Ozon, the Russian Amazon who wants to challenge Jeff Bezos, arrives in Italy- Corriere.it

It is written Ozon but it is read The Amazon of Russia. At least that’s how it was nicknamed Ozon which now, after a record price on Wall Street, will also land in Italy. As the CEO announced during an event on the sidelines of Expo Dubai which defined Italy as a key destination country for the Russian e-commerce platform that looks carefully at Made in Italy, at Italian brands. 85 million people a month visit our app and website. They are people who spend in Russia with Ozon, and we have 21 million customers, people who have made at least one purchase in the last year. It is a huge audience, and obviously there are many people interested in buying Italian brands. This is why we plan to launch our operations in Italy next year, explained Shulgin, CEO of Ozon, in an interview on the sidelines of the Russia Forum: Driving the Future event at Expo 2020 Dubai.

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Hopefully by the next half year the launch is possible, Shulgin pointed out. Ozon is the second online retailer in the country by number of sales, and in 2020 it achieved a record IPO in New York for almost a billion dollars, the largest in Russia since 2017. Italian companies will be able to place their products on our platform and we will provide logistics options for shipments to Russia and back: Russian brands will also be able to sell their products in Italy, explained the CEO. The company is expanding very fast, for this year we expect a growth figure of 120%. And at this rate, we expect growth to continue further on. Russia’s retail market is quite large, around $ 500 billion, and e-commerce penetration around 10%. It grows every year and is expected to reach 15-16% in 4 years from now. The market is growing fast and we are growing faster than him, explained Ozon’s CEO.

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Our goal for next year build contacts to allow companies from other countries, such as Italy, to sell to Russian citizens through Ozon. We already have companies from China, Turkey, Israel, USA, Korea using this service. We didn’t do what we should have done in Italy, but now we will solve it, Shulgin said. For Italian products there is a big market in Russia through Ozon. It could be interesting for Italian companies to grow in the country. Our mission is to be open for all, the same service for all and there are no restrictions on the platform to operate. We do not impose logistical options. With the coronavirus, in 2020 there was obviously an acceleration of e-commerce, especially during the lockdown, but the growth remains, Covid has only accelerated this expansion, the CEO said, adding that at Expo 2020 Dubai we want to communicate our possibilities to companies from other countries, who can use Ozon to grow their business and sell in Russia, and find partners who can make it easier for us to move to other countries.

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