Bringing its contribution to Russia’s emerging outbound cross-border sales, AliExpress Russia announced today the launch of Ruzania, a section of its international platform reserved for select Russian sellers. The first offers come from Maskbro (wooden toys), Bossa Nova and Lucky Child (children’s apparel).
Items from these Russian brands can be purchased “not only by Russian-speaking users, but also by any other AliExpress Global users in Europe, including in Spain, France, Italy and other countries,” said AliExpress Russia.
“The goods are sent to the buyer anywhere in the world by Russian Post, which allows Russian sellers to enjoy a zero VAT rate,” indicated the company, refering to the CN23 form.
At the pilot stage, all logistics costs are covered by AliExpress Russia.
“Russian children’s goods, clothing and toys are among the best in the world in terms of quality. In Russia, the demand for these products is growing every year, and we are sure that users from other countries will also appreciate them. We really have something to be proud of, and we would like to help talented entrepreneurs from Russia realize the dream of selling all over the world, “ said AliExpress Russia CEO Dmitry Sergeev.
“Our company operates on many international platforms, including Amazon, Wish, Allegro and others, and we are extremely pleased with the news about the opening of international sales of AliExpress from Russia, as this is the only platform that offers the simplest logistics from Russia,” said Oleg Sokolukhin, general manager of WOL LLC, the company behind the Maskbro brand.
Launched by Alibaba in the early 2010s, AliExpress Russia quickly asserted its leadership in inbound B2C cross-border sales. Over the past few years, domestic sales developed as well, putting the platform at the 9th place among Russian e-commerce sites in 2020.
Since 2015, Russian sellers have been invited to sell goods through the platform for domestic sales. By the end of 2020, AliExpress Russia claimed more than 35,000 domestic (Russian) merchants, who offer up to 5.5 million different items and generate 25% of the platform’s sales volume. Eighty percent of these local sellers are SMBs.
Children’s goods top AliExpress categories by both the number of Russian manufacturers and the number of orders from Europe, AliExpress indicated.
In 2019, the company became a joint venture of Alibaba, Mail.ru Group, Russian telco MegaFon and sovereign fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Hundreds of millions of US dollars are being invested to develop the business.
