mBank and Morele Launch Revolutionary In-App Shopping Platform
The first phase of the mOkazje zakupy (mDeals Shopping) project has officially launched today, giving 50,000 mBank customers the ability to shop directly on the Morele platform within the bank’s mobile application. Offers are displayed under the “Services” tab. By the end of the year, mBank plans to extend this functionality to all other users of its app.
This collaboration is a cornerstone of mBank’s 2021-2025 development strategy, which aims to significantly increase its share in the e-commerce market. Partnering with Morele’s shopping platform is a key step towards achieving this goal.
“Poles love to shop online, and the future of this market lies in shopping platforms,” says Piotr Puchalski, mBank Managing Director responsible for the mOkazje zakupy project. “According to Inquiry, by 2027, their share of total e-commerce sales in Poland will increase by a quarter, reaching 60%. Shopping platforms can be seen as the virtual equivalent of shopping malls, where you can find almost everything under one roof. This is a significant factor in their success. The second is security – the platform owner takes responsibility for transactions and the delivery of goods to the customer. In an era of cyber fraudsters, this is an important issue.” He adds, “More and more e-shops are also moving to these platforms, as competing for customer attention with the marketing budgets of the largest retailers is becoming increasingly difficult. At mBank, we see this potential, which is why we want to increase our involvement in this area.”
mBank Customers Embrace Innovation
Beyond market potential, mBank also sees significant internal potential. In 2023, its customers made 240 million transactions in online stores, spending nearly 27 billion PLN. This means that one in four zlotys spent in the e-commerce market originated from an mBank account (calculations based on bank data and PMR ‘Internet Trade in Poland 2022’, Strategy& ‘Prospects for E-commerce Market Development in Poland 2018-2027’). This group of buyers comprises approximately 3 million people at the peak of their economic capacity, with the average age of an mBank customer currently being 37.
“Our clients are what we call ‘heavy users’ of online shopping, who frequently and eagerly buy online,” says Piotr Puchalski. “What’s more, they are also very open to novelties. They have proven this many times when we introduced market-innovative products or services, such as a fund supermarket, a currency platform, or an accounting program integrated with the bank’s transactional system. They quickly gained their favor.”
Now, it’s time for another revolution. Thanks to mOkazje zakupy (which provides access to the Morele shopping platform), customers will be able to shop online even more simply, directly from their favorite banking application. Both the purchase and payment will take place without leaving the app. Offers will be displayed upon entering the “Services” tab.
Pilot Program Underway
The project is divided into phases. In the first phase, which has just launched, the bank will daily offer nearly 50,000 customers the opportunity to purchase a single product at an attractive price. The customer base with access to mOkazje zakupy will gradually increase, as will the available assortment. The final phase will conclude in Q4 2024 – by then, all individual customers will be able to use mOkazje zakupy, choosing from several million offers.
“We invited customers to the pilot program who met several conditions, including actively using mOkazje (mBank’s discount program) and frequently shopping online,” explains Piotr Puchalski. “At this stage, you cannot join the program independently, but we will soon make it available to all our customers.”
Morele is responsible for the product offering. However, mOkazje zakupy will not be an exact replica of their sales platform. The partners will jointly develop it with additional product categories. In the future, the bank also plans to invite its business clients to collaborate, estimating that over 50,000 owners of e-shops (which constitutes 1/3 of all e-shops in Poland) use its services.
Morele – A Key Factor in Success
“In addition to a wide range of products from many categories, we bring our know-how, gained over nearly 20 years of creating one of Poland’s three largest and most modern shopping platforms, to the project,” says Michał Pawlik, CEO and co-founder of Morele. “Thanks to the company’s strategy based on process automation, which translates into cost, quality, and innovation optimization, we are able to provide customers with absolutely the best offer. This automation of operations also favors the company’s scaling, which will serve the development of the project in cooperation with mBank.”
On the Morele platform, customers can find approximately 3 million offers across numerous categories, including products from its portfolio of 6 private label brands (Zipro, Peme, Preyon, BlackWheels, Sense7, and 4Swiss). The store reaches over 1 million recipients daily through its own media and fulfills orders in 13 foreign markets (Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden), providing merchants and D2C brands simple and fast access to many European markets.
Morele also boasts one of the most modern e-commerce warehouses in Poland, which is practically fully automated. Its area is 24,000 m². The company can process approximately 1,500 orders per hour, with 70% of them being processed without human intervention – allowing for next-day delivery of orders placed by 8:00 PM throughout the country. For its achievements in process automation and robotization, Morele won first place in the Hyperautomation Powers competition in the software robots category.