Specifics of Kazan e-commerce: young shoppers, China and pickup’s popularity

E-commerce shifting to daily consumption

The Kazan e-commerce market is a mirror of the situation whole Russia will have in a few years, claimed head of the Market Research Department of Yandex.Market Kirill Shpara told journalists no 17 November.

“Several features of Kazan and Tatarstan markets amazed me. It is progressive: if you want to see what the country’s national market will be like in a few years, you should look at what’s happening in the market in Kazan now. A very careful, scrupulous choice of goods and services by local citizens is a challenge for retailers,” Shpara told the journalists.

Interestingly, in some e-commerce market indicators, Russia is ahead of large countries considering leaders in this sphere. The amount of e-commerce in Russia is 2,5 trillion rubles (excluding petrol, cars and services), the share of e-commerce of the total retail sales has grown from 6 to 9% over the year, reads Data Insight’s data. If we compare it with China (with 24%) or the USA (17%), it is less, but Shpara notes a growth pace — we can even catch up with the USA at such a pace. By his estimate, with its growth pace, Russia is approximately in the top 5 most dynamic countries. According to Yandex’s own data, the market’s growth was 45% in 9 months 2020. Here are some facts about the e-commerce market on the basis of data of international and Russian researchers:

• In 2020, the world’s online retail sales will be no less than 17% of all retail sales, almost 4 trillion. This is comparable with Germany’s GDP.

• The share of online shoppers in Russia aged 16-55 has tripled in the last six years and totals 50% now.
  

• The number of visitors to online stores in Russia has exceeded 70 million people. Here we’re talking about visitors: they won’t necessarily buy something but can use stores to simply compare before going shopping offline.

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  While the number of shoppers in online stores is 51,2 million people, 2 million of them are under 16. People who are older 16 years account for 49,2 million, the growth compared to last year is 8,2 million people.

• The share of online shoppers logically falls depending on the size of a city. But Shpara notes that not only Moscow but also comparably small cities have provided the biggest growth in the last years (with the population from 100,000 to 500,000).
• The coverage of online purchases in such categories as clothes and shoes, personal hygiene as well as foods and beverages increased in Russia during the pandemic. It is noteworthy that this led to a fall in the average receipt because purchasers started to order inexpensive goods for daily use more actively.

How citizens of Kazan shop online

Besides the already mentioned specifics of the Kazan e-commerce market, Kirill Shpora singles out a series of other details. So Kazan became one of the youngest cities in this matter — here 25% of online shoppers are under 16 years. In many cities this share doesn’t go above 10%, Shpara added.

These young purchasers often use social networks — they shop through them and do reviews. Yandex.Market’s PR Director Polina Upitis said that there is also a trend for live transmissions among such purchasers — during live transmissions bloggers order a good and discuss its pros and cons. This has already become a powerful advertising tool in China, some platforms in Russia have begun using such instruments.

• About a third of Kazan citizens will prefer buying a good in a local online store under equal conditions. Quick delivery and other conveniences play a role, 22% of the Kazan residents have used a new store during their latest online purchase.
• Kazan citizens name the possibility of comparing prices and finding the best deal as the main reason for purchases in online stores (over 60% of the respondents). Shpara’s words about Kazan shoppers’ scrupulousness when choosing a good prove this. The possibility of not going somewhere and spending energy and time on shopping is the second reason (around 52% of the respondents). Safety during the pandemic turned out to be decisive only for 20% of the purchasers.

65% of Kazan online shoppers make purchases on the Net no less than 2-3 times a month. It is notably more than across Russia on average.

• As for the most popular goods, there are no discoveries here — it is clothes and mobile phones as well as toys and hobbies. The situation doesn’t differ much from Russia in general.
• There is interesting data on what goods Kazan citizens wouldn’t like to buy online — it is alcohol, medicines as well as major appliances and foodstuffs. Moreover, 83% of Kazan citizens are ready to buy food online.

• Kazan citizens often choose payment with a card. But this is rather conditioned by the market’s existing practice. The data of a survey on how citizens of Kazan would like to pay shows the contrary: a payment with a card on delivery is considered a more preferable option.

• Kazan citizens in general prefer picking up a good from pickup points. However, delivery service by couriers (up to 80%) quite logically became more popular in spring, during the strictest restrictive measures.

• The indicator “the best delivery term” has decreased over the year by one day, to three days. While the term Kazan citizens consider long but still acceptable for expectation has reduced by two days, to 9 days.
• 96% of online shoppers in Kazan have heard about the mass Black Friday sales, 25% have bought something during this period. Only 20% of Kazan residents are aware of the sales on 11 November, the so-called Singles’ Day.