Lovers of online shopping will remember the outgoing year two thousand and seventeen for the sharply intensified competition between marketplaces. M.Video launched a new marketplace – Goods.ru , Yandex.Market began selling goods directly to users and giving guarantees, and AliExpress launched TMall , a platform with Rostest goods and fast delivery.
The services are very similar to each other. Apparently, it is this trading format – a marketplace with a single service – that will become the main one for many years. Let's figure out what each site offers to the buyer.
TMall
Many Russians know and love AliExpress for its huge assortment and low prices. If it were not for the lack of a guarantee and long delivery, then AliExpress would have easily ousted all competitors. The Alibaba Group (the head structure of AliExpress) understands this, to expand their presence in the Russian market, the guys from Alibaba needed to solve a non-trivial problem: how to localize warehouse and transport logistics in the Russian Federation, pay 18% VAT, start incurring service costs and at the same time save firmly low prices?
We do not know what kind of Chinese kung fu was used by Jack Ma and his forty robbers, but so far TMall remains ultimately beneficial. This also applies to regular promotional offers with prices lower than those of the cheapest options on Ya.Market, and favorable conditions for courier delivery – any goods are delivered by courier free of charge when ordering from 1000 rubles and from 3000 rubles for Moscow / St. Petersburg and regions, respectively (to remote regions by Russian Post), delivery time is 2-7 days. All goods are certified with an official guarantee in the Russian Federation. If you do not like it, you can return the product to the Russian warehouse in accordance with the Law 'On Protection of Consumer Rights'.
So far, everything is so good with prices that you involuntarily begin to think, but who is paying for this whole banquet? It is very possible that this ride of unprecedented generosity will soon end. For example, iPhone SE 32Gb costs 17,000 rubles, which is about 2-3 thousand cheaper than in most networks, and 1,500 cheaper than the minimum price on Ya.Market. Automatic coffee machine Philips HD8827 – 15,000 rubles. at a minimum price on Ya.Market 18,000 rubles. Comparing the price with Ya.Market, it is important to remember that by default the prices are indicated there without taking into account the delivery, which will add another 300-500 rubles to the price. TMall offers bargains across a wide range of product categories, from Nike sneakers and ICEbear jackets to child car seats and Lego bricks, but the small assortment remains a weak point of this marketplace. You will not find a catalog for tens of thousands of items here. Particularly demanding buyers, probably, will still provide chat support instead of a normal call center and only electronic document flow. But let's be realistic, the company would not be able to give the prices that it gives if it did not make any optimizations in comparison with conventional stores.
Goods.ru
Goods.ru is a rather strange project by M.Video. The service creates competition for absolutely all of its product categories. And, of course, for any product on M.Video, you can find more profitable analogues on the marketplace. Personally, this raises questions for me about the future of the service if it starts cannibalizing the sales of the parent company too much. At the start, 100 partner stores are announced (on another page 300, both figures are embarrassing with their roundness), all stores are united by a single basket, delivery service and marketing campaigns. Until the end of the year, delivery is valid for 1 rub. in Moscow and the region when ordering from 1,000 rubles. (further 250-700 rubles). For registration, 500 bonuses are given, another 1,000 for the beta test (orders from 5,000 rubles) and up to 20% of all purchases by the end of the year (hereinafter 1-7%). You can pay with bonuses up to half of the cost of goods at the rate of 1 bonus = 1 ruble, the validity period of bonuses is 90 days.
The range and prices are quite good. I recently dropped my external hard drive (aka a file washing machine) and found the most profitable replacement option on Goods.ru, But the devil pulled me to postpone the purchase until the New Year, I thought there would be a New Year sale, but no, closer to the hot season it only started to rise in price ((
Missed a good price! Oh, I missed it !!! for 14 I will not take.
There is also a price arbitrage program on Goods.ru. But it is quite toothless: the maximum difference cannot exceed 10%, you cannot pay for the purchase with bonuses, and the program does not work during promotional periods (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Singles' Day, etc.).
The service is still in beta status and is aimed at residents of Moscow and the region. He does not give super-favorable prices, but taking into account free delivery and 20% bonuses by the end of the year, you can get a better offer than at Ya.Market.
Yandex Market
You still don't know Y.Market? !! Then we go to you!
Ya.Market is now the market leader. It is he who defends his position from the attack of newcomers. All his strengths and weaknesses stem from his position in the market. It is the absolute leader in assortment; it hosts both traditional chains like MediaMarkt and hard discounters like Player.ru. Of particular value is the reviews section, although the company does almost nothing to combat bots, in general, after reading negative reviews, you can learn about the weak points of the selected product model and, possibly, choose another. But due to the abundance of partners, Yandex cannot unify the service: some products can be put in the basket, others must be ordered on the store's website, the shipping costs are different for all stores, and there are no uniform marketing programs. For a long time there was a problem with orders made through the Ya.Market cart – neither J.Market's support nor the store's support knew the full information on the order. I last bought on Ya. Market two months ago, on Black Friday, if everything is working out now, please write about it in the comments.
Conclusion
TMall evokes the strongest emotions now, I want to visit it regularly to see what brand products it is throwing away now. But I wouldn't hope for too long a freebie. As soon as the budget for primary audience acquisition is spent, prices should equalize, and there will be no extreme discounts on branded items.
I am wary of the Goods project. M.Video will definitely make sure that he does not harm their main business. By way of brainstorming, it can be assumed that the Safmar group, which recently merged Eldorado, M.Video and Technosila under its control, conducted research that showed that those who are used to buying in traditional retail do not flow to the Internet, even with a significant difference in price. Then it would be logical to maximize the marginality of offline sales and in parallel develop an online marketplace under a different brand.
But there is no doubt about the future of Y.Market. In the medium term, he will remain the leader. And if everything goes well (our purchases from abroad will be stifled, TMall's expansion will drown, etc.), then Ya.Market has every chance of becoming Russian Amazon. Will it be funny if someday Amazon will look into Russia, and then merge its Russian branch with Ya.Market?