It is understood that the Russian cross-border e-commerce platform Ozon has recently launched more than 100 alcoholic products, covering vodka, wine, whiskey and other categories. At present, the pilot sales are limited to residents of Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, but Ozon said it plans to promote it to other cities across Russia in the future.
The fighting nation is well known for its love of alcohol, and vodka sales in Russia reach $9 billion a year. However, alcohol has also brought a lot of disasters. According to statistics from the Russian Ministry of Health, more than 40,000 people die from alcohol poisoning each year. Therefore, Russia has a strict ban on online alcohol sales, and consumers must show their identity cards even when buying offline.
So, how did Ozon break through this ban and openly sell alcoholic products online?
Ozon cooperated with alcohol retailer Bristol to display Bristol’s alcoholic products on its website, and customers can buy them directly online. Ozon is currently actively engaged in food sales, and food sales accounted for 1.1% of its total revenue in the first quarter. Among them, there are as many as 5,000 kinds of food, including pasta, canned food, beverages, condiments, snacks, baby food, eggs, milk, etc.
Ozon was founded in 1998. At first, it mainly sold online books, electronic products, music, movie tickets and other commodities. Now it has 3.5 million kinds of products and is known as the “Russian Amazon”. The main sales categories are books (28%), electronic products (26%) and maternal and child products (14%). In addition, Ozon also covers online travel agencies Ozon.travel, ocourier.ru, litres.ru and other projects.
As Ozon continues to expand its business, its attempts in the field of alcohol sales will attract widespread attention. The openness and challenges of Russia’s online alcohol market will test Ozon’s strength and innovation capabilities. For Ozon, breaking the ban and opening up a small step in online alcohol sales in Russia is expected to become a big step in the field of cross-border e-commerce.