Furniture is packed online – Kommersant

After purchasing the leftovers from IKEA, which left Russia, Yandex Market decided to continue developing the furniture category and hired ex-managers of the Russian division of the Swedish retailer. The new team, in particular, will develop services for ordering kitchens or wardrobe systems. Other marketplaces are also developing the large furniture segment. However, manufacturers are still skeptical about the sale of such goods on online platforms, preferring to sell medium-sized furniture and DIY goods through marketplaces.

Yandex Market has hired a team of managers from IKEA, headed by Alla Kotyuga, who has managed the purchasing business of the Swedish retailer in Russia for the past few years, Timur Irtuganov, CEO of the Association of Furniture and Woodworking Industries of Russia (AMDPR), told Kommersant. The information was confirmed in Yandex Market. At the end of last year, the marketplace bought out all the inventory of the Russian division of IKEA, which announced its withdrawal from the country.

The company noted that this year Yandex Market will focus on creating a service in the form of an online designer for selecting furniture with a large number of elements, such as kitchens or wardrobe systems. In addition, the ex-IKEA management team will increase the number of furniture suppliers and manufacturers on site, as well as introduce new solutions for packing and transporting large furniture. In addition, a year ago, Yandex Market, following Ozon and Wildberries, announced sales of furniture and household goods from direct Russian suppliers and IKEA manufacturers.

Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline-Analytics, believes that Yandex Market is faced with the task of maintaining the attractiveness of the furniture and household goods category after the sale of IKEA inventory. Furniture has become one of the fastest growing categories on online marketplaces. So, in 2022, the number of furniture suppliers on Yandex Market tripled, and the range quadrupled. The number of furniture items purchased on Ozon in 2022 increased by more than 2.2 times year-on-year, and the number of local manufacturers and suppliers on the marketplace increased by more than 70%. Furniture sales at Wildberries in physical terms in the first quarter of 2023 increased by 133% year-on-year, the company claims.

Ozon says there is an increase in demand for online purchases of more complex and large categories of furniture: cabinet, upholstered furniture, bedroom furniture, as well as tables and chairs. Wildberries notes that since the first quarter of this year, they have been testing sales of oversized goods and furniture, when buying it, you can order a service for assembly and installation, as well as the removal and disposal of old furniture.

According to Alexander Shestakov, President of AMDPR, only the simplest pieces of furniture were sold online before, but now there are prospects for selling more complex goods, such as kitchens. Against the backdrop of a decrease in retail offline sales of furniture, Russian manufacturers of such products began to actively enter online platforms. For example, Angstrem, Mr.Doors and the First Furniture Factory have already developed special collections for marketplaces. Angstrem notes that they have launched a line of small-form items for sale on marketplaces. These goods do not require special delivery and assembly, which marketplaces cannot yet provide, the company says.

However, many consumers are still wary of making expensive purchases online without watching live, says Alexander Shestakov. According to the expert, large-sized furniture is purchased without inspection for investment housing or if the buyer was already familiar with the chosen model.

According to Infoline-Analytics, the share of online sales in the home furniture segment is about 37%, or 200 billion rubles. Alexander Shestakov believes that such a rate of growth in the volume of online sales of furniture will continue in the future for one or two years.

Alina Savitskaya