Illustrating the appeal of the kids goods segment, a group of Russian businessmen from the spirits industry have launched Mamagazin.ru, a new e-commerce site with an assortment of more than 5,000 items at start.
The site serves all Russian regions via agreements with the Russian post and private carriers, reported business daily Kommersant. The project also comprises a social network for parents, which is scheduled for launch in a few months.
The partners behind the project are shareholders of United Spirits Factories (OSZ in Russian), a company which owns several factories and logistics facilities. These businessmen intend to invest no less than $30 million in total in the project over the best two years, a company representative told Kommersant.
Mamagazin has been designed with the participation Martin Lindstrom, a Danish advisor on brands and brand building and one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People” according to Time magazine in 2009.
Martin Lindstrom Russia Kids E-Store from Juice Group on Vimeo.
Lindstrom, who travelled across Russia to organize focus groups with target groups, has played an essential role in project design. However, “the programmers he hired missed all the deadlines,” a source close to the project complained in an exchange with Kommersant.
Mamagazin is coming as the second pure player in the Russian kids goods online market, following Esky.ru in which South African Naspers invested $20 million in February.
Last year the Russian market of children’s goods reached some 700 billion rubles (approximately $22 billion based on the average exchange rate in 2013), according to official figures cited by Kommersant. The online segment amounted to a small fraction of this volume, from 4% to 7% depending on sources.
Updated August 3, 2015
