AliExpress to conquer Russian ecommerce

Associated with MasterCard credit and debit cards, this program is new in the market, said Mark Zavadskiy, AliExpress business development director in Russia, ewdn.com reports. AliExpress customers in Russia will benefit from bonus points for any purchases made using these cards. The bonuses amount up to 5% of purchase value on AliExpress and 1% for purchases made with any other merchant. Bonus points can be spent on AliExpress. Card holders may benefit from up to 30% discounts on AliExpress and from 3% to 9% on Tinkoff’s online travel agency.

AliExpress has also made mobile payment methods available to its Russian consumers, Zavadskiy announced, cited by the source. Alibaba’s in-house payment system Alipay has partnered with Russian payment company Rapida and mobile solution provider Soyuztelecom. These payment methods have been made available to subscribers of the four main Russian mobile operators, Beeline (VimpelCom), MegaFon, MTS and Tele2, with a commission fee of 1% to 3%.

Mobile payments have been developing fast over the past few years in Russia, with all major mobile carriers launching mobile payment platforms. So far, however, this payment method has been used essentially to settle utility bills and online services rather than for online purchases of physical goods, as analysed in EWDN’s ecommerce research.

Another announcement concerned personal data storage. Starting from 1 September 2015, according to Russian legislation, businesses will be requested to have Russian citizens’ personal data stored exclusively on servers located on Russian territory. Following a meeting with state regulator Roskomnadzor on 13 April, 2015, AliExpress Chinese and Russian executives confirmed their intent to comply with this rule. The statement came just days after a similar announcement by eBay and its subsidiary PayPal. The Chinese company also confirmed its intention to open a representative office in Russia.

Meanwhile, the AliExpress Android app has become number one by the number of downloads on Google Play, ahead of social networks and IM services, which traditionally lead the ranking. The AliExpress Apple app, however, is not as successful, noted ecommerce publication Oborot, cite by the source.

Earlier in 2015, AliExpress also signed a partnership with SPSR Express to enhance its delivery capacities across Russia. The Russian operator has decided to invest around USD 10 million in developing a network of hundreds of pick-up points specially dedicated to AliExpress.

In 2014, the Chinese ecommerce company became the number one ecommerce website in Russia by traffic and the number of orders. The marketplace shipped several hundreds of thousands parcels every day to Russian consumers as of late 2014, according to EWDN’s expert pool.