MarkIT: web based IT reseller without any competitors

Written on 7th October 2008                                                                                                              3 COMMENTS
Toivo Tänavsuu, Next Web Estonian Web Tipr & founder of TigerPrises.com

Estonian Internet-based IT equipment procurement company MarkIT, that already operates in eight Scandinavian and Eastern European markets, enters Sweden, Slovenia, Austria and Spain. The company aims to conquer whole Europe in the long run.

The idea behind MarkIT is connecting numerous local IT distributors’ stock into one online purchasing system with an immediate overview of availability and prices. It facilitates one-click centralized ordering from different IT wholesale distribution warehouses with deliveries to your doorstep usually within one business day.

There are 20 large warehouses with over quarter of a million different products avalible in MarkIT’s „catalog“, at least 50 000 -100 000 items in one country.

Quite a success story, uh?

The system is used by more than 15 000 companies already. They no longer have to ask for multiple offers from different resellers, when in need for IT equipment. MarkIT gives a good online overview of not only what is available, but also when is avalible.

In the end of 2007 MarkIT conducted a short survey in The Baltics. More than 50 companies – among others Skype Technolgies, Tele2, Estonian Energy, Swedbank, Ernst&Young, Electrolux, PriceWaterhouseCoopers etc – were asked “Do you believe that MarkIT helps to save time and money on IT purchasing in your company?” The answer, on the scale of 1-10, was 8,99.

MarkIT is growing like crazy – last year’s turnover of about 20 million EUR will be exceeded by about 7 million EUR this year. The amount of frequenters has increased by 30 percent in one year. New annual sales target is set for 60-70 million EUR (1 billion EEK).

No competitors? Oh, come on…

When asking Margus Pahtma, the marketing manager of MarkIT about the European IT stuff market, he says that despite the fact there are many resellers, he doesn’t know of any other Internet-based players with such a large scale business as MarkIT. If you know any competitors, let us know bt commenting the post.

MarkIT is a portfolio company of Ambient Sound Investments (The Skype founders) and JPF Holdings (Jaan Pillesaar, owner of Helmes).