In January several top Russian e-commerce companies announced impressive results for 2021, even though brick-and-mortar retail fully reopened in the country. Market leader Wildberries, Nasdaq-listed Ozon, and international platform AliExpress Russia significantly outperformed the market, which grew by at least 40% according to preliminary estimates (InfoLine), reports East-West Digital News (EWDN).

Wildberries: +93%

Wildberries announced that the turnover of its marketplace increased by 93% to RUB844bn (around $11.5bn), including a record RUB304.8bn in Q4 2021 alone. The marketplace has preliminarily estimated its yearly profit at around RUB18bn ($245mn) before taxation.

In 2021, Wildberries customers placed 808.6mn orders, up 146% on the previous year. Some 410,000 new merchants – essentially small businesses and self-employed – got involved in the marketplace, up from 91,000 new ones in 2020.

Wildberries plans to invest further in new logistics capacities, service quality improvements and additional assortment.

The company pursued its international expansion in 2021, launching sales in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA as well as Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Turkey and Estonia.

Ozon: +125%

According to preliminary unaudited results, Ozon saw its gross merchandise value (GMV) exceed RUB445bn (more than $6bn), up from RUB197bn in 2020 (+125%). The company delivered more than 220mn orders – around three times more than in 2020 – to dozens of millions of consumers.  

By the end of 2021, Ozon was attracting more than 25mn of customers on a monthly basis. This is around 38% of Russia’s population aged 15-64.

Assortment expanded more than sevenfold year on year, exceeding 80mn SKUs by the end of the year (compared with 11mn as of December 31, 2020). This performance was “driven by substantial growth in the merchant base,” says the company, whose marketplace accounted for 65% of GMV, up from 48% in 2020 and just 17% in 2019.

Having raised recently considerable amounts on the international markets ($1.2bn Nasdaq IPO in November 2020, $750mn bond issuance in early 2021), Ozon continued expanding its logistics capacities.

These consist of a large fulfilment, sorting and dark store network as well as pickup points, lockers and courier services across the country. Having tripled in 2021, Ozon’s warehouse capacity is now сlose to 1mn sq. metres in operation, says the company.

Commenting on these “fantastic results,” Ozon CEO Alexander Shulgin boasted “incredible progress in cultivating the high-frequency shopping habits”, while pledging to develop further sustainability initiatives.

AliExpress Russia: + 124% in domestic sales

The international marketplace claims to have generated last year RUB306bn (around $4.2bn) in turnover, excluding services, up 46% y/y.

Initially dedicated to cross-border sales from China, the company continued developing domestic (Russia-to-Russia) sales. These accounted for 30% of its total transaction volume, reaching RUB110bn, up 124% from 2020.

During last year, AliExpress accumulated an audience of more than 80mn unique users and 28.7mn unique customers. Some 13mn unique users visited the AliExpress app via social networks VK and OK, which are owned by AliExpress shareholder VK Company (formerly Mail.ru Group).

The marketplace now involves more than 400,000 merchants, including 102,500 from Russia. It has 3.2bn SKUs, or 211mn SPUs in total, including 16.5mn SPUs provided by Russian merchants (+184%).

AliExpress Russia is co-owned by VK Company, Alibaba, USM and RDIF. In August 2021, MegaFon sold its stake to USM, the holding of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, while VK Company injected $60mn into the joint venture.

In 2022, AliExpress plans to “increase its logistic capacities, create its own, stable infrastructure and improve customer experience.” The company will continue expanding the network of sellers and goods based in Russia while “significantly reducing” delivery time for goods shipped from China.