AliExpress Russia invests in regional marketplace KazanExpress

AliExpress Russia invests in regional marketplace KazanExpress
KazanExpress works with some 5,000 registered Russian merchants from Russia’s regions. / wiki
By East West Digital News in Moscow March 21, 2021

AliExpress Russia, a leading cross-border and domestic e-commerce platform in Russia, has invested in a major regional e-commerce company, KazanExpress, acquiring a 30% stake, reports East-West Digital News (EWDN).

The value of the transaction was not disclosed, but in a media interview company co-owner Linar Khusnullin mentioned a sum of “several billions of rubles” (dozens of millions of US dollars). Founded in 2017 and based in Tatarstan, KazanExpress combines marketplace and retail models working with some 5,000 registered Russian merchants (as of early March), essentially from Russia’s regions. The company is currently investing in logistics to expand its 24-hour delivery. It aims to reach to 72% of the country’s online consumers by covering 127 cities in the European part of Russia.

“Perfectly built logistics is our key feature, with free, next-day delivery in covered city,” Khusnullin said, noting that consumers are not only sensitive to price and assortment.

In February 2021, KazanExpress generated just 2mn visits, according to SimilarWeb  a model record in comparison with Wildberries (155mn), AliExpress Russia (93mn) or Ozon (79mn). However, the company is growing extremely fast: its traffic doubled from September 2020 and the number of parcels (currently 1mn monthly) increased eight-fold in a year.

Thus KazanExpress expects an eight-fold increase in its turnover this year (from RUB1.3bn in 2020, or $180,000 at the average exchange rate of the year).

“As a leading Russian e-commerce player, we develop the company in different directions and always look at bright startup,” commented AliExpress Russia CEO Dmitry Sergeev.

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This article first appeared in East-West Digital News, a partner of bne IntelliNews

 

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