Not many will remember the catchphrase: Get a pig and a bag, not a pig in a bag. Two people, however, look back on this attempt at marketing with nostalgia \u2013 and a lot of laughter.<\/p>\n
George Chatzigeorgiou and George Avgoustidis are two of the three founders of the successful Greek online marketplace Skroutz \u2013 the third being Vasilis Dimos, a member of the board \u2013 and they recently spoke to Kathimerini about the 20-year journey from search engine to business group, about the mistakes made along the way, and about the new moves being planned in Greece and abroad.<\/p>\n
But back to the pig: The motto, written in yellow and orange letters, appeared underneath the company\u2019s logo back in 2005 when it was a search engine for comparing the prices at computer stores located on and around downtown Stournari Street, Athens\u2019 electronics mecca at the time.<\/p>\n
The idea to play with the English saying \u201cbuying a pig in a poke\u201d \u2013 meaning to buy something unseen \u2013 belongs to Avgoustidis, Skroutz\u2019s vice president and the brains behind the company\u2019s marketing strategy. That modest company \u2013 named after the Greek iteration of the famous Disney character Scrooge McDuck, the penny-pinching millionaire of Duckburg \u2013 has now grown into a group that comprises an e-marketplace, a payment service and a delivery firm, with a staff of around 1,200 people and an annual turnover (for the companies in the marketplace) of, roughly, 980 million euros.<\/p>\n
And it all started with Chatzigeorgiou \u2013 Skroutz\u2019s president and CEO \u2013 and a hobby. \u201cIt hadn\u2019t occurred to me to start a business. I was fresh out of university, a programmer, with a steady job, and developing a price comparison engine was just something I did at home in my spare time. I had no business plan, no financing and no stress, because it was just a game to me,\u201d he tells Kathimerini.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started out with 12 stores and didn\u2019t really feel like talking to anyone, so I checked out their websites, emailed them about what I was doing and asked them if they were interested in being listed. They all liked the idea, especially since it was free of charge. I guess I inadvertently tapped a gap in the market and the engine soon grew in size and popularity. It also started taking up a lot more of my time and I\u2019d often find myself working through the night after coming back from work. That\u2019s when I reached out to Vasili, the second co-founder, who was also a programmer. George [Avgoustidis] happened to be working at one of the stores on Skroutz and turned out to be a friend of friends, because it\u2019s a small world here. He saw the value of what we were doing from the commercial side and came to me and said, \u2018I don\u2019t think you know what you\u2019ve got here.\u2019 It\u2019s true that I hadn\u2019t realized how valuable a tool it was for sellers; I thought it was only useful for consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, for \u201caround two and a half years we spent several hours a day on Skroutz and had to hold down other jobs to make a living. We basically bankrolled Skroutz from these other jobs,\u201d says Avgoustidis.<\/p>\n
There were no funds, venture capitalists and other such vehicles to fund a startup at the time. \u201cNow you can go to the bank and get money from your investor. That\u2019s both good and bad. You\u2019re not taking the huge personal risk we were, but investors have demands because it\u2019s their money on the line. Back then, the only angel investor you could hope to have was an uncle. And even that was not so common,\u201d notes Chatzigeorgiou.<\/p>\n
It is worth noting that in 2006, the publicly traded company Dionic bought a 50% stake in Skroutz, which the founders took back in 2018. \u201cIt was a partnership we could have avoided,\u201d says Chatzigeorgiou.<\/p>\n \u2018We basically bankrolled Skroutz from [our] other jobs,\u2019 remembers Vice President George Avgoustidis.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The next big step was taken in 2016, with the development of the \u201cSkroutz basket.\u201d It started with pharmacies and that became the stepping stone to the marketplace. \u201cWe didn\u2019t like that we were losing the users, who went to the physical store. We were also getting complaints even though we had no part in what went on after an order was placed. Not to mention that we did not like how e-commerce worked and there were none of the classic infrastructures we have today, like the Last Mile, for example,\u201d says Chatzigeorgiou.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when we said that either we\u2019d make the investment ourselves to develop all of the necessary services and infrastructure, or we\u2019d remain a price comparison engine, with little scope for growth,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n They pursued the first avenue and expanded with the buyout of the EveryPay payment service and the development of Skroutz Last Mile, which makes deliveries and is responsible for the Skroutz Points locker network.<\/p>\n The next milestone was in 2020, when the fund CVC bought 45% of the company. The fact that it was in the middle of the Covid lockdown when online sales skyrocketed was an unexpected boon. \u201cWe hit our 2023 targets in 2020; in just two weeks, in fact. Before the lockdown, we were getting around 400 orders a day. That shot up to 4,000 on the first day of the lockdown and rose exponentially every day after that,\u201d says Avgoustidis.<\/p>\n The number of outlets working with Skroutz also rose from around 4,000 before the pandemic to 12,000 during it, dropping back down to 8,000 today.<\/p>\n The Greek marketplace is now in the process of expanding, starting with Romania. \u201cIf we want to grow, we need to look at other markets,\u201d says Avgoustidis, explaining that sellers in Romania will be able to sell their wares in the European Union via the Skroutz Marketplace and Greek sellers will be able to tap the Romanian market too.<\/p>\n Skroutz\u2019s new investments also include a strategic partnership with car rental firm Avis Greece. The new marketplace, named Cardom.gr, will start by selling used cars and, if all goes according to plan, later expanding to new ones.<\/p>\n Developing the Skroutz Last Mile services is another important part of the company\u2019s growth plan. The company currently has 1,900 Skroutz Points with more than 50,000 lockers and aims to reach 90,000 lockers by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n The network already serves third parties, including non-partner stores, currently handling around 1,000 orders per day.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe locker network is essentially a national infrastructure. We are already using it for returns and the Scoop service (which facilitates transactions between private individuals), and we are also considering allowing parcel shipments through the lockers,\u201d explains Avgoustidis. He adds that more supermarkets will be added to the marketplace, in time, beyond MyMarket and e-fresh.gr, which are already partners.<\/p>\n Last but not least, the group aims to expand its after-sales services, including providing technicians not only for installing electrical appliances but also for furniture assembly. Additionally, there are plans to offer financing options for partner merchants, a service that is currently being tested on a pilot basis.<\/p>\n Looking back on those 20 years, however, is there anything the founders would have done differently if they could turn back the clock to 2005?<\/p>\n \u201cThe deal with Dionic. We made a deal that didn\u2019t benefit us or, at the very least, didn\u2019t help us much and even put us in a difficult position,\u201d says Chatzigeorgiou.<\/p>\n \u201cI would do all the same, even the mistakes,\u201d says Avgoustidis. \u201cAfter all, the mistakes made us wiser.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"skroutz-started-out-as-a-hobby0\"](\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/f889cc09e08ccf656857234e20b6e427_George-Avgoustidis-A-1.jpg?1739457279406\")
![\"skroutz-started-out-as-a-hobby2\"](\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/a9-72.jpg?1739457319680\")
Future plans<\/h3>\n