Subject: Leading retail websites in HUNGARY

1. I need a list of at least five leading non-food retail websites in  
HUNGARY. By "leading" I mean "leading". There is no strict criteria 
since revenues etc are often not known, so use common sense. It's often 
obvious from the site whether they are a contender or not. They must be 
B2C sites (so not Ebay, not clasifieds, not shopping comparison sites, 
although the latter can lead you to appropriate sites). They must 
TRANSACT ONLINE (ie not a site that shows products but doesnt let you 
buy). The top sites may be foreign (Amazon is the best example) but I 
dont just want a list of US sites. 

- URLs
- Comments. A one or two sentence salient summary of relevant points 
about the retailer (more than the site). For example "El Corte Ingles 
is Spain's top retailer both online and offline. The department store 
was an early mover online and has never relinquished its number one 
slot". Or "Amazon.com does not have a specific Spanish site but 
attracts 150,000 Spanish visitors a month to the US site". This is also 
a good place to say why this is a leading site and to highlight online revenues 
and/or number of online customers for the retailers.

2. I also need a list of the five leading FOOD retail websites.

- URLs
- Comments, as above.

If as you are searching, you come across any additional data on the 
monetary size of online shopping in the country, online population, etc 
etc, please post as additional URLs with no need for explanation. If 
you come across any other retail sites not worth commenting on, please 
paste the URL in with no need for explanation.

Thank you

webuserid

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 26 Feb 2003 14:05 PST

Please take a look at Google Answers: How to price your question 
http://answers.google.com/answers/pricing.html

Thanks.

czh

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 27 Feb 2003 19:38 PST

Hello webuserid-ga,

I’d really like to do this search for you but my initial research
shows that it’s going to take some digging to get you what you want. I
found some interesting statistics for the Hungarian online B2C market.

http://www.mac.doc.gov/eebic/countryr/hungary/research/HUECommerce.htm
Product profiles on B2C e-commerce websites (in percent of all
stores):
Books, CD-ROMs 25.64%
Music 15.38%
Stock trading 12.82%
Stationery 10.26%
Electronics, HW 7.69%
Gifts 7.69%
Others 20.51%
Ninety-four percent of Internet stores use the Hungarian Postal
service for home delivery of their products. Over 85 percent of B2C
purchases are transacted with payment collected on delivery.

http://www.ebusinessforum.com/index.asp?layout=rich_story&doc_id=781&categoryid=&channelid=6&search=hungary
Worse, there is a general perception that online shopping may not
catch on in Hungary: surveys show that consumers are more than usually
reluctant, even by East European standards. Little wonder, then, that
even Internet pioneers such as British retailer Tesco have no plans to
launch online sales at their Hungarian subsidiaries.

Getting you five retail sites is reasonably doable but the food sites
are going to be more of an issue. Because the project is tough, I’d
like you to consider repricing at a more attractive level. I think the
projects macaonghus-ga posted recently give you some benchmarks to go
by.

http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=search&q=%22Subscription+%2F+premium+services+online%22&qtype=all

He was looking for 7 pieces of information for each site. You’re
looking for 3 (Name, URL, Comment). He took into account the
difficulty of the country’s language and marketplace. His easiest
questions were about $2 and his expensive ones were $5 for each site
found.

I would like to do the Hungarian one but I think $1.50 per target item
is too low for the amount of work required. Thanks for your
consideration.

czh

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Clarification of Question by webuserid-ga on 28 Feb 2003 07:33 PST

Then also just the top online retailer sites would do, not including food retailers

Hello webuserid-ga,

This turned into a bigger project than I promised myself I would
undertake. I found it very difficult to find just online shopping
sites without going to portals and directories. I decided to save
these as I went and I’ve included them in the research. I also
searched for market research reports that would give information about
traffic and ranking but I didn’t come up with much to help me with
getting you definitive “top online retailer sites.” I’ve included
sites that come up at the top of searches or appeared in articles I
came across, so I have a high confidence level that they’re highly
rated sites. I’ve included the sources that led me to them as well as
additional links to directories of Hungarian online shops.

Good luck with your project.

czh

===========================
LEADING ONLINE RETAIL SITES
===========================

1) Category: Food
URL: http://netpincer.index.hu/
Name: Netpincer
Comment: Waiters Online service and epicurean shopping portal for
food, wine, cigars, party goods. Discussion forum and news as well.

2) Category: Flowers and Gifts
URL:  http://www.viragneked.hu/en/default.asp
Name: ViragNeked (Flowers for You)
Comment: This is the online shop of Fleur-t Flower Shop. In addition
to flowers it offers wines, chocolates, gifts and wedding accessories.

3) Category: Furniture and Home Furnishings
URL:  http://www.butoruzlet.hu/ 
Name: Kanapé Bútorüzlet (Kanape Furniture Store)
Comment: This is a national furniture store that has four showrooms
nationwide and sells leather and fabric covered furniture for home and
office.

4) Category: Computers and Electronics
URL: http://www.ebolt.hu/Sitemap.php 
Name: The company name is eBolt Műszaki Áruház. -- eShop Technical
Department Store.
Comment: This is a huge site with a very large variety of computer and
technical product. The site reports they have 60,000 visitors per
month, have 10,000 registered subscribers and 4000 subscribers to
their free newsletter.

5) Category: Computers
URL: http://www.overclock.hu/
Name: OverClock
Comment: Online store for computer equipment, hardware and
peripherals. This is a no-frill catalog store.

6) Category: Photography
URL: http://www.fotomarket.hu/
Name: FotoMarket online photo department store
Comment: This is a photo portal that offers film processing and a huge
selection of cameras and accessories and entertainment electronics.

7) Category: Books – CD-ROM
URL: http://www.fokuszonline.hu
Name: Fokusz Online
Comment: This is a major online hub from the Fokusz bookstores. It
offers: Books, CD/MC, CD-ROM, DVD/VHS, Sheet Music, Flowers/Gifts.
Very similar to Amazon. It has an affiliate partner program.

8) Category: Books – CD-ROM
URL: http://www.libri.hu
Name: Libri
Comment: This is the online story of the largest Hungarian book store
chain that has 25+ locations. Libri Könyvkereskedelmi Kft. The web
site offers services very similar to Amazon.com. It has an affiliate
program for other bookstores.

9) Category: Office Supplies
URL: http://www.officedepot.hu/
Name: Office Depot Hungary
Comment: This worldwide chain currently has four stores in Hungary and
plans to expand to additional new locations. Online shopping is
available from their full catalog.

10) Category: Books - CD-ROM
URL: http://www.cdrendeles.hu/
Name: CDRendeles (CD Orders)
Comment: Company name Morion Szoftver Bt., Offers 850+ titles covering
education, business, interactive games, dictionaries, and references.
Small collection of music CD offerings.

11) Category: Books - Photography
URL:  http://www.fotexnet.hu/
Name: FotexNet
Comment: This is a huge portal site that goes way beyond photo
processing and photo equipment. It’s similar to Yahoo! and Amazon in
the variety of services and products offered.

11) Category: Health and Medicine 
URL:  http://wwww.hazipatika.hu 
Name: HaziPatika (Home Drugstore)
Comment: This is a huge portal site for health and well-being and
offers advice, shopping, discussions, tests and more.


===============================
SHOPPING PORTALS OR DIRECTORIES
===============================

http://index.hu/
Index is a major portal offering similar to Yahoo! and offers a huge
variety of content and services including shopping.

http://www.origo.hu/index.html
Origo is a major portal offering similar to Yahoo! and offers a huge
variety of content and services including shopping.
http://www.origoplaza.hu/
This is a shopping portal that offers products and services organized
into a directory for browsing along with search capability. Links to
online stores for participating merchants.

http://aruhaz.lap.hu/
Section Online Vásárlási Lehetőségek (online shopping possibilities)
lists about 50 links to a variety of products and services. There may
be other online shops in the various categories.

http://www.ecompany.hu/links/online_boltok_hazai.html
eCompany B2C Solutions, Online Stores, Native
This is a list of about 100 online stores from all categories.
Descriptions are in Hungarian.
http://www.ecompany.hu/links/online_boltok_k_lf_ldi.html
eCompany B2C Solutions, Online Stores, International

============================================
MARKET RESEARCH REPORTS, ARTICLES, RESOURCES
============================================

http://top.yahun.hu/?go=toplist
Yahun! Top100 
This is a ranking service that measures traffic from Hungarian
customers as opposed to international visitors to help measure
reaching the native home audience. It’s not clear whether all Web
sites are considered for ranking or only ones that have registered.

http://www.tnsofres.com/ger2002/keycountry/hungary.cfm
TNS Interactive - Global eCommerce Report - June 2002 Hungary
Percentage of total population who are Internet users
Year 2002 = 10%
Male = 15%
Female = 7%
Most popular place of use
At Work
Online Shoppers 
3% of Internet Users

http://www.ihm.hu/tarsadalom/kutatasok/tanulmanyok/bell/online_aruhazak.pdf
Online Department Store in the Balance
This is a 34 page research report from Bell Research dated March 2001
which compares three large online shopping sites: FotexNet, Fokusz,
eBolt. (In Hungarian)

http://www.tnsofres.com/ger2002/keyfindings/index.cfm#productsPurchased
TNS Interactive - Global eCommerce Report - June 2002 Global Key
Report Findings in 2002 - Across 37 countries
Interesting statistics on Hungary. Highest rate of online dropout and
highest rate (60%) prediction for “Future Online Shoppers”

http://www.mac.doc.gov/eebic/countryr/hungary/research/HUECommerce.htm
CEEBICnet -- THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE BUSINESS INFORMATION
CENTER (CEEBIC) -- U.S. Department of Commerce
http://www.mac.doc.gov/ceebic/countryr/hungary.htm

http://www.mac.doc.gov/ceebic/countryr/HUNGARY/ccg2003.htm
Country Commercial Guide -- Hungary
Direct selling, though comparatively underdeveloped, is an accepted
form of business in Hungary. Direct marketing through the Internet is
also a growing trend in Hungary, nevertheless internet retailers and
customers remain few and market growth is not as significant as it had
been predicted a few years ago. Services that are promoted through the
websites and reaching more popularity include Netpincer (food),
Macropolis (computer), Netprint (printing), Vista (travel), Libri
(books) and Eurodirekt (online banking). Hungary's largest online
retailer, is Fotexnet Kft. The problems of the online retail market is
that prices are not low enough to entice large number of shoppers away
from shopping in the conventional manner. In addition, the available
payment methods are awkward for Hungarian buyers, few of whom have
credit cards.

http://www.mac.doc.gov/eebic/countryr/hungary/research/HUECommerce.htm
E-commerce Brief

1. Summary
With nine percent PC penetration, eight percent Internet penetration,
31 percent mobile phone penetration and about 39 percent fixed phone
line penetration, Hungary has been ranked 30th of 60 countries in
terms of e-business readiness by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
About 200 companies in Hungary currently practice business-to-consumer
(B2C) e-commerce and their transactions totaled USD 3.6 million in
2000 and will reach USD 8.1 million in 2002. Currently, over 85
percent of B2C purchases are transacted with payment collected on
delivery.

2. Market Opportunities
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) E-commerce
There are currently about 200 Hungarian companies selling their
products over the Internet. In 2000, the estimated size of this type
of commerce was HUF 1.1 billion (USD 3.6 million). The twenty largest
virtual shops account for the majority of this turnover. B2C
transactions are estimated to reach HUF 2.2 billion (USD 8.1 million)
in 2002. The relatively slow increase of B2C e-commerce is due to
three factors: low internet penetration, few opportunities of online
banking and the lack of efficiently organized home delivery.
Product profiles on B2C e-commerce websites (in percent of all
stores):
Books, CD-ROMs    25.64%
Music      15.38%
Stock trading      12.82%
Stationery     10.26%
Electronics, HW     7.69%
Gifts     7.69%
Others      20.51% 
Ninety-four percent of Internet stores use the Hungarian Postal
service for home delivery of their products. Over 85 percent of B2C
purchases are transacted with payment collected on delivery.

===============
SEARCH STRATEGY
===============

hungary b2c
site:.hu aruhaz
site:.hu aruhaz online
online shopping hungary

Thanks for the tip and the five stars. Good luck with your project.

czh