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4. **Case study: Footshop entering the Romanian market with MERGADO**
# **Case study: Footshop entering the Romanian market with MERGADO**
[  Lukáš Horák ](https://www.mergado.com/blog/lukas-horak) [Case Studies](https://www.mergado.com/category/case-studies)
13. 2. 2023
4 minutes read
Prague-based marketing agency [Unikum](http://www.unikum.cz/) manages the accounts of the branded footwear online store [Footshop](https://www.footshop.eu/en) in MERGADO. What is **their strategy** for expanding to a new market and how does [MERGADO](https://www.mergado.com/mergado-smart-product-feed-manager) help them?
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1. —
Prague-based marketing agency [Unikum](http://www.unikum.cz/) manages the accounts of the branded footwear online store [Footshop](https://www.footshop.eu/en) in MERGADO. The store advertises in the *Slovak* and *Czech* markets and covers *Germany*, *France*, *Hungary*, and *Romania*, as well. What is **their strategy** for expanding to a new market and how does [MERGADO](https://www.mergado.com/mergado-smart-product-feed-manager) help them?
## How to expand your online store to Romania according to Unikum
### Information phase — Analysis
**Jana Dzuričková**, *Inbound Team Leader* at *Unikum*, shared her **experience** entering the Romanian market.
> “When entering price comparison sites in any market, we always start with an **information analysis**, which we perform about one month before launching the particular language version of the online store. We always collaborate on this task with a colleague from the Footshop Customer Care department from that particular country. The analysis aims to detect what types of comparison engines are present in the country and what are the conditions for engagement,” Jana explains.
#### **Before entering a new market, they identify the following areas:**
- monthly traffic of the comparison site
- overview of competitors
- the structure of the comparison site in terms of individual areas — in case it is not a purely fashion-focused comparator, they detect what share of total visits and sales the fashion and clothing area achieves
- product feed specification
- category tree in .xls or XML format
- the format of the comparison site’s financial coverage — credit recharge or chargeback (necessary for cash-flow planning in a given country)
- account termination options (immediate or on notice period, additional penalties, fees)
- Bidding format — through the administration or via feed, at category level or even at the product level
- CPC price — minimum, maximum, average
- other options offered by the comparison site — baskets, display campaigns, shop of the month, etc.
Based on the analysis performed in *Unikum*, they choose which of the compliant comparison site will be accessed first. In the case of *Romania*, the order was [GLAMI.ro](https://www.glami.ro/), [Compari.ro](https://www.compari.ro/), [Shopmania.ro](https://www.shopmania.ro/).
### The preparatory phase
> “Based on the outputs of the information analysis, we prepare a **TO DO list** of activities that we need to perform to run the comparison site. The list helps us **track and control** the individual activities we need to perform. It is useful if more than one department is working on the preparation, in our case, it is usually marketing, IT, and finance,” Jana describes the procedure.
*Unikum* decided to start with the GLAMI search engine, first. The product XML feed according to the GLAMI requirements was set in cooperation with MERGADO. For *Footshop*, *Unikum* uses a **universal XML feed format** created **according to the MERGADO specification**.
> “We created a **new export** in MERGADO, removed/added the necessary elements, and created/imported the necessary segments and rules. The most challenging part is always categorizing the products into categories by the comparison site. In the case of GLAMI, if already used in other countries, it is quite fast. Apart from the language, the categories differ minimally,” Jana adds.
*Unikum* took care of this client’s **complex arrangement and management of the comparison sites**, which included:
- **overall account arrangement** — filling out the profile, setting up billing information, inserting the feed, etc.
- **integration with Google Analytics**, and deployment of GLAMI piXel via GTM (in the case of GLAMI)
- **bidding setup** — within the administration at the category level, within the feed at the product level
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### Optimization phase
The optimization phase is a **long-term process** in which *Unikum* works **with bidding strategies** according to the phase in which the online store is present within the search engine. Based on the performance, they determine which products to display and which to hide.
> “In the first phase, of course, we tried to get the best **visibility**, so we worked with a higher CPC, as we currently do, even at the expense of a not very favorable PNO,” Jana says at the beginning of the campaign.
During this phase, however, *Unikum* struggled with **technical issues** — there was a problem with sending data from the database, which resulted in the account suspension. It took a month to identify and fix the problem in collaboration with MERGADO developers. As a result, the growth phase was prolonged from the one month planned originally to two months overall.
> “In the first phase, **the Black Friday campaign in November helped** us a lot, as it kicked off our entire account and started bringing in the first conversions. We gained further growth within the Christmas period. Consequently, we were allowed to focus on the second phase during the new year, which aimed to achieve our PNO target of 25%. During the second phase, with the assistance of GLAMI support, we carried out several activities to drive toward our target PNO. The feed content and bidding strategy were and still are adjusted via MERGADO,” she says, describing the beginning at Romanian GLAMI.
In the third phase, Unikum focuses on **maintaining the target PNO** and strives for maximum account efficiency. In addition to monitoring overall performance and market sentiment, they don’t forget to communicate regularly with the purchasing and marketing departments. It keeps them up to date on newly stocked products or products that are overstocked and need help with sales.
The *Romanian* comparison sites now account for **8% of total sales** for *Footshop*. Of the current product search engines, GLAMI has a 90% share of sales, *Shopmania* 8%, and *Compari* 2%. The particular budgets for comparison sites are split similarly, reflecting the sales results. The last-click PNO of the comparison sites has been successfully maintained at 20% over the long term, while GLAMI’s PNO is slightly above 23%.
[  ](https://www.mergado.com/sites/default/files/perm/paragraph-image/case-study-footshop.png)
We thank *Unikum* for sharing their data and experience with the expansion into the *Romanian* market. Do you have a **useful use case** for working with MERGADO to get the best results? **Contact us** at our [support](http://mailto:mergado@mergado.com) — we’d be happy to write a case study based on your experience, too.
### **Read more:**
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### MASTER PROMPT TEMPLATE FOR ECOMMERCE
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### How Feed Optimization Unlocked Meta Ads Performance without Increasing Ad Spend
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### How to Sell Successfully on idealo
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[  ](https://www.mergado.com/blog/lukas-horak)### [ Lukáš Horák ](https://www.mergado.com/blog/lukas-horak)
Lukáš takes care of most of the Czech and English communication in Mergado. Through blogs, e‑mail, and social networks, he regularly supplies readers with e‑commerce news and news and tips from Mergado. In his time off, he enjoys simple things like badminton, digging the hidden gems of the 80’s, and seafood served with red wine.
## What you *might be interested in next*
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### How Feed Optimization Unlocked Meta Ads Performance without Increasing Ad Spend
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