In Russia, Call It You-Commerce

摘要

Russia's online shopping grew 26 percent last year to 510 billion rubles ($14 billion), according to Moscow's Data Insight. That makes the country an intriguing target for foreign players such as Amazon.com, EBay, and China's Alibaba Group. One promising player, though, is homegrown. Online retailer Ulmart reported $1.2 billion in sales last year on the strength of its hybrid delivery model. Instead of focusing only on making home deliveries ever faster, the company encourages customers to pick up their orders at one of about 300 urban holding sites or warehouses that double as stores. While Amazon receives and repacks shipments at megasize processing facilities before sending them to a local warehouse, St. Petersburg-based Ulmart often ships items in bulk directly from suppliers to its outlets. Then, in lieu of United Parcel Service or Russia's Byzantine postal service, the company uses its own fleet of 190 trucks for home deliveries. That allows its network to turn around some delivery orders in a few hours and service customer pickups in as little as seven minutes, says Chairman Dmitry Kostygin. Customer pickup also makes it easy for Ulmart to deal with cash, important in a country where most people distrust credit cards. "In this market," Kostygin says, "Amazon has no chance."