Wildberries pulls the reservation on itself – Newspaper Kommersant No. 53 (7498) dated 03/29/2023

In an effort to find new ways to attract customers, Wildberries launches a ticket booking service. The online travel agency (OTA) market is experiencing growth: having increased the audience due to restrictions on the operation of payment systems in Russia and the reduction in the number of code-share flights, they have managed to increase their commission tenfold. However, it is much more difficult for non-core players to integrate into this segment, market participants warn.

The Wildberries marketplace launched the Wildberries.Together travel services portal, where bookings of air tickets, railway, bus tickets and the possibility of combining them are available, the company told Kommersant. They did not disclose the amount of investment in the new project. The interlocutor of Kommersant in the market suggests that the costs amounted to about 50 million rubles.

Wildberries explains that the service currently cooperates with agencies that have entered into agreements with transport companies without disclosing partners. According to one of Kommersant’s interlocutors, the service actually acts as a subagent, selling tickets from major segment players who receive them directly from carriers.

Vice-President of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Dmitry Gorin sees the overall growth of the OTA business, due to the limited work of payment systems in Russia, the withdrawal of Russian carriers from international alliances, and a sharp reduction in the volume of code-share flights. OTAs form tickets for four flight segments at once and transfer funds to carriers, the expert explains. Another interlocutor of Kommersant in the market adds that the share of OTA in the structure of Russian sales of foreign carriers has grown from 40–50% to 80%. This, according to him, led to an increase in the commission for issuing tickets: “If earlier this amount was 200–300 rubles, now it is 2.5–3 thousand rubles.”

Wildberries expects that the audience of the service will be customers of the marketplace and third-party consumers who will come specifically for travel services. But the interlocutor of Kommersant in the OTA market indicates that it is difficult for non-specialized players to form an audience loyal to this particular product. He calls the market difficult: “This requires serious investment in development.” The expert is sure that even the presence of a team of specialists with experience here does not guarantee success. He gives an example of Ozon Travel, which, after 12 years of existence, was integrated into the main marketplace (see Kommersant dated June 3, 2021).

Ozon Travel CEO Mikhail Osin explained to Kommersant that the project is now actively expanding its product line: “The travel business in Russia is developing within large ecosystems with which the buyer is used to interacting.” Such services receive an audience from established customers, participate in global loyalty programs, says Vadim Melnikov, CEO of MTS Travel. In Yandex.Travel, Kommersant did not promptly respond.

Another interlocutor of Kommersant in the OTA market suggests that the Wildberries travel project may be seen as a way to stimulate sales in the vacation and leisure categories. Companies often include tourism products in their core business to keep customers in the ecosystem, says Nikolay Malikov, commercial director of OneTwoTrip. In the case of the marketplace, this, in his opinion, will lead to an increase in turnover due to a high average check, although it will not contribute to a noticeable increase in profits due to the low margin of the direction. “The advent of additional products and services allows you to make better money on a cross-sale,” he argues.

Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline-Analytics, explains that marketplaces are now trying to offer customers not only a product range, but also a set of complementary services, considering them, among other things, as advertising opportunities. “Synergies can be seen through increased traffic and increased sales,” he says. For Wildberries, new advertising tools may be relevant, in particular, in the light of a series of scandals that have arisen with pickup point operators (see Kommersant dated March 27).

Alexandra Mertsalova