Bay.ru, a leading cross-border sales operator facilitating Russian consumers’ purchases from eBay, Amazon and other international e-commerce sites, has announced its rebranding as Dostami.ru – a name that refers to “dostavka,” the Russian term for delivery.
The move reflects a new, larger positioning for the company, which originally focused on eBay. “As our middleman business matured over the past year, we decided to strategically focus on being the market leader for B2C shipping into Russia from the USA,” CEO Aaron Block told East-West Digital News.
Last year in a similar move, eBaytoday.ru, a competitor of Bayru/Dostami, rebranded to Shopotam.ru.
Bayru/Dostami also announced enhancements in Dostami Express, the in-house delivery service it launched last year. The service will soon cover no fewer than 1,000 Russian cities and offers a budget option (Dostami Economy) with tariffs “up to 60% cheaper” than those of EMS, the Russian Post’s express delivery subsidiary.
The company also announced a guaranteed one-day customs clearance process – instead of the usual three to five days or more. As a result, delivery from the company’s warehouse in Chicago to Moscow will take from 7 to 14 days and up to 21 days to other locations, Dostami claims.
A dozen of shipment variables
“We can optimize our shipments based on more than a dozen variables. Our technology can even begin customs processing before a package leaves our Chicago warehouse. Also, the Dostami network uses multiple customs terminals,” explains Block.
However, the company still uses international postal partners for nearly half of its shipments. “And we are always looking to add more partners,” says Block.
Last year Bayru/Dostami processed more than 500,000 orders for Russian/CIS consumers – a “record-setting year,” according to Block.
In mid-2013 the company also launched an order fulfillment service for US retailers. Christened “Rusify,” the service offers both DDU (customer pays/coordinates with customs) postal delivery options and DDP (shipper pays/coordinates with customs) express/economy delivery options. Shipment operations are handled mainly, but not exclusively, by Dostami Express.
Rusify has already enrolled more than 200 merchants. “Our US clients send less than 500 packages per week, but this business is growing very fast,” notes Block.
Cross-border sales to Russia reached approximately $3 billion in 2013, following years of dramatic growth. New customs duties, which are likely to be introduced this year, and more complex customs procedures could hamper further market development.
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