What is Octopia, exactly?
Octopia is Cdiscount's B2B marketplace infrastructure arm, the engine room that powers not just Cdiscount's own marketplace, but a growing network of third-party retail platforms across Europe. The model is similar to what Zalando has built with its multi-country channel: one technical connection, multiple storefronts.
Octopia already counts more than 14,000 active sellers and attracts between 8,000 and 10,000 new active sellers every year. What's notable about that growth is its geographic spread - roughly a third from China, a third from France, and a third from other international markets. It's a genuinely pan-European seller base, which makes the network's marketplace coverage increasingly relevant for any brand with cross-border ambitions.
Worth noting: of all Octopia's active sellers, only around 2,500 currently use a marketplace integrator - and these tend to be the highest-GMV, most scalable accounts.
How it works in practice
The Octopia channel on Lengow is an evolution of the existing Cdiscount channel, and the mechanics are deliberately straightforward. Once a merchant has an active NetMarkets and Cdiscount account with Octopia, they set up (or use their existing) Cdiscount channel in Lengow, then request access to additional marketplaces through the Octopia back office.
From there, it's a matter of activating the chosen marketplaces in the Lengow channel settings, updating any marketplace-specific attributes (local currency pricing, for instance) and going live. Product data is shared across all selected marketplaces and translated by Octopia; orders from all connected platforms flow back into Lengow for centralised management.
Crucially, this means one category mapping for the entire network, not one per platform. The operational lift of adding a new market is dramatically lower than a standalone integration.
The 14 new marketplaces
The network covers both generalist platforms and niche specialists. On the generalist side, there's strong coverage of Northern Europe - Scandinavia, the Baltics, Finland, Poland - alongside OnBuy's unusually broad footprint spanning eight European countries from the UK to Germany. On the specialist side, the mix is eclectic and purposeful: a French wood-and-materials marketplace, a UK voucher platform, Leboncoin for second-hand, and Bebeboutik for baby products.
| Marketplace | Type | Segment | Countries |
|---|---|---|---|
| CDON | Generalist | ๐ธ๐ช ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ซ๐ฎ Sweden, Denmark, Finland | |
| Empik | Generalist | ๐ต๐ฑ Poland | |
| Fyndiq | Generalist | ๐ธ๐ช ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ซ๐ฎ Sweden, Denmark, Finland | |
| Hobbyhall | Generalist | ๐ซ๐ฎ Finland | |
| OnBuy | Generalist | ๐ฌ๐ง ๐ซ๐ฎ ๐ต๐น ๐ง๐ช ๐ช๐ธ ๐ณ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ท ๐ฉ๐ช ๐ฎ๐น UK, Finland, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, France, Germany, Italia | |
| Pigu | Generalist | ๐ฑ๐น Lithuania | |
| Kaup24 | Generalist | ๐ช๐ช Estonia | |
| 220.lv | Generalist | ๐ฑ๐ป Latvia | |
| Skroutz | Generalist | ๐ฌ๐ท Greece | |
| Wooday | Specialist | Wood & materials | ๐ซ๐ท France |
| Wowcher | Specialist | Vouchers & deals | ๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom |
| LeBonCoin | Specialist | Second-hand | ๐ซ๐ท France |
| B&Q | Specialist | DIY & home improvement | ๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom |
| Bebeboutik | Specialist | Baby & children's products | ๐ซ๐ท France |
The strategic picture
What makes this integration interesting is the logic behind the expansion. Lengow isn't building 14 new direct integrations; it's connecting to Octopia's infrastructure layer, which means any marketplace Octopia onboards in the future is potentially just a few clicks away for Lengow merchants. The Baltic and Nordic platforms - Pigu, Kaup24, 220.lv, Hobbyhall, CDON - represent markets that are often underserved by Western European merchants despite solid e-commerce penetration. The ability to enter Estonia or Latvia through an existing Cdiscount connection, with Octopia handling KYC validation and onboarding paperwork, substantially lowers the barrier. For merchants already selling on Cdiscount, the proposition is simple: the channel you already manage in Lengow can now do considerably more. For those not yet on Cdiscount, this integration is a reasonable argument to start; the entry point now unlocks access to a much wider network than Cdiscount alone.
Adrian Gmelch
Adrian Gmelch is Director of Content at Lengow, where he leads content strategy while staying firmly hands-on: reading the research, and tracking the trends that matter before they go mainstream.
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