Stratigos

In 1986, Nikos Serafiadis and his brother, Thodoris, continued their family's long history in shoe repair, starting to sell shoes for the first time on one of the most central pedestrian streets of Athens. With a great legacy of knowledge and love for shoes, passed down from their father, Ilias, when he suddenly fell ill, Nikos and Thodoris took on the responsibility of supporting the family financially, making their own entrepreneurial move.

Three years later, in 1989, they managed to buy the store they had been renting. In 1993, they opened their second large store in the same area, and were inspired to create the now historic name 'Stratigos'. The renaming of their business came from their sales philosophy, which continues to prevail today on Ifaistou street.

"From the first day we started the shop, we sat outside on the street and constantly talked with passing customers, asking them what they wanted. This way, we immediately got a sense of what goods to bring to the shop and what people liked most," Nikos characteristically says.

Today, Nikos and Thodoris's business counts 3 successful casual clothing and footwear stores, loved by young people. When the first lockdown due to the pandemic started, the brothers went from 3 stores to 0. Their stores had been, all these years, their only source of income. Until January 2021, when they started selling their goods online through Skroutz.

"The first time we tried to sell online was in 2013 with our own e-shop. But for us, it never worked. We launched and took it down twice because we couldn't keep track of our goods," says Nikos.

And he adds that "Skroutz solved this problem for us. Finally, we could very easily upload our products online and track their progress."

At first, Nikos and Thodoris started on Skroutz by uploading only 100 products. Seeing their great success, they gradually added more and more. Today, they have over 2,000 products available for online purchase through Skroutz, and their total sales, from January until now, exceed several thousand. At this moment, they have 3 people, one for each store, who deal exclusively with online sales through Skroutz, and their goal is to continue dynamically and strengthen their online presence with even more products available on skroutz.gr.

And as Nikos tells us, "For us, Skroutz is our fourth store!"