Marketplace retailers have accounted for more than half of the company's turnover
The marketplace is rapidly expanding Ozon’s product range, with marketplace retailers accounting for 80% of the product brands now available. These brands can be found in half of the orders placed by Ozon customers, with children’s merchandise and domestic goods as well as beauty and health products seeing the most demand. Sales of fast-moving consumer goods also increased considerably in the spring due to the pandemic – in April, Ozon delivered 2.2 million orders for such products, which was 2.7 times more than in April of last year.
Ozon became the first platform in Russia to launch work using two operating models at the same time: out of its own warehouses and out of the retailer’s warehouse.* This gives businesses flexibility of choice and allows the platform to expand its range of goods endlessly without being too dependent on the physical limitations of its own logistics hubs.
As of May 2020, more than 10.5 thousand retailers had already made sales through Ozon, and more than 30 thousand are in the process of registering, creating a storefront and shipping merchandise.
In April–May 2020, online retail provided the best opportunity for thousands of businesses not only to support sales but also to scale them throughout Russia by using Ozon’s customer base and logistics infrastructure. From the end of February to mid-May, the number of partners using the platform increased by at least a third. The most active were regional businesses in the Sverdlovsk region, where the number of local retailers has doubled since February; in Tatarstan, where the number of retailers has increased by 2.3 times; and in the Krasnodar Krai, where the number of retailers has increased by 2.8 times.
The pandemic has spurred demand for collaboration with the marketplace not only on the part of small businesses: over the past month, major chains such as M.Video-Eldorado and Decathlon have joined Ozon; and Azbuka Vkusa, VkusVill, Petshop, Bethowen and Concept Group have been enjoying sales success.
“In 14 months, we managed to achieve a marketplace share in turnover that Amazon needed 16 years to reach. In this short time, Ozon has transformed from an online store into a service platform for manufacturers and retailers of goods, which provides them with services for slotting in warehouses, delivery and returns, and also supports services for sales development. Moreover, infrastructure has already been established throughout Russia for external services surrounding the platform – not only commercial services but also logistics and technology – which have been enjoying success in terms of business development in tandem with our platform”, said Anna Kaleyeva, Director of the Ozon marketplace.
In supporting the development of retailers, Ozon offers them services to increase sales. Over the past year, for example, more than 200 companies have received a total of RUB 300 million through the Ozon.Invest platform, and they used the strategic loans to develop and support their sales. Some 2,000 individuals became investors – investing an average of RUB 55 thousand.
* Work out of Ozon’s warehouses and work out of the retailer’s warehouse: in the former, the retailer stores merchandise at Ozon fulfilment centres; in the latter, it stores its merchandise at its own warehouse, packages it independently and transfers it to Ozon’s delivery service.
