AliExpress Russia reveals its half-year business outcomes
The local segment, with Russian sellers' orders growing more than 5-fold year-on-year, accounts for more than a third of GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume)

As a bottom line of the first half of FY (from April 1, 2021, to September 30, 2021), the GMV of AliExpress Russia has reached 133.3 billion rubles. The GMV of Russian goods is growing at an exceeding rate, so during this period, the sale of Russian sellers' goods increased by 126% with orders boosted by 5.5 times.

AliExpress Russia, the joint venture owned by Mail.ru Group, USM International, Alibaba Group, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, discloses its business outcomes for the first half of the fiscal year. Previously AliExpress Russia revealed its annual financial performance for the past fiscal year*. In the future, AliExpress Russia will change to a calendar fiscal year and make its next disclosure in 2022, based on the results of the whole 2021.

GMV and local business

For the first half of the fiscal year (from April 1, 2021, to September 30, 2021), the GMV was 133.3 billion rubles, excluding services, with a year-on-year increase of over 36%. The sales of local marketplace products rose by 126% year-on-year and by the end of September the GMV of AliExpress Russia's local business, excluding services, was more than a third of the total GMV.

In September 2021, the average daily number of local product orders reached 100 thousand per day. For the first half-year, the number of orders from Russian sellers grew by 5.5 times year-on-year, with the total number of orders on the Platform reaching 139.2 million.

Buyers

Over the last 12 months, the number of frequent buyers has exceeded 27.9 million people. While the number of Russian product buyers increased by 114% year-on-year.

Product range

The overall product range offered by AliExpress (177.1 million items) is the largest on the market and it grows every year. Moreover, in the local segment, the number of SPUs sold by Russian sellers increased by 230% over the year to reach 11.7 million units.

Sellers

The total amount of sellers on AliExpress Russia exceeds 350 thousand. The number of sellers from China and other countries on AliExpress is more than 275 thousand, increasing by 45% year-on-year. The number of Russian sellers increased by 172% and was 75,5 thousand.

Social e-commerce

At the moment the GMV of AliExpress Russia's social e-commerce is over 6% of the total GMV (this includes a referral program in all social media and mechanics in VKontakte and Odnoklassniki). The GMV of products sold through live streams within the AliExpress app amounted to more than 1.2 billion rubles for the reporting period of the first half of the fiscal year.

The local mobile app

In the summer of 2021, AliExpress Russia launched its local app on iOS and Android, which immediately was acknowledged by users, and since the beginning of October, this app has been at the top of Russian stores. Users spend 20% more time, browsing the local app than the global app. Also, the loyalty indicators, both user retention rate and purchase rate have improved as against the global app.

Best-selling product categories and their growth in the local segment of AliExpress Russia

The fastest emerging local categories by GMV:

  • Food (13,000% growth)
  • Digital products such as subscriptions and certificates (7,000% growth)
  • Wedding & Celebration products (4,500% growth)
  • Clothing and accessories (485% growth)
  • Furniture (346% growth)
  • Men's clothing and underwear (344% growth)
  • Household and garden products (307% growth)
  • Electronics and accessories (291% growth)
  • Jewelry and accessories (275% growth)
  • Mom & Baby products (217% growth)
  • Underwear (212% growth)
  • Toys and hobby products (209% growth)
Top local segment categories by the number of orders:

  • Household and garden products (2 million orders with 563% growth)
  • Phones (1.5 million orders with 135% growth)
  • Beauty and health products (1.3 million orders with 177% growth)
  • Tools (1.3 million orders with 178% growth)
  • Electronics (1.2 million orders with 73% growth)
  • Car spare parts and accessories (1.2 million orders with 158% growth)
  • Food (964 thousand orders with 7077% growth)
  • Home appliances (881 thousand orders with 70% growth)
The fastest-growing local stores for the first half of the year:

Electronics and gadgets manufacturers and sellers, such as POCO Official Store, Svyaznoy, Citilink, Megafon, Xiaomi, Molnia Electronics, Realme, Asus, ELKO PC Store, TechPort Store, as well as Kid's and hobby products LEGO and Household products Sima Land.

Logistics

Today, AliExpress has 20 thousand pick-up points, including branches and automated parcel stations known as postamats. AliExpress orders can be picked up at X5 Retail Group stores, Svyaznoy branches, including co-branded Svyaznoy & AliExpress PUP, as well as branded postamats operated by the logistics provider Cainiao (over 1 thousand pick-up points), Kazan Expres PUP, and Russian Post offices, including AliExpress branded ones.

As part of fulfillment development, to the 45 thousand square meters of Cainiao warehouse facilities in Domodedovo, we added another partner warehouse on 8 thousand square meters in Podolsk, along with our first proprietary fulfillment center in Chekhov with an area of 55 thousand square meters. In the next calendar year, the company plans to increase its own fulfillment facilities in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, and other Russian cities to a total area of 200 thousand square meters.

For reference*

Last 2021 fiscal year performance indicators (from April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021):

Total GMV, excluding services — 229.3 billion rubles

The GMV of the local segment, excluding services — 55 billion rubles (151% year-on-year growth)

Product range: 7 million local SPUs (368% year-on-year growth), 139.2 million foreign SPUs (2% year-on-year growth)

Sellers: 45 thousand local sellers (350% year-on-year growth), 225 thousand foreign sellers (50% year-on-year growth)

Number of buyers: 26.2 million people

As of March 2021, the number of local orders — 64 thousand orders per day

Social e-commerce (social media VK and OK) — 8 million users