Food at every doorstep
Online delivery of everything in the world is gaining momentum, and today almost all stores offer to deliver the desired goods within a day. The leader of deliveries in the country was the Moscow region, but then the ranking is interesting — here are Kuban, and Tatarstan, and the Yaroslavl region…
Photo: retail.ru
A typical situation: you started baking pancakes and at the most crucial moment you discovered that there was no sugar at home! What were you doing 5 years ago? He quickly got dressed and ran to the nearest store. What are you doing today? You press a few buttons in the application, and after 15 minutes a courier appears on your doorstep, handing you a pack of sugar.
The rating of the use of marketplaces and ordering systems by Russians was compiled by E-Commerce experts based on the results of the first half of 2023, taking into account such indicators as the average check, the share of redemption of shipped orders, the share of prepaid orders, as well as the time of picking up orders from pickup points and parcel terminals. Surprise — Moscow took only fifth place in the ranking, behind the Yaroslavl region, Tatarstan and Krasnodar region, but the Moscow region took first place.
Why is this? The answer is quite simple:
in Moscow there are many more “real” stores where you can go shopping without setting aside special time for it. Deliveries are not so necessary. The clue to the presence of the Krasnodar Territory in this ranking may also be obvious. What do many holidaymakers do — those who intend to save money and cook on their own on vacation? They pre-order familiar non-perishable goods on the marketplace — pasta, canned food, butter, packaged juices, etc. — and arrange delivery or pickup at the resort location where they are going to vacation. Then they come and pick it up. As a result, the impressive order is “credited” to the Krasnodar region.
Why such complexity? Can't you just go to the store and buy everything? It seems possible. But firstly, it may be more expensive. Secondly, not every resort town has a store with a good selection (but there is a pick-up point everywhere!). Thirdly, and this is the main thing, Russians are already too accustomed to deliveries and the fact that they are convenient by default.
“Marketplaces and e-commerce in general are not about rich Russians who order iPhones and French perfume online. Rather, it is about reformatting economic flows. Conventional Kostroma residents do not go to the local Central Department Store, but place orders online, because, first of all, it is cheaper,” political scientist Ilya Grashchenkov comments on the study. His words are confirmed by the real experience of people.
— At the beginning of September, I ordered a bed on a popular website. They called me back and said: the next delivery is October 12th. I thought I had misheard, so I asked again: September 12th? — says Muscovite Igor Filin. — No, that’s right: waiting for a bed for almost a month and a half! It was then that I realized how spoiled we were: I thought that she would be delivered tomorrow.
Indeed, the Russian consumer today is much more spoiled by deliveries and the possibility of online orders than the average European resident, and this is just a statement of facts. Of course, delivery services exist there too, but the scope and speed are fundamentally different.
“I was impressed when relatives from Moscow told me that now you can order, for example, a bag of flour and two lemons from them, and they will bring them in 15 minutes,” says Dmitry Konstantinov, who has lived in Madrid for the last ten years. — We, of course, also use grocery delivery, but orders must be placed at least the day before. More serious things, well, furniture or household appliances, must be ordered 2-3 days in advance.
Those who live in France share the same impressions: according to them, even in Paris, the metropolis, it is still There is a strong culture of daily trips to the baker, greengrocer and butcher to prepare dinners, but grocery delivery is not as popular as in other countries.
At the same time, in Russian realities, the craving for online orders on marketplaces is not a sign of excessive prosperity, but rather the opposite. The most enthusiastic consumers of this genre are residents of small towns who do not have the opportunity to wander around shopping centers in the evening and look for new clothes. Therefore, a pick-up point in a small town often becomes the main center of attraction — people order not only clothes and everyday goods, but also, for example, mini-bottles of perfume to try new scents (after all, there is no opportunity to go to the store and try testers). According to a 2023 study, the main trend of today is the fact that residents of the periphery receive almost the same access to goods as Muscovites thanks to e-commerce. “There is also a demonstration of the digitalization that has taken great strides in the country in recent years: the regions have not only acquired fairly high-quality Internet, but also users have become much more advanced — a little more, and the inhabitants of the outback will become like Chinese grandmothers ordering a bottle of milk via the Internet,” explains Grashchenkov.