Vartabi.com is a digital shopping mall that charges annual rental fees from sellers instead of commissions. The customer can see and like the product in Vartabi, but he can also call the seller and buy it from his physical store or from the seller’s own website.
We have seen one of the most important effects of the acceleration of digital transformation during the pandemic period in the e-commerce sector. While the demand for online shopping increased during this period, platforms and retailers took some steps to meet this demand. Even in this period, new platforms started to be implemented as the e-commerce volume increased and almost did not decrease. Vartabi.com is one of these platforms.
Charges annual rental fees from vendors instead of commissions
Vartabi.com differs from other e-commerce platforms in one aspect, which is that it charges annual rental fees from sellers instead of commissions. With this move, we can say that the company serves both as a market place and a “Digital AVM”. According to the information shared with us by the Company’s General Manager, Gonca Soyluoglu, the contact information of each seller is located under the “contact seller” button. The customer can see and like the product in Vartabi, but he can also call the seller and buy it from his physical store or from the seller’s own website.
“Digital Collective Work” feature
In addition, with the “Digital Collective Work” model on Vartabi.com, people can make a list of their needs for special occasions such as weddings, baby showers and birthdays and share them with their friends. Friends contribute to the product they want on the shared list as their budget allows, and more than one person can contribute via Vartabi.com, pay the price of the product or products that the person needs and give it to that person.
The number of sellers is 4 thousand, the number of products is about 3 million
Vartabi.com currently has 15 thousand members. The mobile application was launched about a month ago and was downloaded by 13 thousand people. While the number of sellers on the platform is 4 thousand as of now, the number of products is about 3 million.
No ready-made infrastructure was used during the development of the platform, and Vartabi.com was launched after the development process, which took about 16 months. It is stated that the development continues after it goes live. Vartabi.com visits the vendors in the field and makes membership transactions, so it has vendors in many provinces of Turkiye. The platform provides service with a total of 250 employees, including its field team and call center.
The venture has not yet taken an investment round. However, Gonca Soyluoglu calls Vartabi.com an initiative that emerged from the meeting of an idea owner and a capital owner.
Income model: Annual store rents
Since Vartabi.com is an online shopping mall, its revenue model is store rents, just like in physical shopping malls. The platform does not generate any extra income such as bank commissions, shipping fees, revenues from commissions on sales. It is aimed to offer a platform to all businesses engaged in e-commerce in Turkiye, where they can both sell their own brand products and promote their own e-commerce sites.
Vartabi.com also meets with animal shelters within the scope of social responsibility activities and states that they also prepare a wish list. The company is preparing a similar project to meet the needs of students studying in difficult conditions. The most important goal of the company is stated as being Turkiye’s largest “Online Shopping Mall”.
Source: Webrazzi / Translated by Irem Yildiz