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Marina Nikolova

The first e-shop exhibition in Greece is already a fact. Dealers tell GRReporter that during the last few years an increase in online sales is noticed and they are starting to develop online stores, in order to assist their clients.

Online we can already purchase furniture for our apartment, to choose a present “experience” for the loved one, to buy a book or to organize a trip from beginning to end – tickets, hotel, insurance and rent a car. Online store services become more and more personalized and every owner is trying to differentiate himself from the competition and make the e-store better.

Present at the exhibition are a wide range of firms, which develop their business in different sectors of the market. One of the biggest and most famous online stores is e-shop.gr, which deals in the technology sector and its stand is big and differentiates itself from the rest. It is located on the back of the hall and takes a big space. One of their promotions interests freelance experts – doctors, dentists, engineers, lawyers, notaries, accountants – who want to buy their electronic equipment from e-shop.gr. After answering to some criteria the store equips them for free with equipment valued between €3 000 and €20 000.

The online stores for gifting experiences offer interesting services – a person can order claques for a game, make his son’s dream come true by renting a Formula 1 car or just spend a romantic evening with the loved one is a spa. Actually the catch is that the owners of this store want you to believe that they can make even your craziest dream come true. They even want you to think carefully of who you want to surprise and what will leave them with their mouths open.

Online store owners do everything to try and pull you towards their store and inform you about their products and services. They want to tell you “Hey, we are real – you can find us in an office and call us up, trust us”. In order to attract more clients the store owners have created many different coupons with discounts and promotions.

The exhibition will take place in the subway hall on Syntagma stop between November 18 and 20 and the goal is to inform people about products and services online stores offer but most importantly to reveal great opportunities about low prices, which this market has.

Apostolos Moutevelis – owner of three online stores for technical equipment, wine and painting auction

In which sector does you e-shop work?

Our first online store opened selling Samsung products – from white goods to computer displays, laptops and net-books. Our other store sells three types of wines – Katoi, Strofilia and Averoff – 14 etiquettes all together. We also offer a big range of wine accessories – corkscrews, jugs, glasses and you can also find rich information about wine. The third website deals works of art auctions. We are actually collectors and we own works of art of famous and globally recognized Greek painters. Those are the three sectors we work in.

Why did you transfer your business online?

We have been working with new technologies since 1980 through a firm, which specializes in data entry. Our clients come from the public sector - the Greek Electrical Company. E-stores are the future of trade – low support expenses and prices are attractive for consumers… Trend shows that online clients are increasing. Two years ago they were under 10% and now we are between 15% and 18%.

Is there interest for works of art auctions? How do you choose what to offer?

We represent works of famous painters – Tsarouhis, Haszikiriakos-Gikas, Malamos. The works of art market is closed. We have bought those paintings about 10 years ago for our personal collections and now cooperating with two big galleries, we auction them. We opened our own gallery and now every Saturday people come and see the paintings because no one will spend €5 000 online without having seen the painting first. The painting behind me is by Zoumboulakis and it costs €4 000 and if an expert does not see it, no one will buy it. We are also cooperating with an works of art expert, who is certified to evaluate paintings. She has graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and she also owns a gallery. All paintings that we sell come with a document, which shows where they were purchased from, which is the most important thing so that the new owner knows he/she is buying something authentic. We do not only have an online store. We also have a gallery and offices, where clients can visit and look around. There are other e-stores, which do not have an office…their office is someone’s home. The other products we offer – for example Samsung, have all guarantees from the Greek distributor of the company.

What do Greeks buy online?

Lately they buy many TVs, computer displays, laptops and external HDs.

Toy store representative

What does it mean to be an online store owner?