Analysis of the e-commerce market. Akit: an analysis of the online jewelry sales market. Furniture

The global e-commerce market is growing rapidly. Due to which countries is this happening and what features are there in each of the markets? Remarkety specialists analyzed the markets of various countries of the world, both developed and developing, in order to identify the peculiarities of doing online business in each of them. So, in particular, the volumes of e-commerce markets in various countries, the frequency of using mobile devices when making purchases, popular payment methods, the time at which residents of certain countries prefer to make purchases, the effectiveness of email distribution within the framework of a marketing strategy in different countries and other features.

# 1 - China

The volume of the e-commerce market is $ 562.66 billion. 33% of purchases come from mobile devices (tablets and smartphones), 67% - from stationary computers. The average age of an online shopper is 25. Shopping is the fastest growing online activity in China.
China is the largest e-commerce market in the world, not least because of its population. There are over 600 million internet users in the country. Shopping is the fastest growing online activity in China. At the same time, email marketing is a great success in the Chinese e-commerce market. In a survey, 75% of consumers said they were ready to make a purchase after they received a special offer in the mail.

# 2 - USA

The volume of the e-commerce market is $ 349.06 billion. 13% of purchases come from tablets, 15% - from smartphones, 72% - from stationary computers. Thus, Americans buy more through computers, less through mobile devices... 72% of SMEs do not trade online. Despite the fact that there are about 191.1 million online shoppers in the US, only 28% of small businesses sell their products online. In general, more than half (57.4%) of American stores operate online. For most American shoppers, it is key to be able to check the availability of an item in a warehouse or in an offline store located near your home.

# 3 - Great Britain

The volume of the e-commerce market is $ 93.89 billion. 12.1% of purchases come from tablets, 16.5% - from smartphones, 71.4% - from stationary computers. 33% of online sales are made after 6pm. Online trading accounts for 30% of the country's economy. The UK is ranked third in the ranking of e-commerce markets. Online sales in this country account for more than 13% of the total retail sales... Most Britons use PayPal, debit and credit cards to pay for goods online. 70% of UK consumers have a smartphone, but only 16.5% use it to shop. Interesting fact- a third of online sales are made after 6 pm. Perhaps this is due to the fact that locals often leave online orders in pubs.

# 4 - Japan

The volume of the e-commerce market is $ 79.33 billion. 6% of purchases come from tablets, 46% - from smartphones, 48% - from stationary computers. 97% of internet users shop online. A favorite online activity among Japanese people is reading email. Almost the entire Japanese Internet audience, which accounts for 80% of the total population, makes purchases from online stores. It is the second most popular online activity after reading email. Recent studies show that Japanese consumers today spend more time at home than ever before, which means they spend less time shopping in traditional stores. This opens up great opportunities for online retailers. However, it should be borne in mind that the Japanese approach the choice of a trading platform with all responsibility, giving preference only to reliable sellers with a good reputation who offer quality products. Reviews of various products are very popular.

No. 5 - Germany

The volume of the e-commerce market is $ 74.46 billion. 11.5% of purchases come from tablets, 16.2% - from smartphones, 72.3% - from stationary computers. Most often, Germans open their e-mail in the morning. Half of online sales come from Amazon and Otto. 85% of the German population are Internet users. Among online retailers, the most popular among Germans are Amazon and Otto, German trading floor... It is not easy for small and medium-sized businesses to compete with such giants, but there is a way out. The most popular online shopping destination in Germany is fashion. Thus, if you have a small fashion store, you could develop quite successfully in the German market. When promoting an online store, it should be borne in mind that despite the high degree of Internet penetration, German residents are not very active in social networks. So, for example, only 17% of users check their Facebook in the morning. The Germans pay much more attention to e-mail.

The ability to return a product is of the utmost importance to German consumers. Germany has a very high return rate - up to 50% of all orders are sent back to the store. Therefore, in order for customers to be satisfied, online stores operating in Germany, it is important to think over a return system and organize free shipping.

# 6 - France

The volume of the e-commerce market is $ 42.62 billion. 8.1% of purchases come from tablets, 11.1% - from smartphones, 80.8% - from stationary computers. Only 68% of French people use the Internet. 19% of purchases are made on foreign sites. Only 68% of the 66.2 million people in France are Internet users. This is significantly less than in the UK, USA, Germany and China. Also, French people spend less money on online shopping than residents of these countries. However, France ranks 6th in terms of e-commerce market volume, ahead of South Korea, Canada, Russia and Brazil.

# 7 - South Korea

The volume of the e-commerce market is $ 36.76 billion. 1% of purchases come from tablets, 50% - from smartphones, 49% - from stationary computers. The fastest internet speed in the world. Most people shop between 10pm and 12pm. On average, for every resident of South Korea, there are up to 5 credit cards... For comparison, in the US, everyone has an average of 2 cards. This explains the high credit debt of Koreans. South Koreans love sales and promotions. And the fastest internet only contributes to online shopping. Unlike Germans, who like to shop in the morning, and Brits, who prefer evening shopping, South Koreans can be categorized as “night owls” who stay up late in front of the screen. South Koreans often buy American goods. In all likelihood, this is due to the fact that local South Korean products are nine times more expensive than their foreign counterparts.

# 8 - Canada

The volume of the e-commerce market is $ 28.77 billion. 7.5% of purchases come from tablets, 8.7% - from smartphones, 83.8% - from stationary computers. 45% of purchases occur on foreign sites. About 70% of smartphone users buy through mobile devices. Slightly less than half of Canadian consumers prefer overseas sites. The reason for this is the high prices for local goods, which, with a similar quality, cannot compete with cheaper American and even more so Chinese goods. In addition, foreign online retailers offer a wider assortment in comparison with Canadian stores. Shipping costs in Canada are 3.6 times higher than in the United States.

No. 9 - Russia

The volume of the e-commerce market is $ 20.30 billion. 12% of purchases come from tablets, 8% - from smartphones, 80% - from stationary computers. The most popular payment method is cash on delivery. About 13% of Russians shop online. Mostly to save money and time. The most popular product categories are electronics, apparel and footwear. The main difficulties faced by e-commerce enterprises in Russia are the lack of access to high-speed Internet in some regions and the undeveloped road infrastructure. Unlike residents of other countries represented in the ranking, Russians prefer to pay for purchases in cash upon delivery.

No. 10 - Brazil

The volume of the e-commerce market is $ 18.80 billion. 4% of purchases come from tablets, 8% - from smartphones, 88% - from stationary computers. 18% of all online stores sell clothing and accessories. Only 8% of purchases are made via smartphones. In the process of online shopping, Brazilians prefer fashion stores. Such sites cover about 18% of the Brazilian retail network.

India

India did not make the list of the largest e-commerce markets, but it is also worth paying attention to. The Indian market is the largest emerging ecommerce market. Despite the fact that the Internet penetration in the country is just over 10%, the volume of Internet commerce is constantly growing. The most popular among Indians are such areas as electronics and fashion. Along with the growing number of online shoppers, so too is the number of mobile users in India. Currently, most purchases are made through a mobile device. The main issue in the Indian e-commerce market is shipping. In most of the country, infrastructure is poorly developed, especially in rural areas.

E-commerce, or e-commerce, is a special area of the economy in which transactions are carried out through the use of computer networks.

For the most part, in this area of economic relations, online stores, mobile applications of sellers, where you can easily purchase something, have become popular. More and more common ways of interaction within e-commerce are electronic payments - through an application or a bank website (Sberbank Online, for example), or contactless payments by cards or via phone (Apple Pay). In addition, in Russia and around the world, ordering and buying air or train tickets has become popular.

The breadth of this area is due to the fact that electronic payments reduce to a minimum level or completely eliminate the need for a personal presence at the institution with which the user makes a transaction, and, therefore, the number of such remote transactions is growing. In addition, electronic payments are much faster than cash payments, which today, when time has become a particularly valuable resource, is very important and plays in favor of e-commerce. Development of telecommunication technologies, computers and information systems to them have also been influenced by such large scale use of e-commerce.

Since the implementation of transactions in this way is becoming deeper and deeper into our lives, it would be logical to assume that using e-commerce for a company is a sure way to significantly increase the number of potential and actual buyers. Investment in the development of this area for each company pays off in a relatively shorter time.

Today it is customary to distinguish several types of e-commerce:

B2B, business to business, or business to business. In this case, buying or selling occurs between two legal entities... When using e-commerce in the execution of these transactions, the operation time is reduced, the operations themselves become transparent, which means that the relations between the actors are more honest. It is possible to track the status of an order, and for this it is already enough to simply go to the supplier's website and, using the required amount of information, track at what stage of execution this or that transaction is.
B2C, business to consumer, or business consumer. This relationship involves the conclusion of a transaction between an enterprise and an individual. At the same time, there are significant advantages for the consumer: it becomes possible to assess appearance and properties of the product, you can also compare several commodity items with each other, which undoubtedly facilitates the choice. For the seller, the advantage of maintaining such a relationship with the consumer is beneficial due to the reduction in the number of personnel involved in processing orders, the cost of maintaining the office is also reduced. In addition, the seller can quickly respond to changing demand, therefore, change the range of products presented, conduct a certain advertising campaign, and improve the goods sold. This scheme often use online retail stores.
C2C, consumer to consumer, or consumer - consumer. This type of relationship arises between individuals, while trading takes place on special Internet sites (for example, avito.ru), which are more like spontaneous markets or newspapers with buy and sell advertisements. Such sites include online auctions. The convenience of this scheme is that the purchase of a product can be carried out at a lower price than on the website of a store or seller, but at the same time the product itself may be used (which, of course, has a bad effect on orders for certain categories of goods). In addition, there are risks of entering into a deal with a dishonest buyer or seller, which negatively affects the existence of such trading platforms.

There are also a number of special types of e-commerce:

Mcommerce, mobile commerce, or mobile commerce. Literally, the idea of this type of e-commerce is to create what the consumer needs, which is always with him: in a mobile phone. To date, there are several types of products offered within the framework of these relations: ordering tickets through mobile app; translation Money; applications with the provision of loyalty cards, various coupons for purchases from individual sellers; various news applications, hobby services: music, photography; mobile banks through which it is possible to carry out operations, while it is not necessary to visit a bank branch, which significantly reduces the load on the latter; other products.
Fcommerce, Facebook commerce, or Facebook social networking. This type e-commerce focuses on building Facebook services. This type is common when advertising a particular product: users of this social network, giving positive ratings to the product on third-party sites, thereby guarantee that this product is good in certain characteristics, therefore, advertising takes place. Moreover, it can be effective because people trust their friends, parents, acquaintances rather than advertisers from the screen.
B2G, business to government, business to government. This type of relationship arises in the implementation of trade orders by government agencies.
G2G, government to government, or government - government. Similar e-commerce relationships arise between government agencies.
G2C, government to citizens, or state-citizens. In these relations, there is an interaction between state bodies and citizens. For the latter, access to the necessary state information is provided.
C2B, consumer to business, consumer to business. This type of e-commerce is used when the buyer himself determines the price at which he can purchase a product or service from a separate company. In this case, the seller company acts as a broker that selects a manufacturer for a price request, who is ready to release the goods at a given price.
B2P, business to partners, or business partners. This type of relationship is widespread among business partners, in the interaction between the company and its branches, in the creation of joint ventures.
B2E, business to employee, business employee. This type of e-commerce relationship is used when communicating with staff.
B2B2C, business to business to consumer, or business to business to consumer. This type of e-commerce is derived from B2B and B2C. The essence of this relationship is that a B2B company pays a B2C company to offer services or goods to its customers first. In this case, there is a mutually beneficial relationship between companies: a B2B company finds new sales channels for its products, new potential buyers, and for a B2C company, the advantages lie in providing a wider range of products, increasing sales.
E2E, exchange for exchange, exchange - exchange. This type of relationship is between sellers and buyers either within the same exchange or between different exchanges.

Chapter 2. E-Commerce Platforms

As the volume of global Internet sales grows every year, companies are increasingly wondering how they can enter the global e-commerce market. The answer lies in choosing the right platform that will meet the needs of a particular seller.

When choosing a specific platform, companies should approach responsibly, taking into account the load on the future site, including its viewing depth, traffic. It is also worth considering the financial capabilities of the company, the company's tasks for the development of service in the future.

When comparing platforms, the following metrics are used:

Functional potential;
The ability of the system to adapt;
Possibilities for processing large databases;
Flexibility in data management;
Terms of putting the system into operation;
Availability of additional extensions, applications;
Cost of software, system introduction;
Regularity of updates;
The quality of technical support.

The main global e-commerce platforms are shown in the following figure:

Fig. 1. Major global e-commerce platforms in the world

It is worth describing each of the platforms:

1) WordPress is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms. This system is very convenient due to the presence high speed installation and available documentation. This platform is used by both store sites and blogs. The former show less interest in this platform due to the simplicity of the functionality. WordPress has a wide range of languages, various plugins, and ease of administration.
2) The second most popular platform - Joomla. It is distinguished by a user-friendly interface, but its drawback lies in the appearance of security problems when installing additional extensions, plug-ins, although without them the system provides a sufficient level of security.
3) Drupal among the platforms presented above, it ranks third in popularity. The advantages of this system are the ability to significantly expand the functionality, adapted to specific needs, but it is very difficult to use this platform.
4) Magento, used for large e-commerce projects, used by only 1% of all websites in the world. The advantages of this system in the stable release of updates, the availability of different languages of use, the ability to use free version to familiarize yourself with the platform. Besides, this system can be adapted to a wide variety of companies. The disadvantages include the obligatory hiring of a qualified programmer by a company that has decided to work on this platform, since the use of this system is rather complicated.

The main users of this platform include the following:

Fig. 2 Major companies using the Magento platform

5) Demandware recognized as very difficult to use and oriented to work with large projects. The advantages of this system include safety, reliability, flexibility in use. The main disadvantage of this platform is the high licensing fee, which forms a threshold for large businesses to enter the platform: from 0.75% to 1.25% of the volume of sales through the online store per month.

The following enterprises use this system:

Figure 3 Major Companies Using the Demandware Platform

6) IBM WebSphere Commerce Platform allows you to interact with consumers or businesses directly or through partners. The advantages of this system include the ability to maintain the site 24 hours a day, as well as the high quality of the services provided.

The companies that use this platform include the following:

Figure 2 Major companies using the IBM WebSphere Commerce platform

Chapter 3. E-commerce Trends

It should be admitted that this market has received great development both in the world and in Russia. Its average growth rate in the world is 18-20%, in Russia - 17-18% per year. According to researchers, this market is still in its infancy, despite the proliferation of various e-commerce services. But the generally accepted idea is that companies that do not develop in this direction can definitely disappear from the market in the future. However, it is worth noting that in Russia, as in the United States, a large number of online stores belong to a small number of offline networks, and the takeover process continues.

The change in the global e-commerce market can be traced in the following graph:

Rice. 4. The e-commerce market worldwide in the period 2012-2017, amounts in trillions, changes in percent

The trends in this market include the widespread use of Mcommerce, which is gaining momentum. It is estimated that in the event that a company does not adapt its services to mobile phones, there is a high probability of losing 25% of consumers.

It is also possible to define multichannel for market trends: for online stores this is the opening of points of delivery of goods, for offline companies it is necessary to open online stores.

The use of Big Data is becoming even more popular and necessary for companies, which implies the analysis of large databases with the subsequent identification of difficult-to-determine relationships between individual indicators. The obtained results are subsequently used by companies in determining further actions for successful functioning in the market. The use of Big Data contributes to the deeper personalization of stores, complicating the mechanism for setting up the choice of goods, but at the same time this is a plus for the consumer, since he can adjust the choice according to his own preferences, and the list of criteria for choosing products becomes larger, making the products presented at the end of the choice more suitable for individual buyer.

Logistics has been actively developed in the e-commerce market. With regard to Russian realities, this problem is acute. Today, a large number of points for issuing goods are being built, supply channels are being set up, which could provide a short time for the product to travel from the seller to the consumer.

In addition, it is worth noting that the automation of trade is also developing: while these opportunities are available to the world giants (Amazon, for example), but later the automation of purchases, order collection, delivery, etc. will be widely used in Russia as well.

Thus, we can conclude that the e-commerce market is rapidly developing and growing not only in the Russian Federation, but all over the world. This is reflected in the search for new approaches to commerce via the Internet, and the search for new channels for using e-commerce. Despite the high competition, the markets of the post-Soviet space are not yet on the same level with the world markets, but, importantly, Russian sellers, realizing this, are trying to adapt to existing conditions. As the information technologies the field for action will also increase, where Russian companies will be able to prove themselves.

Owners of online stores are familiar with the concept of "e-commerce" firsthand, they certainly know the answer to the question "e-commerce - what is it". But if you look at the essence, then a lot of nuances emerge and this term gets a broader meaning.

E-commerce: what is it?

The general concept is as follows: e-commerce means a certain approach to doing business, which involves the inclusion of a number of operations that use digital data transmission in the provision of goods or the provision of services / works, including using the Internet.

Thus, this is any commercial transaction that is made using electronic means communication.

The scheme of work is arranged as follows:

anyone can be a blogger or any other owner of their own website) registers in this system;
gets its own link;
places special code on its web page - an advertisement of the selected official partner of the e-Commerce Partners Network appears;
monitors the conversion of the site;
earns a certain percentage for every purchase made by a visitor to his site who clicked on an affiliate link.

WP e-Commerce

A large number of people are now passionate about e-commerce, primarily because of the desire to create their own website, a unique online store for selling their own products. To meet this growing demand, the developers have concentrated on creating an e-commerce template. What it is, we will consider further.

One such template example is WordPress e-commerce. It is a shopping cart plugin for WordPress (one of the most famous web resource management systems), intended primarily for creating and organizing blogs). It is provided completely free of charge and allows site visitors to make purchases on the Internet page.

In other words, this plugin allows you to create an online store (on WordPress base). This e-commerce plugin has all the necessary tools, settings and options to meet modern needs.

The global e-commerce market is growing rapidly. Due to which countries is this happening and what features are there in each of the markets? Remarkety specialists analyzed the markets of different countries of the world, both developed and developing, in order to identify the peculiarities of doing online business in each of them. So, in particular, the volumes of e-commerce markets in different countries, the frequency of using mobile devices when making purchases, popular payment methods, the time at which residents of certain countries prefer to make purchases, the effectiveness of email campaigns as part of a marketing strategy in different countries were assessed. and other features. At an international processing company, we found this study worthy of the attention of Geektimes readers. Under the cut is a rating of e-commerce markets, reflecting key indicators, as well as some features of the markets of different countries of the world.

China

China is the largest e-commerce market in the world, not least because of its population. There are over 600 million internet users in the country. Shopping is the fastest growing online activity in China. At the same time, email marketing is a great success in the Chinese e-commerce market. In a survey, 75% of consumers said they were ready to make a purchase after they received a special offer in the mail.

USA

Despite the fact that there are about 191.1 million online shoppers in the US, only 28% of small businesses sell their products online. In general, more than half (57.4%) of American stores operate online. For most American shoppers, it is key to be able to check the availability of an item in a warehouse or in an offline store located near your home.

United Kingdom

The UK is ranked third in the ranking of e-commerce markets. Online sales in this country account for over 13% of total retail sales. Most Britons use PayPal, debit and credit cards to pay for goods online. 70% of UK consumers have a smartphone, but only 16.5% use it to shop. Interesting fact - a third of online sales are made after 6 pm. Perhaps this is due to the fact that locals often leave online orders in pubs.

Japan

Almost the entire Japanese Internet audience, which accounts for 80% of the total population, makes purchases from online stores. It is the second most popular online activity after reading email. Recent studies show that Japanese consumers today spend more time at home than ever before, which means they spend less time shopping in traditional stores. This opens up great opportunities for online retailers. However, it should be borne in mind that the Japanese approach the choice of a trading platform with all responsibility, giving preference only to reliable sellers with a good reputation who offer quality products. Reviews of various products are very popular.

Germany

85% of the German population are Internet users. Among online retailers, the most popular among Germans are Amazon and Otto, the German marketplace. It is not easy for small and medium-sized businesses to compete with such giants, but there is a way out. The most popular online shopping destination in Germany is fashion. Thus, if you have a small fashion store, you could develop quite successfully in the German market. When promoting an online store, it should be borne in mind that despite the high degree of Internet penetration, German residents are not very active in social networks. So, for example, only 17% of users check their Facebook in the morning. The Germans pay much more attention to e-mail.

France

Only 68% of the 66.2 million people in France are Internet users. This is significantly less than in the UK, USA, Germany and China. Also, French people spend less money on online shopping than residents of these countries. However, France ranks 6th in terms of e-commerce market volume, ahead of South Korea, Canada, Russia and Brazil.

South Korea

On average, there are up to 5 credit cards for every resident of South Korea. For comparison, in the US, everyone has an average of 2 cards. This explains the high credit debt of Koreans. South Koreans love sales and promotions. And the fastest internet only contributes to online shopping. Unlike Germans, who like to shop in the morning, and Brits, who prefer evening shopping, South Koreans can be categorized as “night owls” who stay up late in front of the screen.

South Koreans often buy American goods. In all likelihood, this is due to the fact that local South Korean products are nine times more expensive than their foreign counterparts.

Canada

Slightly less than half of Canadian consumers prefer overseas sites. The reason for this is the high prices for local goods, which, with a similar quality, cannot compete with cheaper American and even more so Chinese goods. In addition, foreign online retailers offer a wider assortment in comparison with Canadian stores. Shipping costs in Canada are 3.6 times higher than in the United States.

Russia

About 13% of Russians shop online. Mostly to save money and time. The most popular product categories are electronics, apparel and footwear. The main difficulties faced by e-commerce enterprises in Russia are the lack of access to high-speed Internet in some regions and the undeveloped road infrastructure. Unlike residents of other countries represented in the ranking, Russians prefer to pay for purchases in cash upon delivery.

Brazil

In the process of online shopping, Brazilians prefer fashion stores. Such sites cover about 18% of the Brazilian retail network.

India

The decline in purchasing power has slowed the development of online commerce. In the near future, the b2b segment may become the market driver - large industrial enterprises have already acquired online stores.

E-commerce remains the fastest growing market in Russia, showing growth of over 10% per year. According to the results of last year, the market dynamics was 13%, according to the estimates, the experts of the Association of Internet Trade Companies (AKIT) and Data Insight agree.

The market volume in 2017, according to AKIT, amounted to RUB 1.04 trillion. According to Data Insight estimates, sales of tangible goods on the Internet reached 945 billion rubles. and will overcome the level of 1 trillion rubles. already this year.

However, the growth rate of e-commerce has slowed slightly. In 2016, the market grew by 25%, according to AKIT. And if we talk about tangible goods without music, software, and so on, then, according to Data Insight, the pace slowed down from 23 to 18%, respectively. One of the main reasons is the decline in the purchasing power of Russians. Last year, according to the National Research University Higher School of Economics, it fell by 9%. The main share of Internet sales falls on Moscow and St. Petersburg: more than 31 and 11% of the market in monetary terms, respectively.

Base for growth

Until now, the pace of development of the e-commerce market in Russia has outstripped the world. Of course, the effect of a low base affects, says the director of RAEC Sergey Plugotarenko: the share of online retail in the total volume of retail trade in Russia is quite low - about 4%, and in developed countries - about 12%. In his opinion, the potential for growth for e-commerce remains. There are several reasons: the continuing "mobilization" of the population, the growth of cross-border trade, an increase in the number of payment methods, an increase in the quality and expansion of the geography of delivery, the restoration of the purchasing power of the population, and the development of marketplaces.

World experience also testifies to the outstripping growth rate of online commerce over offline and inspires optimism to the participants of the Russian Internet retail, said Alexander Borisov, chairman of the committee for the development of the consumer market of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. All leading retailers, he said, have made sure that opening a new store does not automatically increase sales, unlike launching an online segment. The M.Video company, for example, already calls itself an online company, since 70% of its customers start buying from a visit to the site, says Alexander Borisov.

In the first quarter of 2018, online sales set another record, showing an increase of 82%, said RBC + in M.Video. About 20% of the company's total sales in the chain's stores come from online, and three out of four buyers who make a purchase on the Internet prefer to pick up the order in the store.

Driver - logistics

Over the past few years, Russian online retailers have managed to optimize the delivery of goods, says Alexander Borisov: "The delivery time for purchases from online stores has been reduced by two to three times."

Firstly, customers began to choose the “order and pick up” format more often - in a store or at the point of issue of orders - when there is no need to wait for a courier, they say in M.Video. And the second trend is that large private players have appeared in the logistics of online shopping delivery, who consider this market promising and invest in this segment.

The group of companies "Business Lines" last year announced the expansion of the network of small-format divisions - reception and delivery of goods weighing up to 50 kg - in cities with a population of one million and the intention to increase the share in the e-commerce segment. According to Kommersant's estimates, investments in the project may amount to about 700 million rubles.

The most important problem of online stores is the organization of high-quality delivery of the order to the customer, the so-called last mile, says general manager Business Lines Group Farid Madani. The issue, according to him, is being solved by the transfer of logistics to outsourcing. “If you count, then this approach, even for a short period of time, turns out to be more profitable than maintaining your own courier service. At least at the expense of employee salaries, repairs and insurance of cars, hedging risks from breakdowns on the line, ”he says.

Restraining bans

However, there are several problems that make the future of e-commerce less bright. Buyers continue to be careful about spending. In 2018, online retailers faced a lack of customer need to make purchases online, if it is not an essential commodity, notes Data Insight partner Fedor Virin.

The Internet sells what we rarely buy, and very little what we buy often. Because it's either difficult (food) or forbidden (alcohol), he says. “People generally don't go to stores very often, if it's not food, alcohol, cigarettes, pharmacies or children's hygiene,” notes Fedor Virin.

The ban on the sale of certain types of goods online - medicines or alcoholic beverages, for example, as well as legal restrictions on online jewelry trade are holding back the market, says Sergei Plugotarenko.

Alexander Borisov also agrees with them, calling among the main problems also the legal regulation of Internet commerce, as well as improving the security of Internet payments.

The art of sales

Internet retail improves customer service and develops additional services online stores.

E-commerce players are paying more and more attention to content, says Erik Finnas, head of e-commerce at Avito. According to him, before making a purchase decision, users study the issue in detail. If an online platform provides a potential buyer with as much information as possible, allows you to compare the subject of purchase by a number of parameters, gives advice and recommendations and thereby helps to make a decision, the chances of making a purchase on this site are much higher, Eric Finnas is sure.

In addition, the transition to mobile devices and the active use of user data continues. Smartphone applications save time: you can search for the desired product without queues and on the go. “Now a client is ready to buy if he quickly finds exactly what he wants on the website. The online store helps with this big data: By analyzing information about our customers, their needs and interests, we understand what needs to be offered to the consumer right here and now, ”says Daria Negresko, a representative of Ozon.ru.

Virtual fitting rooms, other augmented reality capabilities and artificial intelligence are used. Electronic voice assistants, chat bots on the websites of online stores, technologies for recognizing faces and objects by images - all this has already become a reality in e-commerce. In the near future, artificial intelligence will become one of the main elements of the e-commerce ecosystem, Eric Finnas is sure.

Industrial scale

A new trend is the entry into the e-commerce market of large industrial companies that work in the b2b field. In 2017, an online store selling its products was launched by one of the world's largest steel and mining companies, Severstal. In terms of functionality, it is similar to a traditional online store. On it, you can order steel, pipes, long products and other products of the company, as well as track its movement using a tracking number. At the beginning of this year, the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant (NLMK) also launched a beta version of its own online platform.

“For us, launching an online store is, first of all, creating another channel of interaction between our clients and the company, and the number of users is growing,” Severstal told RBC +. According to the company, the global b2b e-commerce market is already 2.5 times larger than the b2c market.

75% of b2b clients prefer to use online tools to work with their suppliers, citing data from leading research agencies at Severstal. “If we talk about the steel industry, in China and India, the number of online platforms for trading only rolled metal is growing every year,” the mining company concluded.

Habitual growth without sensations

Going online for large industrial companies will add momentum to the market. Excluding the b2b segment and intangible goods (applications, music, services, etc.), this year market growth is expected to reach 18%, Data Insight predicts. AKIT estimates the market potential at 20% and expects growth to 1.25 trillion rubles. (if we take into account not only tangible goods). Sergey Plugotarenko from RAEC expects 20-25% growth in 2018 as well. In the next five years, the growth rates will strongly depend on the dynamics of the purchasing power of the population and the solution of the problems facing the market, he concludes.