Top Russian e-commerce player Ozon.ru will begin delivering its parcels directly to clients in Kazakhstan, the company confirmed to East-West Digital News. The new service will start in November 2011.
Ozon.ru is setting up pick up points in Astana, the capital, and Alma-Ata, the country’s largest city and will also offer its own local delivery service to private homes. No distribution center is planned for the moment, however.
Customers from Kazakhstan will enjoy the same assortment – approximately 1.5 million items – as Russian customers. Parcels will be delivered in less than 10 days, said the company, with delivery tariffs identical to those for equally distant Russian regions, reported Russian business daily Vedomosti.
Founded in 1998 and often called the Russian Amazon, Ozon.ru raised $100 million from Russian and international investors last month. Last year, the site generated just 1.3% of its turnover from foreign countries.
Kazakhstan counts 5.6 million Internet users, or 35% of the total population, said Alisher Tulegenov, spokesman of local Internet company Kazkontent, to Vedomosti. The local e-commerce market is estimated at $240 million.
Ozon considers offering similar delivery services in Belorussia and Ukraine in the future, Ozon PR manager Maria Nazamutdinova told EWDN.
