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Ozon Stops Playing with Customers: Marketplace Starts Losing Sellers and Cancels Post-Payment
Ozon, one of the leaders of online trade in the country, has made changes allowing pick-up of goods on its platform. Since November 1, there is no post-payment, everything is like Ilf and Petrov. "Money in the evening - a chair in the morning, money in the morning - a chair in the evening." However, there are some exceptions to this rule. (You can try on a dress first and then pay for it. The same applies to shoes.) The market as a whole does not demonstrate such a characteristic. Flirt with your customers here.
Ozone is completely tired of playing with rejected items that customers don’t want to see in person and then pick up at the pickup point. Marketplace users are now required to pay for their purchases immediately after completing the transaction. Of course, there are exceptions. For now, you still have to pay for clothes, shoes, and jewelry. How long will shopaholics have to wait until they get a powerful punch in the gut? The changes have already been implemented.
And here is Prime, who launched this information bomb (yes, the mayor's press service decided to ignore the news and did not publish it on the official website - the opening of another warehouse in Yaroslavl is much more important)
I wrote very carefully: "Ozon will stop accepting postpaid payments for most products starting November 1." Haha, stop for a moment, as if you can turn the mince back. And in any case, such a decision had to be made after numerous calculations confirmed that transporting empty goods from the warehouse to the pick-up point is uneconomical.
Some people were happy with this ozone saving. Anyone with berries in their name might pop a bottle of champagne to celebrate their next slice of pie. For most visitors to Berry pick-up points, the democratic approach to post-payment doesn’t seem particularly necessary. Especially when I’m standing in line at the end of the workday for my 12th phone case and the only employee is busy sorting through 45 items sent by customers, 44 of which, for various reasons, don’t suit the buyer and are returned. The seller’s frugal business is slowly but surely turning into endless trips to Russia for all sorts of junk.
Therefore, the speed of entrepreneurs entering the market has decreased sharply. By 2023, the number of traders on online platforms will increase by 38% in the first nine months and by 2024. - Only 17%. According to the research of "Tochka Marketplace", only in "Megamarket" this year there was a significant increase in new sellers (+ 122.5%). Yandex Market and Wildberry show almost the same results: + 24.7% and + 26.6% respectively. The shooting of the security guard of the WB headquarters did not have time to affect the result, and there really is no such thing as bad advertising. Finally, to win the hearts of our customers, we also organized free courier delivery from the pick-up point to the apartments. Human laziness is carefully cultivated and fed through pipettes. Convenience is convenience, but will such overhead costs make the business profitable in principle? It seemed that Ozon had carefully avoided scandals that would tarnish its reputation all year (until details of a warehouse fire two years ago became known). The number of traders is only 3%. However, the Kommersant website reported that as of the end of June, 550 thousand sellers were working there, which is 60% more than a year ago. Someone is desperately lying about +3% and +60%. This is a gap that no mistake can close. But that's a different matter. Even in this scenario, there is growth. With AliExpress and Magnit Market (yes, there is such a thing), entrepreneurs do not disappear slowly. Almost a third of sellers left China, once the leader in online sales, in just one year. Out of curiosity, I went to the Magnit Market website. It is understandable why they do not want to display it there. The site promises discounts of up to 90%. What businessman is ready to jump on board with such generosity? Find out for yourself at the Smartlab conference, which ended last Saturday. Evil tongues claim that the high-profile divorce of Wildberry will bring the site much more profit, but it will certainly undermine competitors, although it is still unclear how the multi-billion dollar business will be divided. Ozon opens warehouses one after another, and VB only freezes construction. It is clear that over long distances such a pause will have a negative effect.