mobile phones, laptops and other electronic products, and opening more than 120 stores in Portugal and later undertaking its expansion throughout Spain. Currently, after a restructuring phase, Worten has a group of 17 stores in the Canary Islands.
In 2001 Worten made the leap into the digital world by launching its Online store in a successful bet, since this platform would end up being a fundamental part in the operation of the brand.
In 2015, Worten carries out its first major rebranding in Spain, which led him to redesign his logo and add two novelties: the use of his first letter, the “w” as a symbol, and the creation of his slogan “Technology for all”. The objective of this action was to generate greater proximity to the consumer.
Worten arrives in Spain
In the year 2009 Worten crosses borders and lands in Spain after taking over 9 stores of the French chain Boulanger. In 2011, due to the abandonment of the Spanish market by PC City, Worten reached an agreement with the brand to take over the eight stores that it had, also keeping its workforce of about 350 workers. The company continued to gradually add new entities until it reached its maximum peak of 60 physical stores.
The renewal of the Worten online store in Spain
In view of the good performance of its online stores, especially during the last quarter of the previous year, at the beginning of 2013the company decides to focus its efforts on improve your website in Spain. For this, it presented an increase in the catalogue, making available to its clients more than 5,000 products of various categories, such as electronics or computers, but also books, music or movies.
Another novelty was the incorporation of the Payment with paypalin order to convey greater security and confidence to its customers, thus saving possible reasons that would lead them to avoid buying at Worten.
2013/2015: the definitive launch of the Worten online store
Worten closed its financial year in 2013 presenting losses of up to 76 million eurosdouble that of the previous year. Faced with this panorama, the Sonae group was forced to take measures, carrying out several capital injections.
In 2014, more than 230 million euros of the 317 million total turnover by brands owned by Sonae in Spain (such as Sport Zone, MO or Zippy), came from Worten. These billing levels represented a growth of 2.2% and it seemed that the company’s situation was returning to more stable levels.
In 2015, which was nothing more and nothing less than 100 million euros. Practically at the same time that this figure was made public, Sonae announced that its global sales had increased by 6.6%. In turn, Miguel Aguas, CEO of Worten Spain, assured that sales through the website had grown by 220% in the last year.
Worten joins the marketplace revolution
The first place the company took this step was, of course, in its homeland. In 2018 Worten launched its marketplace on its website in Portugal, obtaining very satisfactory results in its first active year. About 20% of the sales of its online store corresponded to third-party products.
In view of the success of this implementation, Worten decided to repeat this same movement, achieving in just one month that the sales of external sellers on its marketplace accounted for the 7% of online sales in the country. The introduction of the marketplace on the Worten website meant a significant expansion of the catalogue, not only in terms of the number of products but also in categories, adding new features such as: entertainment, beauty and health, decoration, DIY, etc.
Likewise, this was also a full website review, bringing it closer to its Portuguese counterpart, gaining in usability. The information began to be displayed in a more structured and orderly way, allowing the client to filter the search more easily. Attention to the presentation of the products was also reinforced, adding more visual material and information about them.
Worten is definitely committed to online sales
Worten had already been getting rid of its physical stores for several years, a fact related to the losses in the company. Between 2008 and 2021 they had accumulated more than 300 million euros in losses. In order to stop this trend, the sale of its physical stores was the chosen solution.
Of the 60 stores that Worten managed to have in Spain, at the end of 2018 there were 49 left. The following year others were closed, and so on until in 2021 there ended up being 16 physical stores. The latter happened as a consequence of the . This operation was carried out in such a way as to affect its workers as little as possible, keeping the majority of the previous Worten workforce.
While this operation served to strengthen MediaMarkt’s omnichannel strategy, it meant the opposite for Worten. The decision to reduce the costs that physical stores entailed was embodied in bet on the online channel. Change that, as explained Ferdinand Silesdirector of online marketing for Worten, in one that same year, began to bear fruit and show positive results, exceeding those obtained in 2020.
Currently, Worten has a network of 2,000 collection points throughout Spain and selected by , in order to adapt to the greatest possible convenience of its consumers.
Worten’s future plans go through specialization in large appliances
This change of direction has led Worten to become the the only e-commerce pure player specialized in the sale of large household appliances (washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators, etc) in Spain. The company has wanted to take advantage of this feature to boost its business and strengthen the bond with its customers, developing proposals that generate value precisely from this category.
This is how it came about domestic expertsa service that offers consumers test appliances in a period of up to in addition to a premium shipping service without additional costs that includes the delivery and installation of the new product and removal of the customer’s old appliance in a single visit for most sales in just 24/48 hours.
Following this line, the company has also developed the card hand in hand with Santander Consumer Group. This service offers a interest-free financing for large appliances and free shipping on all Worten products. In addition, in each purchase you make you can retain €2 for every €150 of purchase, with the annual limit being €1,200 accumulated.
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