Ozon opens its largest fulfillment hub in Siberia, invests RUB 3.5bn in the region
Ozon, Russia’s leading multi-category e-commerce platform, has opened a new fulfillment center in Novosibirsk at the PNK Park Tolmachevo logistics complex. The fulfillment hub is the Company's largest logistics center in the Siberian Federal District and it makes it much easier for local sellers to access the Ozon marketplace.
The fulfilment center will have a floor area of 14,000 sqm with the possibility of expanding it to as much as 64,000 sqm in the future. At current capacity, the fulfillment center can store more than 4 million items and process more than 85,000 parcels per day.
Ozon invested RUB 600 million into the first construction phase of the fulfillment center and plans to invest a total of almost RUB 3.5 billion (approx. USD 47 million) into the facility within four years. The majority of the funds will be used to purchase high-tech equipment and create proprietary IT systems to automate operations.
With the opening of the fulfillment center, Ozon will create around 1,000 new jobs in the Novosibirsk region in the logistics hub alone. The marketplace will also attract new couriers and partners to Ozon’s network of delivery pick-up points.
The arrival of a large logistics facility will spur the development of e-commerce in the region, which accounted for only 8.1% of the total retail market in 2020 (according to AKIT, The Association of Internet Trade Companies). First and foremost, the fulfillment center will allow local entrepreneurs to deliver goods to the marketplace more quickly and lower logistics expenses. Goods stored in Ozon's Novosibirsk hub are sold all over the country and abroad, giving local sellers an opportunity to establish national and even global sales.
Sergey Semka, Deputy Governor of the Novosibirsk Region, commented at the opening ceremony of the Ozon fulfillment center:
"The opening of this center means new opportunities for the region, including job creation and capital investment. For our local entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations, this is an opportunity to find new markets not only in the Siberian Federal District but throughout the entire country and even the world. In just one year, the number of entrepreneurs who partner with Ozon in our region has increased sixfold, which is an impressive rate of growth."
Mikhail Chebotnikov, Director of Ozon’s logistics in the Siberian region, commented:
"Ozon’s mission is to support entrepreneurs who want to develop their online sales. This support is particularly needed in the regions where small and medium-sized businesses dominate, and by support we mean comprehensive assistance. It starts with helping entrepreneurs register on the marketplace and goes through every aspect of the process, including creating a network of pick-up points where customers can collect the items they order from local entrepreneurs. Logistics hubs play a key role in this support network. They ensure that sellers no longer need to incur costs for transportation to central warehouses. At the same time, they enable goods to appear on the site much faster and be delivered with greater speed, making it easier and more profitable to sell online.”
The opening of a fulfillment center just 30 km away from Novosibirsk will make it possible to offer next-day delivery of 4 million items that are already stored at the center to 1,500 locations in the region. To make deliveries more convenient, Ozon is developing a last-mile network in the Siberian region that already includes more than 1,000 Ozon-branded parcel lockers and in-person pick-up points.
Ozon is opening the fulfillment center in partnership with PNK Group, a Russian developer of industrial facilities, which carried out the project on built-to-lease terms at the PNK Park Tolmachevo industrial grounds. This format implies that the facility for lease is built in accordance with Ozon’s technical specifications.
At the end of 2020, Ozon's turnover in the Siberian Federal District grew by 3.5 times year-on-year. Sellers from the region earned RUB 1.3 billion with the help of the Ozon marketplace. Currently more than 1,600 entrepreneurs from the region sell their goods on Ozon. The marketplace model contributes to the development of the accompanying ecosystem of service and training companies, logistics and courier services, which creates new jobs and has a positive effect on the regional economy overall. In addition, local entrepreneurs who open delivery pick-up points contribute to the development of e-commerce in the region.