Online is booming

While the Russian DIY retail sector is generally fighting decreases, the online business with DIY products is experiencing massive growth. The market research company Infoline estimates the e-commerce growth in the DIY and household product segment in 2015 at 20 per cent over 2014, where RUB 34 bn was turned over online.
The undisputed leader in the Russian DIY industry is Petrovitch, with a share in sales of 23 per cent in the first seven months of 2015. That's an increase of nine per cent.
At Maxidom the online turnover in the middle of the year grew by 50 per cent in comparison to 2014, the average purchase amount was up by 20 per cent."Even OBI and Leroy Merlin got into the online business fairly late and to date, couldn't realise the full potential of their online shops - there are gaps in the choice of delivery, by the stock and provisions in store and the payment possibilities", says Leonid Dovladbegyan, CEO of 220 Volt, as he analysed the situation.
That's why the retail chain 220 Volt is currently tapping new business areas: turnkey projects for online shops in the DIY sector including web administration for existing pages, online marketing and order management. On transfer of the completed project management, the customer doesn't pay a penny, but 220 Volt receives a specific margin from the sales. The concept is modeled on Amazon's fulfilment service. This is particularly interesting for sellers using dealer channels, as there is no risk.
220 Volt deals with power and hand tools. With its 210 stores, the chain is one of the biggest in Russia. Its online shop is one of the ten biggest in the country and has more than 200 000 clicks every day. In comparison to last year's peak season, the number of orders rose by a third.

In the future, observers expect that the market with online sales will be accompanied by consolidation on the one hand but will also create new service standards: lower shipping costs and faster deliveries, expansion of product range and customer loyalty systems will be further developed.
At the moment, building materials is one of the online retail segments that is growing the fastest: with a plus of 44 per cent, this segments shares second place with car spare parts, which was identified by the online retail…