Yandex.Market launches auctions for the purchase of goods from suppliers

Growing competition and constant conflicts with sellers are forcing marketplaces to increase the share of direct sales on their online platforms. For these purposes, Yandex.Market decided to purchase goods from suppliers at auctions, which will reduce costs and reduce dependence in some categories on independent sellers. However, for suppliers, such a mechanism may not always be profitable: in order to sell more products to the marketplace, they will have to significantly reduce prices.

The fact that Yandex.Market is launching open auctions for the purchase of various categories of goods from suppliers, including food and furniture, Kommersant was told in the company. They specified that several tenders are currently being held for the purchase of electronics, household appliances, goods for the home, children and sports.

When submitting an application for participation in the auction, suppliers will see the prices of other participants, and in the future they will be able to change the terms of their proposal during the auction. Due to such purchases, the marketplace intends to fill its warehouses in the regions to speed up the delivery of goods and expand the range.

Previously, the marketplace independently found suppliers from whom it purchased goods. Direct sales, when the seller is a service, account for about 25% of Yandex.Market’s turnover. It is planned that about a third of the goods from this volume will be purchased at open auctions.

Yandex.Market became the first marketplace to buy goods for direct sales at auctions. Ozon told Kommersant that they do not use this format. Wildberries notes that on the site, the vast majority of sales – 93% – come from independent sellers and their number has grown by 12 percentage points in three years. However, such a strategy, as recent events have shown, leads to constant conflicts with sellers due to the size of the commission or working conditions on the site. At the same time, Ozon added, direct sales complement the range in those niches where there is a shortage of supply from independent sellers.

Mikhail Burmistrov, General Director of Infoline-Analytics, believes that with the help of open auctions, Yandex.Market will be able to accelerate the development of the most promising categories of goods that are in the initial stage of development, as well as quickly replenish the assortment in certain niches with an insufficient volume of offers. from the sellers. According to Mr. Burmistrov, such a tool may be of interest, for example, to local suppliers, who consider the wholesale sale of goods to the marketplace to be less risky than the retail sale on online platforms.

Open auctions give equal access to different suppliers to work with the marketplace and do not depend on the personal preferences of the online platform, says Konstantin Kanivets, CEO of the Tochka Marketplace service. At the same time, the expert warns, in this case, the commission for suppliers may be higher than for independent sales on marketplaces.

Executive Director of Oborot.ru Ivan Kurguzov believes that open auctions will allow Yandex.Market to reduce the purchase price of goods, as suppliers, seeing their competitors’ bids, will try to reduce their own. However, he believes, manufacturers can start competing at auctions up to a negative margin for themselves, wanting to sell goods for an online platform. The expert cites as an example a massive increase in the number of sellers on marketplaces, who have to reduce the prices of their goods. They go for it, as online platforms generate a high level of traffic and sales, Mr. Kurguzov adds.

In general, the volume of the e-commerce market, according to the Data Insight study, grew by 38% in 2022, to RUB 5.7 trillion. At the same time, the share of marketplaces, according to analysts, last year for the first time exceeded half of the total sales in all retail segments.

Alina Savitskaya