Newsroom

Customers can buy goods at wholesale prices on the Ozon mobile app.

Ozon is the first among Russian marketplaces to launch a group buying service, which allows sellers to sell large quantities of goods from 10 units and up. Customers will be able to make group purchases at discounts starting from 20%.

The procedure for group buying is similar to a regular Ozon order. Customers add products to their cart, pay for them using their preferred method and wait until the remaining customers in the group place an order. The order is canceled if enough customers do not make a purchase within 30 days.

Group buying offers are published by marketplace sellers, and participation in the service is voluntary. Sellers independently set the size of the discount – which must start at 20% – as well as any limits on the purchase and the period during which orders must be placed. This format allows sellers to sell goods in bulk and thereby save on logistics.

Evgeny Shirinkin, Chief Product Officer at Ozon, commented:
"Group buying is a trend that is actively spreading across the global e-commerce market. For Ozon, this is another step towards making the site even more convenient for its customers and sellers. Customers now have another option to find good deals, while sellers have another mechanism for managing their sales and assortment – for example, for testing new product categories or selling their backstock."

The service is currently available to users of the Ozon mobile app. At the first stage of the service launch, customers can buy goods from sellers who trade from their warehouse. The service will soon become available on the web version of the Ozon site, and the option for group buying will expand to goods that are sold from the Ozon warehouse.

19.03.2021

Ozon, a leading multi-category online platform, has launched its 'tip a courier' service. This new service, available on the Ozon app, lets customers leave a tip for the courier who delivered their order within two weeks of receiving it.

Now any consumer has the option to tip their courier. The Ozon app suggests several different tipping options, varying by amount. Depending on how the order was paid for, tips can be left via Apple Pay or bank card. Going forward, Ozon will incorporate even more payment methods.

During the first few hours of the pilot launch, customers left almost 200 tips, with an average tip of 110 roubles.

At present, the system only lets customers tip a test group of couriers. Over time, however, the Company plans to extend this option across all of its network of couriers.

"The ability to leave tips exists in the taxi and delivery services industries. With this new service, Ozon has brought this option into the online marketplace sector. We intentionally decided to launch this service towards the end of the year ahead of the holiday season and the subsequent big uptick in sales. Sales tend to rise substantially during this part of the year, and as a result, so does the workload of our couriers. This service is a win-win for all. Customers can now thank their couriers, while couriers can receive acknowledgement and praise for high quality service, " commented Stanislav Kondratyev, Director of Logistics and Customer Service at Ozon.

23.11.2020

Ozon is beginning to incorporate insurance services into its ecosystem. The first product on offer on the marketplace is OSAGO. More products will be added to the insurance platform in 2021. Ozon intends to offer insurance for legal entities, including both sellers and platform partners, on top of the B2C insurance services already available.

This will let Ozon act as a go-between, allowing the client to browse a wide range of potential offers from leading market players. Ozon has worked with a number of partners to facilitate the launch of OSAGO. These partners include Tinkoff Insurance, Alfa Insurance, Soglasie, MAKS, VSK Insurance House, and Renaissance Insurance. The number of partners will continue to expand, with other leading insurance companies coming on board.

Customers can apply for a policy directly through Ozon, without switching to any of our partner sites. The OSAGO process is completely electronic, with clients receiving their policy by mail and on their Ozon account page.

"Insurance is yet another fintech service incorporated into the Ozon ecosystem. It is designed to make the platform even more convenient for users, allowing us to take care of almost all of our customers' needs in one place. Ozon has more than 11 million loyal customers. Amongst these are motorists and car lovers, both of whom can now purchase basic insurance via the familiar and user-friendly Ozon platform. We have chosen to launch with OSAGO, a policy which can be easily processed online. In the near future, we will expand the list of available products and bring even more partners on board," said Vahe Ovasapyan, Vice President, Digital Finance at Ozon.

23.12.2020

The fast-delivery service Ozon Express has begun selling products under its own brand. In addition to food items, FMCG products will also appear in the private label assortment.

"Having worked with a variety of suppliers, we have an excellent understanding of what quality food really is. This experience led us to the idea of making products under the Ozon Express brand. We select local production facilities in various cities so that the products are always fresh, and we conduct tastings involving our entire team in order to choose the best. We visit suppliers' facilities to conduct audits and select those whose products contain natural ingredients, without dyes or flavour enhancers," says Elena Shulgina, Director of Ozon Express.

Several types of coffee will be the first items available through the company's storefront, and by the end of summer, the assortment will expand to include new categories, including dairy products, water, snacks and soft drinks, among others. The Ozon Express brand will eventually include groceries, products for a healthy lifestyle, household cleaning products, personal hygiene items and housewares. The assortment will include both typical day-to-day groceries and exclusive gourmet products. Products sold under the Ozon Express brand will stand out thanks to their excellent quality and taste.

29.06.2021

Ozon is launching its own robotics laboratory in Innopolis, a new high-tech city in Russia's Republic of Tatarstan. A team of 40 engineers under the leadership of Salimzhan Gafurov, who previously headed the autonomous vehicles laboratory at the Centre for Technologies in Robotics and Mechatronics Components at Innopolis University, will develop technology for the robotization of Ozon's fulfilment centres and all the links in its logistics supply chain.

Anton Stepanenko, Chief Technology Officer at Ozon, noted that e-commerce depends on logistics infrastructure and technological solutions for its effective operation. In the medium term, Ozon plans to increase its fulfilment space from 250,000 to 1 million sqm and expand its sorting hub capacity and last-mile capacity manyfold. Ozon's innovations in the sphere of robotic logistics will increase its supply chain efficiency and set a standard for the entire e-commerce market.

20.07.2021

This B2B service, operating under the name 'Ozon Business Trips', will help streamline the process of organising business travel. Organisers can use the online service to ensure that all the necessary approvals are obtained. In addition, all essential documentation is automatically generated.

2020 has seen a sharp reduction in business travel. Nevertheless, travel both within Russia and to a handful of specific countries has continued. During this time, both medium and large-sized companies have been actively trying to find more efficient ways to organise their business travel. The 'Ozon Business Trips' service was launched to meet this growing demand.

As a rule, organising business trips in medium and large-sized companies falls to one of three groups of people: employees hired specifically for this task, contractors from travel agencies, or individual employees. In any case, this task often involves a lot of back-and-forth. In addition, having employees hired specifically for this task has not proven to be 100% effective, since the total number of business trips continues to decline. The 'Ozon Business Trips' service automates this whole process, applying best OTA platform practices from across the B2C industry and taking into account the specific needs of each company.

Employees can choose a range of services needed for their business trip. These include booking airplane and train tickets, making hotel reservations, arranging transportation and providing assistance in obtaining visas. At the same time, the system allows companies to set business travel tiers for its employees, and even set spending limits for them. Thanks to this system, companies no longer need to separately coordinate flight and hotel booking. You can complete transactions without additional approvals, and the service will send all relevant documents straight to your company, using its electronic document management system. Previously, organisers had to specifically request these documents from travel agents or airlines. Companies can either pay for their business trips at the time of booking, or at a later date by using the deferred payment function.

Ozon.Travel already partners with several small and medium-sized companies. The 'Ozon Business Trips' service, however, has taken into account the needs of larger businesses, such as the need for tiers of business travelers within a company, reporting features and document management. Ozon.Tarvel has been beta testing its service with Ozon, a part of Ozon Group.

"Ozon.Travel is in demand not only for private trips – around 10% of all tickets purchased on the site in 2020 involved corporate travel. This demand from the corporate sector has pushed us to think deeply about the specific needs of these types of customers. By launching this new service, we hope to provide companies with the opportunity to more efficiently organise their business trips. This is done by simplifying approval and reporting processes. We are also continuing to develop our existing services, which target small and medium-sized businesses. We are always trying to improve these existing products, which our clients know and love," said Michael Osin, CEO at Ozon.Travel.

At present, the service includes more than 800 airlines, Russian Railways, Alfa Insurance and a million of hotels. A tаxi service, visa assistance and airport business lounge booking are currently only available on request. The service is in beta-testing ahead of a full launch in 2021. The service is integrated with Amadeus, Sabra and Sirena-travel systems, as well as with a variety of airlines directly. It compares prices from this wide range of different systems and allows customers to choose the cheapest and most convenient options.

22.12.2020

Ozon has begun testing a storefront for alcohol. While shoppers can use the storefront to reserve alcohol, purchases must be made at stores operated by Simple Group, an Ozon partner, in line with Russian law. The storefront has already added about 1.5 thousand items from the supplier.

For Ozon, the experiment with Simple Group is another step towards becoming a multicategory platform. We want to provide users with as wide a choice as possible. In the case of alcohol, we can't sell it, but we can provide our customers with a unique, attractive offer from a trusted supplier.

For Ozon customers, the project offers three benefits. First, if a certain item isn't available at a wine store, Ozon customers can still reserve it and have it delivered to a SimpleWine store for pickup. Second, promotions on items at SimpleWine stores will be available to Ozon customers. Third, customers can reserve products through an interface they're used to without having to create additional accounts on other platforms.

20.08.2021