Fizz.hu – OTP Bank’s Leap into E-Commerce Qorus-Infosys Finacle Banking Innovation Awards 2025- Nominated

OTP Group has committed itself towards extending its presence in beyond banking fields, to diversify its portfolio and offer comprehensive solutions for its massive client base. The Group is using its pioneer innovation center, OTP LAB to explore non-banking fields that offer good expansion opportunities in the region, and to drive OTP’s growth in the selected areas. Through intensive innovation, OTP Group has decided to create its own e-commerce platform – Fizz.hu (https://www.fizz.hu/), to gain an extra boost for its beyond banking ventures. The rapid growth of the market and the ample room for new entrants (especially those who offer unique value propositions) provide good return prospects on the investment.

Hungary’s e-commerce sector has been expanding swiftly, showing an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9,2% from 2023 to 2031. Hungarian consumers are increasingly embracing online shopping, with around 70% of the population making purchases online in 2022, up from 49% in 2019. This shift indicates a growing acceptance and reliance on e-commerce platforms. This brings about the creation of fully digital customer journeys, something in which OTP Bank can leverage its strong experience.

Fizz does not operate as a webshop, but as a pure e-commerce marketplace, which is a relatively unique model, not only domestically, but also regionally. There is no first-party offer, only third-party goods, i.e. the products of merchants are conveyed as an online platform, without the marketplace’s warehouse logistics. When developing the system we believe in a hybrid architecture, combining “off the shelf” elements and creating various modules from scratch by our own development team. In this way, we can not only react quickly to changes, but we achieve higher personalization for both consumers and merchants.

The project engaged a diverse and expanding group of internal and external stakeholders, experts, and managers. It started with a small, dedicated innovation team, growing to 50 colleagues by the time of the hard launch. Internally there were numerous departments who helped the project. The Marketing and Communication department conducted customer analyzes and formed the brand design. Human and Organizational Development Department helped established the organization of Fizz.hu. The Bank’s IT security team assisted Fizz.hu regarding security measures before the hard launch. The Retail Lending Tribe made the online POS loan possible. The project also benefited from executive-level sponsorship, with C-suite leaders providing strategic guidance, setting key priorities, and enabling effective decision-making at critical junctures. In the summer of 2023, we started internal testing of the platform with the help of OTP employees.

After a successful testing phase, in 2024 February the site was launched supported by a widespread online and offline marketing campaign from end of June. By the end of 2024, the site has already had 10,2 million visitors and 93,000 orders which reached 195,600 orders until now.