Today Checkout.com, a leading cloud payment provider, announced the launch of their Barcelona office to serve as a headquarters for operations across Southern European markets, including Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.
Europe is the home market for Checkout.com, which already serves as the payment provider for many of the region's leading eCommerce businesses like Mango, Farfetch, Glovo and Klarna. These merchants rely on Checkout.com for a fast and agile platform that drives better performance and increased acceptance rates. This announcement represents an even stronger commitment to Europe, as the company deepens its service to the region.
The global COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the adoption of eCommerce across the region.
Pre-Pandemic Southern Europe already demonstrated a material eCommerce opportunity with eCommerce adoption rates in Spain (58%), Italy (52%) and Greece (50%). Meanwhile, expectations are that penetration in future years will outpace other regions in Europe, as the level of eCommerce adoption still lags behind the UK’s 82% and Germany’s 71%. eCommerce penetration statistics clearly show a growing and underserved market. Checkout.com's continued investment in the region will support local enterprises with better performing online payments and improved digital checkout experiences as more consumers turn to online purchasing.
Antoine Nougué, Head of Europe at Checkout.com, said: “‘Think global, act local’ is at the heart of our expansion proposition for global enterprises. Our local team across Southern Europe has deep insight and knowledge for those merchants wanting to expand and grow. We’ve witnessed explosive growth across the region, with more merchants investing in their eCommerce strategies to serve an emerging online market segment.”
Nougué continues: “The localisation of our proposition to the market removes payments as a barrier to scale for fast-growing online businesses, allowing them to unlock more revenue opportunities and serve customers a frictionless checkout experience.”
Florian Jensen, Global Fraud & Payments Director at Glovo said: “As one of the world’s leading multi-category delivery players, with millions of users across 20 markets worldwide, a localised proposition is imperative to our success. Checkout.com’s global payments routing platform has enabled us to optimise our card processing in existing markets and expand into new territories with speed and ease. Their growth mindset and agile platform make them the perfect payments partner for a global scaling company like Glovo.”
Expansion opportunities
Southern European countries have seen rolling lockdowns and restrictions for more than a year. While many of these countries are seeing eased restrictions, eCommerce adoption is expected to continue accelerating, with growth projected at 17% to 153 million customers in the next three years. Spain is anticipated to have the highest growth rate, with 35 million customers turning to online services by 2024, representing a 25% increase -- on par with the highest growth markets, such as China. This growth is expected to equate to a 66% increase in eCommerce revenues hitting $28.7bn.
Jonathan G. Rambal, General Director Southern Europe, said: "The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital payments across the region of Southern Europe, with an overnight digitalisation for some enterprises and an acceleration for others. Checkout.com's growing presence in the region serves to support enterprise merchants through this digital transformation, with a best-in-class payment platform and on-the-ground market experts to reach new domestic and international customers."
Apostolos Foteinakis, Chief Financial Officer at Blueground, said: “As a global proptech startup with customers spread across 15 cities worldwide, we rely on the support of strategic
technology partners like Checkout.com. Their flexible, global payments platform aligns perfectly with our business model - enabling people to flexibly live wherever they choose to across our thousands of quality, turnkey homes. Through a single integration and with a range of interfaces, we’ve been able to create a simple payment experience for our customers, anywhere, anytime. The expert support we have received so far, especially in complex regions such as MENA, demonstrates that Checkout.com is the right strategic partner to support growing businesses.”
Checkout.com has a team of more than 1100 people globally and 20 employees across its Porto and Barcelona offices and expects to double over the next 12 months in the Southern European region.