MOSCOW: The Russian market has enormous prospects and opportunities for growth, including in e-commerce segment, General Manager of China’s online retailer AliExpress Leo Shen told TASS on Monday. “The Russian market has huge prospects. These are not general protocol words. I indeed think so. I visited Russia five times in the last two years and saw the Russian market has enormous opportunities of boosting the retail trade via e-platforms. Development of e-commerce in Russia resembles now the situation observed in China several years ago,” Leo Shen said.
The development strategy of AliExpress in Russia can be broken into three phases, Leo Shen said. “The task of the first phase is to connect the Russian and the Chinese markets by means of a new online trading floor, to make Russian consumers accustomed to buying goods via Internet. It took us ten years in China to argue Chinese consumers into advantages of e-commerce. Hence we are forming an e-commerce concept through the AliExpress floor and help our payment and transport partners in Russia to develop an appropriate operating infrastructure,” the general manager said.
AliExpress is already enjoying high popularity in Russia and many consumers are already buying through this platform, Leo Shen said. A full-fledged team of AliExpress has already been established in Russia, he said. “We initiated the second stage this year, where we plan to provide support to Russian manufacturers and trademarks in selling their products via the AliExpress platform on the domestic market,” Leo Shen added. “The third stage for Russia will be in helping small and medium Russian companies to enter international markets through our platform,” he said.
