Electronics is connected to retail – Newspaper Kommersant No. 195 (7396) of 10/20/2022
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The distributor diHouse created Dihouse Retail LLC. The company is already operating in the retail sector: Dihouse Ecom LLC sells electronics on marketplaces. Experts believe that now the distributor can go into offline retail in order not to pay retailers for brand promotion and increase profits. But market participants admit that the new structure is created to ensure the supply of electronics through parallel imports.
Kommersant found in the SPARK-Interfax database that one of the largest IT distributors diHouse (Dihouse LLC, part of Lanit Group of Companies) registered Dihouse Retail LLC on October 10. Before that, on September 22, the diHouse structure of Dihouse Ecom LLC registered a new domain ecom2you.ru, and on August 1 filed an application for the Dimall trademark.
diHouse specializes in the distribution of mobile devices, computers, digital gadgets and accessories, as well as the creation of proprietary retail brands. The company was one of the main suppliers of Apple products until the official departure of the brand from the Russian market in the spring. The distributor’s portfolio also includes Xiaomi, Asus, Honor, Samsung, Black Shark, Maibenben, Satechi, 360. The company’s revenue for 2021 amounted to 93.2 billion rubles, net profit – 2.8 billion.
The press service of diHouse “Kommersant” explained that Dihouse Ecom was created to promote branded stores of vendors that work with the distributor on the main marketplaces: “The distributor uses different sales channels for wholesale and retail customers, including in recent years successfully develops the direction of electronic commerce. The goals of creating Dihouse Retail were not disclosed in the company.
Most likely, diHouse decided to make its own branded network and fully enter the retail market, says Kommersant’s interlocutor in the electronics sales segment: “After the departure of key vendors (Apple, Samsung, etc.) from Russia and the closure of their branded retail, on the one hand , distributors have disrupted their electronics supply chains, but on the other hand, a place has been vacated in the market for new retailers.” The distributor, the interlocutor of Kommersant believes, can supply both new brands that have not been represented in Russia before, and are already well known to buyers.
The distributor’s entry into the retail market is a traditional practice, Merlion, for example, has a Citilink network, IT expert Sergey Vilyanov noted. Most likely, he believes, diHouse wants to create its own retailer: “Foreign brands have practically curtailed their marketing programs in Russia, and distributors have to pay retailers for promotion out of their own pockets.” Retail chains earn not so much on sales as on brand marketing, therefore, own network will allow the distributor not to pay for promotion, Sergei Vilyanov explained.
In connection with the transformation of the retail market, the D2C direction (direct to customer, direct sales) is becoming increasingly important, says Aleksey Melnikov, managing partner of Marvel-F + tech Group: “Marketplaces (Ozon, Yandex Market, Sbermarket, Wildberries and etc.) are significantly changing traditional retail.” According to him, the share of offline retail will decrease and those who will find new formats of work with the consumer and find an opportunity to reach the retail buyer will survive. A Kommersant source in the electronics market noted that retail players now already know how to do what only distributors used to do – find sellers abroad, purchase and bring goods. All this, the interlocutor notes, leads to the fact that distributors begin to look for new business models.
At the same time, a Kommersant source in the online retail market believes that diHouse could have created a subsidiary primarily in order to import goods under the parallel import scheme.
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