Page 145 - RusRPTNov20

approve most decisions in real time, enabling Yandex.Market to move faster. Only major strategic decisions still require approval by YNDX’s BoD.
Gross merchandise value (GMV) growth. Yandex.Market’s growth peaked in April-May at 200-220% y/y, occasionally reaching 300% during that period. Summer tends to be slow for Russian e-commerce players, but sales were supported this year by fewer shoppers going on vacation. The reopening of offline stores created a headwind. According to Mr. Grishakov, growth is currently reaccelerating, but visibility for the rest of the year is limited given the uncertainty around a second wave of COVID-19 and possible containment measures. Yandex.Market is working to prepare its logistics for the high season, which could be abnormally high this year if strict lockdowns are re-imposed.
Scaling logistics to keep up with rapid GMV growth. Yandex.Market continues to open sorting centres in Russia’s large and mid-sized cities and towns. It also plans to open 8-10,000 pickup points in Russia’s primary regions. Yandex.Market uses third-party courier services and has its own courier platform that launched in November 2019. The platform currently covers Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar and Rostov, with other 1mn+ cities in the pipeline. The in-house courier platform is successfully leveraging YNDX’s navigation services for real-time routing optimization.
Yandex.Market is piloting on-demand delivery in collaboration with Yandex.Lavka, which is part of YNDX’s Taxi vertical. On-demand delivery means that when a customer makes a purchase with next-day delivery, the purchase comes to a sorting centre that night. The following day, the customer opens an app and orders delivery for exactly when he or she is ready. The delivery should then take no more than 15-20 minutes. Regardless of whether this particular pilot project takes off, we see considerable scope for synergies between YNDX’s e-commerce and mobility verticals.
Expanding assortment. Yandex.Market’s product range includes 1.5mn SKUs, up from 900,000 in May. The product range should reach 2mn by YE20, as Yandex.Market is adding new merchants to its platform. Mr. Grishakov sees the 2023 target of 5mn as “valid”.
Small market share and large ambitions. In the words of Mr. Grishakov, Yandex.Market’s marketplace currently holds only 1-2% of the Russian e-commerce market, while the company’s price-comparison platform accounts for around 15%. Mr. Grishakov did not quantify where he sees Yandex.Market’s share in 2023 (remember
145 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ November 2020 www.intellinews.com