Almost two years after the release of its Russian language version, and one year after it launched a local classifieds service, eBay enjoys a strong and still growing popularity among Russian consumers who use the platform to order goods from all over the globe.
eBay’s Head of International Expansion for Europe Rob Cassedy shared some insights with East-West Digital News, including some key traffic and trade indicators as well as eBay’s goals for the local market.
Even before you launched your Russian-language version in 2010, eBay already enjoyed a strong brand awareness and popularity in Russia. How do you explain this?
eBay now has a presence in 39 markets, including partnerships and investments, with more than 97 million users today. Even before we arrived in Russia, Russian shopping enthusiasts were already experiencing the benefits of shopping abroad through neighboring eBay core sites.
The arrival of eBay.ru meant that even more Russians, including those with little or no English language ability, could benefit from the amazing internal deals on offer.
eBay is the largest ecommerce site in the world in terms of selection. From a specifically Russian perspective, eBay.ru offers local consumers the opportunity to purchase goods from abroad. People like to look beyond their country of origin for a number of reasons – principally, to purchase goods which are not yet available in their country or because they could be purchased abroad far more cheaply than from within the buyer’s home country*.
You launched your Russian version in 2010, and a local classifieds service in early 2011. This is 10 years after Austria or 5 years after Poland. Why did you come to Russia so late?
With over 43 million Internet users today, Russia represents an important and growing opportunity for e-commerce. Our international expansion strategy is to accompany local consumers as web penetration and e-commerce becomes more prevalent. Each market has its particular characteristics in terms of language requirements, buying patterns and user behavior. For Russians, eBay is all about international deals; for this to really take off, Russian language was absolutely essential.
How has your business been growing in Russia to date?
The weekly traffic has grown 121% year on year and the number of new registered users is up 81% year on year. The most popular item categories ordered from Russia are Fashion and accessories and Consumer technology (gadgets). With these categories in particular, local consumers have seen the opportunities and benefits of purchasing goods before they become available locally.
The most popular cities that Russians buy from are Moscow (54%), St Petersburg (30%), Krasnodar (9%), Rostov-na-Donu (4%), Ekaterinburg (2%)
Where do Russian users like to purchase from?
Currently, figures show that for Russian eBay customers the US is the market of preference:
- 56% of purchases online roulette by Russians on eBay come from the US – up 100% on last year;
- 9% come from China – up 105% on last year;
- 9% come from the UK – up 72% on last year;
- 6% come from Germany – up 76% on last year.
What are your future plans for Russia? For instance, do you intend to introduce your daily deal system, or to launch a full fledged mobile commerce platform as you did in India last year?
Our goal is to continue investing on improvements for our customers’ experience. We have recently launched many new features such as the duty calculator, machine translation and we will bring more deals to Russian users from the brands and markets that they are enthusiastic about. We will continue to listen to our users and apply their suggestions when determining what the next steps will be for this market. In fact, the launch of eBay International Market (eIM) in Russia was a direct response to local demand and feedback.
In Russia, cross border trade represents a clear opportunity for consumers and any development of our offering will focus on this area.
Globally, eBay has been at the forefront of mobile commerce – our applications have been downloaded over 65 million times, with billions of dollars in sales coming from mobile. In fact, in Q3 of 2011, three purchases every second were made from a mobile device. We believe that this is just the start… This is an area we will be looking at in the future for the context of cross border trade in Russia.
Do you have a dedicated Russian team or office in Russia?
eBay’s European model is based on one pan-European structure to serve all surrounding European markets with business centers in Switzerland, London, Dublin and Berlin from where the company’s entire regional operations are supported.
This model – backed by a workforce which is genuinely international in terms of both nationality and outlook – has proved very successful and remains perfectly placed to support the company and its customers moving forward. Of course, if the need to have an office and team based in Russia presented itself we would not be opposed and this option would be evaluated.
What are your strengths or weaknesses compared to national classifeds sites such as Yandex.Market or Avito?
eBay brings together buyers and sellers, regardless of the format or type of transaction; eIM perfectly reflects this principal by making a large proportion of the world’s largest inventory of deals available to local consumers in these markets in their local language.
Currently, no other online retailer or platform can offer the breadth or depth of deals now available through eBay – and certainly not through an experience which is in local language.
What are the specificities of doing e-commerce in Russia?
Due to the size and scale of the country, delivery of goods will always represent a distinct and particular challenge for users and vendors of e-commerce services.
Feedback from experienced eBay sellers recommends the use of alternative carriers and tracked delivery services to mitigate the risk of delayed or misplaced deliveries. eBay’s mission remains bringing buyers and sellers together; the sharing of experience and good practice from both parties on aspects such as delivery and fulfilment is a welcome and necessary part of that process.
In many instances the deals available to Russian buyers will still remain compelling – the size and depth of eBay’s global inventory means that there will be great deals for everyone, wherever they are based.
• Rob Cassedy is eBay’s Head of International Expansion for Europe. Cassedy is responsible for leading the company’s growth into new countries across the region through the strategic provision of market entry platforms and flexible technology solutions including eBay’s cross border trading service, which is available across 9 markets.
Cassedy joined eBay in 2006 in the Marketplaces Strategy group in San Jose, California, where he led a number of strategic projects for senior executives ranging from market entry to product strategy to pricing. After 3 years on the strategy team, he was selected to be the Chief of Staff to the President of the Marketplaces organization (then Lorrie Norrington). In February 2011, Cassedy moved across the Atlantic to London to lead the International Expansion Team, blending strategy and operations.
Before joining eBay, Cassedy worked as a consultant at Mars & Company, a boutique strategy consulting firm, for over four years where he focused mainly on consumer packaged goods. Cassedy earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University, adding a second major in economics. After spending almost 5 years consulting at Mars & Company, he went on to obtain his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, majoring in strategy, finance, and marketing. In his free time Cassedy enjoys soccer (which he now calls football), having attended 4 of the past 5 FIFA World Cups.
* EWDN estimates the share of cross border sales to be approximately 7% of the total volume of Russian e-commerce, which reached 320 billion rubles, a little more than $10 billion, last year. EWDN”s study on Russian e-commerce will soon be available. To receive a free Executive summary or to order the full version, please contact us at [email protected].
