SberMarket, a delivery service owned by Sber, the state-controlled financial and digital giant, claims to have tripled its turnover in 2021 to 58.6 billion in 2021 ($800 million at the average exchange rate of the year, including VAT and excluding promotions).
The number of delivered orders quadrupled to 24 million in the course of the year, while the service was made available in 71 new cities — bringing the total current coverage to 154 Russian cities.
The company also doubled the number of partnering retailers. SberMarket now claims some 120 partnerships, as exemplified by the agreement inked with Auchan in November 2021. Other partners include Dixy, Lenta, Magnit, Metro, Vkusvill — as well as Komandor, Megamart, Samberi and others at the regional level. and more.
This partner network “facilitates the implementation of one of the company’s strategic goals – delivering products from clients’ favorite stores nationwide,” Sber stated. Delivery is carried out from 7,285 outlets, from 967 a year earlier.
In Q3 2021, SberMarket also began actively developing super fast delivery services, starting from 20 minutes. This type of deliveres has been made available from 88 nationwide and regional chains.
SberMarket ’s product categories, traditionally focused on groceries and basic commodities, now also include frozen products, over-the-counter medication, pet items, flowers, perfumes and cosmetics
SberMarket also has B2B activities with a client base approaching 100,000 registered legal entities.
A $13.6 billion market in 2025
Russia’s e-grocery market, which amounted to 135 billion rubles ($1.86 billion) in 2020 according to Statista, has been growing fast since the beginning of the pandemic.
Another study by AliExpress Russia and the Center for Expertise and Integrated Models (CEIM) puts Russia’s e-grocery market volume at some 300 billion rubles (around $4.1 billion) in 2021. Russian e-grocery could jump to 500-600 billion rubles by 2023 and to 1 trillion rubles ($13.6 billion at the current exchange rate) by 2025.
Among SberMarket’s competitors, or ‘coopetitors,’ are Utkonos and X5 Retail Group. The former, which pioneered the Russian e-grocery market, was recently acquired by retail giant Lenta.
The latter is in discussions with Sber over an “enhanced partnership” which could apply to e-commerce activities, data architecture management, cloud technology and artificial intelligence development, as well as the creation of virtual assistants. X5 affiliate Perekrestok Vprok, an online hypermarket, “might join Sber’s e-commerce business and evolve within its ecosystem,” including the SberMegaMarket marketplace.
On Feb. 15 Sber announced changes to its organizational structure. A holding dedicated to e-commerce activities will be established, combining Sber’s assets SberMarket, SberMegaMarket, SberLogistics, SBER EAPTEKA, and SMM Retail, as well as Sber’s stake in O2O Holding, a JV with VK Company.
“Unified asset management will ensure a better customer experience, create significant synergy, and strengthen Sber Group’s position in the fast-growing e-comerce industry,” the company stated.
