Amid signs of renewal of the Russian e-commerce marketplace scene, ShopAlike, an international fashion-focused aggregator launched back in 2009, has been making headway in the Russian market for almost a year.
In an exclusive interview with East-West Digital News, Charles Bellissen, Global Head of Sales at Visual-Meta GmbH – the German company behind the platform – explained why and how the company came to Russia, as well as the initial results of the first year.
You came to Russia in June 2014. Why not earlier?
In the years following launch in 2009, we expanded actively across Western Europe. As it proved successful, we decided to expand further to markets that show stable and dynamic e-commerce growth. Russia, Brazil and India were therefore selected as the next launch countries.
Did you come to Russia alone or in association with a local partner?
Axel Springer, which has been active locally for a long time, came as our natural partner. They acquired our company in 2011, just three years after the company was founded with the support of Rocket Internet.
This being said, whatever the country, we rely on our product knowhow and infrastructure, which we have been developing for six years in no fewer than 19 countries.
How many merchants are there on ShopAlike.ru as of Jan. 2015?
Since June 2014 more than 50 direct e-merchants have joined ShopAlike.ru to offer their products to Russian consumers, and this number keeps growing every month. Among them are KupiVip, Names, Quelle, Bonprix as well as smaller boutique-type e-shops like Trendsbrands, Youthstore, Mivoshoes, Fabika and many others. We partner both with some foreign e-merchants who target Russian consumers and Russian online-shops.
ShopAlike.ru now displays more than 1 million items in a variety of categories, including apparel and footwear, bags and accessories, eyewear, home textile and home decor.
As a B2B service, ShopAlike.ru is open to all merchants that have an online presence with a fully functioning Russian-language site and shipment to Russia. We are offering a free trial period to all shops that are interested in joining our platform.
We work under a CPC model, with possible rate adjustments by means of bidding for determined product listings.
What is the impact of the current crisis on your business?
In the current crisis conditions, product and price comparison sites such as ours are of increased value for Russian consumers, as they allow Internet users to save money.
Moreover, despite the crisis, the Russian e-commerce market is still considered to be attractive, with growth of up to 30% last year and a steadily growing number of Internet users. Even if this rate will show a decrease in 2015 due to the volatile market situation, we still believe in the huge potential of this market. The local ecosystem is well developed with such big players as Yandex, Mail.ru, Rambler and many others.
Do you consider yourself as a competitor of Yandex.Market? If so, how do you intend to measure yourself to such a giant?
Yandex.Market is a shopping mall offering a variety of consumer products, whereas our focus is mostly on fashion and home products. ShopAlike is more focused on the effective visual demonstration of products while Yandex.Market is rather a price-comparison website. It would be therefore more accurate to say that ShopAlike is competing for its share on the Russian market.
- EWDN has published an in-depth research on the Russian online retail industry, including a detailed analysis of B2C marketplaces. To receive free insights, please contact us at [email protected].
