Google to help Portuguese retailers internationalize, increase exports

Google Portugal started on Tuesday the Retail Export Accelerator Program, aimed at Portuguese retail companies with the objective of accelerating internationalization processes, having selected seven retailers, among which Continente and Dott.

“Since we believe a lot in the potential that Portuguese retailers have, we thought it made sense to launch this program to help them on this path,”  said Nuno Pimenta, responsible for ‘startups’, retail and travel areas at Google Portugal, in a presentation of the program to journalists.

“We will have seven Portuguese retailers over 10 weeks in eight sessions, we will have about six different Google teams involved where we will work from the identification of potential markets or how to overcome operational barriers, among other points,” he continued.

The seven Portuguese retailers are Continente, Dott, Hôma, Lion of Porches, Mr. Blue, PCDIGA and Zippy.

” ‘Ecommerce’ in Western Europe between 2016 and 2020 grew at a rate of around 60% per year,” pre-pandemic data, said Nuno Pimenta.

“Around 50% of people living in these Western European countries (…) buy outside their country of origin”, which “also reinforces here the size of the opportunity for Portuguese retailers”.

The Retail Export Accelerator Program aims to provide companies with the resources and tools they need for their growth strategies and for the acceleration of their internationalization processes.

“This program follows other acceleration programs, projects and initiatives launched and made available to support ‘startups’ and Portuguese companies of different sizes and different industries,” says Google.

“The companies were selected based on their strong value propositions and for having agile teams that will be able to test and adapt their behaviours and strategies in order to make the most of each one of the program sessions.”

At the beginning of the year, Google Portugal had already brought to Portugal the first edition of the StartUps Growth Lab, a Google for Startups program consisting of workshops, training and ‘mentoring’ for Portuguese ‘startups’ to accelerate growth by acquiring new customers and revenue.

“Last month, Indico Capital Partners joined Google to launch Indico Accelerator by Google for Startups in Portugal. In addition to the acceleration programs, since 2016 we have in Portugal the Atelier Digital, free training courses and tools to help people find work, progress in their careers or grow their business.”