After our ambitious plans to open our new German office had to put on hold whilst the covid-19 pandemic swept the world, I’m delighted to be able to announce our long overdue expansion into Germany is now within sight!
We may be a modestly sized business at the moment, but growth is our goal. And whilst we describe our size as modest, we are already the UK’s largest digital commerce technology recruitment agency, and we believe that the opening our German office will help us become Europe’s largest.
We have big ambitions
Our aim is to grow to become Europe’s leading digital commerce technology recruitment partner by the end of next year, and a global leader within five years. We believe that opening our German office will help us on that path.
You might be wondering why we have chosen Germany as the first step in this expansion. Well, we wanted a base in central Europe, and Germany made sense for so many reasons. It’s well placed geographically and is home to many of the leading digital commerce tech and eCommerce companies such as SAP, Commerce Tools, Klarna, and more.
Increased spend on eCommerce
We already have a good network in this area through existing relationships in the UK, and with its strong economy and steady increase in retail and eCommerce spend, which is predicted to continue growing for at least another five years, it represents a huge opportunity for Simply Commerce.
German ecommerce has gone through a strong growth in 2021. Gross sales of ecommerce products amounted to 99.1 billion euros, which is a growth of 19% compared to 2020. We see a growing percentage moving to the digital commerce space, especially as cities like Berlin and Dusseldorf are rapidly evolving into technology hubs.
It’s a different market
The UK and Germany are sometimes likened to each other in economic and business terms, but there are some key differences. Clearly, Germany is much larger geographically, half as big again as the UK. But perhaps surprisingly, it is not as advanced when it comes to developments such as ‘click and collect’. So, with an additional 16 million population, and a less-developed market, the opportunity is there for the taking.
With the UK being the most developed market for eCommerce transactions, we can take our expertise and bring a really consultative approach to clients and candidate in the German market and beyond.
James Hodges, our EU Director of Sales, sums up our ambitions brilliantly. “We want to be the go-to recruitment partner for everything digital commerce technology-related and our office is Germany is going to unlock the next chapter for achieving this.”
If you have contacts in Germany who may benefit from our expertise and would like an exploratory discussion, do let us know.
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