Delray Beach, FL-based Office Depot Inc. has launched an e-commerce web site in Austria. Office Depot now operates 14 unique web sites in nine countries around the world. The new site is at: www.vikingdirekt.at. The new opening continues the strategy of operating sites with a local look and feel and fulfilled from local or regional distribution centers. Eight of the sites operate under the Viking name.
Office Depot's wholly-owned European operations are in nine countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy and The Netherlands. It primarily operates under the Viking Office Products name, which has both a direct mail business and an e-commerce operation. Worldwide e-commerce sales in 2000 reached $982 million. Office Depot anticipates worldwide e-commerce sales to reach $1.5 billion by the end of 2001.
“Our business in Austria has steadily increased over the past several years, and we believe it is the right time for us to provide this new convenient shopping alternative to our loyal business customers,” said Bruce Nelson, Office Depot's CEO. “Response to our web sites throughout Europe has been extremely favorable and we are confident that the same will be true for us in Austria."
Office Depot has been selling in Austria since 1997 under the Viking brand name> it expects that the new web site will attract new customers and increase customer loyalty in its existing customer base.
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