Alza.cz a.s. is an e-commerce store operating in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

(Alza.sk), and since 2014, in other

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countries (Alza.de, Alza.at, Alza.hu). It is one of the largest online

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

retailers in Central Europe with a strong stance in the toys, hobby, media and entertainment, perfume, watches and beauty segments too. It operates a chain of brick-and-mortar stores bearing the same name (Alza). The company was founded in 1994 under the name Alzasoft. , the company had 53 stores and 1 800 AlzaBoxes, which are found throughout the

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Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. Showrooms could be found in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

and

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. The company Alza.cz was the largest online shop in the Czech Republic with an annual

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of over €1,76 billion excluding VAT (45

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

CZK The koruna, or crown (currency sign, sign: Kč; ISO 4217, code: CZK, ), has been the currency of the Czech Republic since 1993. The koruna is one of the European Union's eight currencies, and the Czech Republic is legally bound to Czech Repub ...

) in 2021. At the end of 2021, Alza.cz offered around 700,000 products and completed over 17,9 million

purchase order A purchase order, often abbreviated to PO, is a commercial document issued by a buyer to a seller, indicating types, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services required. It is used to control the purchasing of products and services ...

s. Alza.cz is owned by a group of investors that control it through the holding company L. S. Investments Limited, which is based in

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. The

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...

s are unknown. The Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors is the company's founder Aleš Zavoral. Alza.cz acts as a Czech joint-stock company with a tax

domicile Domicile may refer to: * Home, a place where someone lives * Domicile (astrology), the zodiac sign over which a planet has rulership * Domicile (law), the status or attribution of being a permanent resident in a particular jurisdiction See also * ...

in the Czech Republic.

History

In 1994, the company founder, Aleš Zavoral, acquired his trade license for

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

activity. In the spring 1998, the company's first website was created, although it did not yet serve as an e-commerce site. In the summer of 1998, Alzasoft rented out a small store on Dělnická street in Prague, Czech Republic. In 2000, it moved to a bigger space on Jateční street in Prague. At that time, its website also became an e-commerce store. In August 2002, the store and warehouses were flooded, but this did not jeopardise the company much. The

joint-stock company A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareho ...

Alzasoft a.s. emerged on 1 January 2004. It had 35 employees during that time. Alzasoft opened a branch in

(and gradually in

Nitra Nitra (; also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra (river), Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of ...

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and

Trnava Trnava (, , ; , also known by other #Names and etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of the Trnava Region and the Trnava District. It is the seat o ...

). The company warehouses located in the Prague Market in

Holešovice Holešovice () is a district in the north of Prague situated on a meander of the River Vltava, which makes up the main part of the district Prague 7 (an insignificant part belongs to Prague 1). In the past Holešovice was a heavily industrial su ...

were also expanded to a total of 1600m². In the year 2006, the company went through

rebranding Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

and was renamed Alza.cz. In 2008, the company created its own company

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

as the main face of most of its advertisements – Alza the Alien also known as Alzák, voiced by

Bohdan Tůma Bohdan Tůma (born 6 September 1967) is a Czech actor and voice actor. He is one of the most famous actors in the dubbing industry of Czech Republic, being the main voice actor for Jack Black, Jim Carrey and Denzel Washington. Biography Bohdan w ...

. In the summer of 2010, Alza opened a new logistics centre in Prague - Horní Počernice. In October 2015, Alza launched its Alza Premium club program. With an annual fee, Alza Premium members can receive free shipping, music, movies, special delivery services and an extended returns period. In 2016, Alza.cz launched its online shop in Hungary, and it started to deliver purchase orders to customers even on Saturdays and Sundays. Alza also opened up its store hours during the weekend. In December 2016, Alza surpassed two of its records: it sold over one billion CZK in one week, and it hit a record of over 200 million CZK in purchase orders in one day. In 2017, Alza.cz started selling

electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...

s, such as Tesla and other brands, and took part in

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...

by giving the option to pay for purchases using

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. In regards to its European expansion, in the same year it opened its first store in Austria, a showroom in Hungary, and it rented out the new warehouse P3 Prague D8 in

Zdiby Zdiby is a municipality and village in Prague-East District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,100 inhabitants. Administrative division Zdiby consists of four municipal parts (in brackets population according to t ...

. It also created a new B2C E-Commerce subject at the University of Economics, Prague. 2018 - Three innovative Alza Concept Stores are opened in Prague. A new showroom opens in Budapest. 1,800 new collection points across the Czech Republic and Slovakia. A new logistics centre is opened in Zdiby. 2019 - Partnered with the Liftago platform. New payment methods (ApplePay, GooglePay, in-app payments). A new segment (Alza Pet) and Aid Constellation, a unique charity platform, are launched. 2020 - A new logistics centre is opened in Senec. A massive expansion of the AlzaBox network and their opening to third parties. Launch of additional product segments on Alza. 2021 - Alza opened a new headquarters in Slovakia with a state-of-the-art Alza showroom. The logistics centre in Chrášťany near

and a local distribution centre in

are now open. Launch of Alza Marketplace. Almost 1800 AlzaBoxes in service.

References

{{Authority control Retail companies of the Czech Republic Czech companies established in 1994