38
wolk after sales experts
03.07.2015
00119955
Interview with Dr. Friemel (Daparto) (5)
Antti Wolk: Your team consists of 25 employees. Are they all busy with taking care of the
portal, or do you have more business?
Dr. Friemel: Yes, as mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, a portal like daparto
needs to be operated professionally to make it successful and grow the business. Next
to programming, especially topics like search engine optimization and search engine
marketing are have to be taken care of. Also, when it comes to brand building and
management, specialists are necessary. The same holds true for the support of our
merchants and our customers on the buy side. It is by far not enough to simply provide
an online platform and just let the market shape it. Development takes time and
requires resources. From my experience, these tasks need to be carried out by our own,
in-house personnel. That way, it is possible to intervene, adjust and react to market
requirements.
Antti Wolk: What are the future plans for daparto? Is an expansion planned abroad or will
you continbue to penetrate the German market for the time being?
Dr. Friemel: First and foremost a deeper market penetration in Germany is our priority,
since the German market is very large and offers many possibilities. Nevertheless, the
business model is at least suited and scalable for the European market, so we also think
about international expansion.
Antti Wolk: You have for some time been offering your customers their own shopping-basket.
How is the feedback?
Dr. Friemel: Customers have reacted to our new offering in a very positive way. It is very
well used as it is common on eBay and Amazon and it obviously means another
convenience for the customers. Similar to eBay and the Amazon marketplace,
customers do not have to browse through each and every shop separately and can
rather carry out their shopping via a common interface.
Dr. Stefan Friemel (47)
Founder of Daparto in 2008
Head of eBay Motors Germany (3 Years)
General Management of car and car
parts segment of eBay in Germany
The Boston Consulting Group (6 Years)
Senior Projectleader
Diverse projects with focus
eMarketing/eCommerce;
Interims COO of insurance market place
Studied Physics (Mathematics, Computer
Science) in Hamburg, Paris and Vancouver
as well as Business via distance learning
