Last week, the Russian government unveiled some key aspects of its plan to launch an e-commerce platform dedicated to exporting Russian goods. In addition to serving end consumers directly, the platform will seek to cooperate with such international marketplaces as AliExpress, JD.com, eBay and Amazon. It will feature payment, credit, insurance, customs, logistics and other export-related services.
The Russian Export Center, a recently created government-backed organization, will be responsible for creating a list of exporters, and assist in product standardization and certification.
Nicknamed “the Russian Alibaba” in spite of its B2C orientation, the project was announced in late 2015. It is part of a new strategy to help Russian producers enter export markets as the country has found itself excessively dependent on oil and raw material exports.
Major Russian and Chinese market players have expressed interest in operating the platform. In December Jack Ma said that Alibaba “hopes to create a new platform adapted for commercial development together with the youth of Russia.” The Chinese giant, whose B2C subsidiary AliExpress has asserted itself as the number one online retailer in Russia, registered a Russian legal entity in May 2015.
Yandex.Market, the B2C marketplace of Russia’s search giant, and Wikimart, another major marketplace, have also expressed interest in the the project. Last year Yandex opened an office in Shanghai — essentially to sell the search engine’s ad inventory — while Wikimart has gained experience in selling goods internationally via such marketplaces as AliExpress and eBay.
Ulmart is also in the running. This major Russian online retailer intends to launch a platform for Russian players to sell abroad in the second half of 2016. Earlier this year, Ulmart suggested that its own platform be used to implement the government’s project.
The Russian Post, too, has suggested to use its marketplace Pochta Market, in which it intends to develop an export section. So far Pochta Market has aimed to serve a domestic audience with little online purchasing experience. It generated 360,000 orders during the two last months of 2015.
Meanwhile Ruslan Baisarov, a well-connected businessman, has approached the Russian president to offer his own project of “a unique national e-commerce platform to increase the export of Russian goods.” He claimed in a media interview that he will “create logistics centers all across Russia” to ensure fast delivery to foreign consumers: “One week is too long, we need delivery in 2-3 days.”
Baisarov, however, did not specify the details of his ambitious plans, and did not answer EWDN’s questions.
From fantasies to reality?
Some industry experts are skeptical about the authorities’ ability to implement their international e-commerce plans successfully — and also doubt of Russian exporters’ capacities to sell online at a massive level.
“It is hard to imagine such nonsense,” wrote industry veteran Maxim Faldin in his blog under the title “Matryoshki in lieu of iPhones.”
“What would this platform actually sell? 99.5% of the goods sold on [Russian marketplaces] Yandex.Market and Wikimart are imported — for the simple reason that Russians either don’t make them or make shitty analogs,” Faldin says, without much exaggeration.
Last year, according to estimates by industry association NAMO cited in EWDN’s e-commerce report, e-commerce export from Russia amounted to 1.9 million small packages and parcels — a far cry from the 135 million ones delivered from abroad to Russian online consumers.
Ozon.ru accounts for a part of these outbound deliveries. This established online retailer has been selling goods to Russian-speaking audiences abroad for years — especially in the USA, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Israel and Latvia. The site expects its international sales to at least double this year, expanding its current assortment to Russian-made cosmetics as well as to items for the home and luxury goods.
But reaching global online consumers beyond Russian-speaking communities is another story. So far, just few Russian e-commerce companies — such as 220-volt.ru and Canoe.ru — have developed significant activities in China.
Last year ABK Store, a Russian retail chain, joined Tmall Global, an Alibaba property, to offer Chinese consumers a wide range of everyday items and food products from Russia.
“They are doing well now,” a Russian Alibaba executive told East-West Digital News.
In the field of B2B, projects are at the early stage, too. In August 2015, Alibaba inked a memorandum of cooperation with Gazprombank, the subsidiary of the Russian gas monopoly, to stimulate cross-border exchanges via Gazprombank’s B2B marketplace. Under plans, thousands of Chinese Alibaba sellers or buyers will be connected to the Russian marketplace, receiving the inquiries of its users. In November, Russia’s B2B-Center and China’s XBNiao also agreed to develop B2B flows.
Sources: Alibaba, e-Pepper.ru, Kommersant (1, 2),
Update May 31, 2016: “The government will not finance the platform,” stated Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Oleg Fomichev in an exchange with Izvestia. There might be several platforms, including those already existing today, which can agree to create a common infrastructure, he added.
