Around the world experience for an online store
In 2011, the Russian e-commerce market amounted to almost 250 billion rubles * , continuing to be one of the fastest growing segments of the Russian Internet. Not surprisingly, it attracts both investors and bright professionals. Yuri Bryzgalov ( youri_m4u ) interviewed one of them - Anton Permogorov, general director of the online sports hypermarket Heverest.ru and, part-time, an avid traveler who has traveled the world.
We talked with Anton about the prospects of the e-commerce market, the features of Fast Lane Ventures projects and, of course, travel.
Expert dossier:
Name: Anton Permogorov
Born in Moscow in 1976. In 1996 he entered the Faculty of Commerce “REA them. G.V. Plekhanov.
He began his career as a news correspondent at Computerra and a logistics manager at M.Video. But if journalism had to be tied, the “romance” with trade lasts for 12 years.
In 2002, Anton moved to Eldorado, where he created stores eldorado.ru, eto-online.ru, eldorado.com.ua and sulpak.kz
But after 8 years of work in Eldorado, he left the business in Moscow and went with his wife on a world tour. They shared their impressions in the blog 80weeks.ru .
In February 2012, Anton returned to Moscow and in March headed Heverest.ru
Yuri Bryzgalov : The main trend of the last year is the arrival of strong players from offline. For example, the Enter.ru GK Svyaznoy and the E5.ru X5 Reatail Group appeared. How will the market develop further?
Anton Permogorov : There will be a powerful development on all channels. We have stores of the old formation, “old school”, including networkers “Eldorado”, “M-video”, “Digital”, which maybe will show something. And there are new formats. This is Enter, E5 and someone else will most likely appear. This is a natural way of development for networkers. They have money for large projects. In Enter already invested more than $ 100 million. And behind them all the rest will be pulled. Plus, we still do not know anything about how large foreign e-commerce companies will behave. Amazon and no one have come here yet.
')
LB : Last year we were admitted to the WTO. Perhaps this will lead to the arrival of Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba, etc. How will this affect the market?
AP : It already affects. And at the saddest level. Now, the amount of duty-free import of goods, in my opinion, is one and a half thousand euros per month. In principle, nothing prevents you from ordering 500,000 rubles a year of goods abroad. And naturally, these goods are 20-30% cheaper than in Russia. If you work here in “white”, then you will be very weakly competitive, selling goods that are in the west.
YB : Before the interview, you said that you ordered a bicycle on Ebay 30% cheaper than it is sold in Russia.
AP : Yes. This is a sad situation. And the only option for e-commerce is to limit such Internet sales by lobbying and imposing fees that are mandatory for all.
UB : Are there any other options besides bans? For example, rely on advantages in logistics, market knowledge, etc.?
AP : Why does Amazon not go to Russia? They are considered a company with one of the best levels of service. And they understand perfectly well that if they come and start working with the Post of Russia, their image will spoil very much. If they come tomorrow, and it turns out that they surreptitiously opened their logistics network, then they might have something to do. But this, of course, from the realm of fantasy.
The second question was about working with the assortment. I think that deploying a procurement network within any large network is not a problem. We saw how IKEA worked, how they optimized the product range, how MediaMarkt worked. And for Amazon, this will not be a problem. It seems to me that they can recruit 100 people a day for purchases, for a year - a thousand. And they will form a normal range.
UB : If you dwell on those people who read Habrahabr. These are owners and managers of medium and small online stores. What fate awaits them in the next couple of years?
AP : It's all about business. You need to look for your niche. Show unique product offer. But I think that none of the small players have a chance in electronics.
UB : What segments do you have?
AP : There is a huge amount of demand in clothes. Choose a niche, bring a unique product, an interesting range, and the price in general will not be a determining factor for the client.
UB : In early March, you started working at Heverest.ru. I want to understand why after the trip decided to return to the Internet trade?
AP : It's all very clear. You are most valued in the market if you are a specialist, and not a broad profile person-orchestra. Accordingly, if you make an e-commerc switch somewhere else, and therefore somewhere else, then your price will not increase much. But if you dig in one direction, the better for your professional growth.
UB : Despite the fact that Heverest.ru is the leader of its segment, it’s still an average online store. Why did you choose him and not return to the electronics trade as the head of a large project?
AP I changed the product groups, because the assortment should excite you a little. You have to love it. I even find it difficult to force myself to enter an electronics store in order to choose and buy something.
YB : Heverest.ru is a Fast Lane Ventures project. This company is often criticized for “stealing” ideas and projects. Maybe you had a desire to make a completely original project, how much can we talk about an online store?
AP : If we look at Heverest.ru, we will not see a single similar project in Western markets, because this is a completely self-made project from scratch. Roughly speaking, Heverest.ru is not a copy of any site, so my conscience is clear.
On the other hand, when I worked at Eldorado and ran an online store project, a shareholder of the company simply said to me: “Anton, when you become an expert in e-commerce, then you will come to me and say:“ I am a big expert, and I want to do it like this, "and now you go to the BestBuy.com website and make an absolute tracing paper." I agreed.
UB : And it worked?
AP : It worked at that time.
AP o: There are several very respected people on the board of trustees and among investors at Heverest.ru. What is their help?
AP : We know Oscar Hartman perfectly. This is a person who, in my opinion, is the best in the country who understands e-commerce. He knows everything about conversions, e-mails, etc. He himself went through all this, creating a one hundred millionth business from scratch in four years. He helps us a lot. Gives a very serious introductory, which only manage to do. Similarly, Leonid Boguslavsky . We communicate on his initiative with world-class experts. Experts in retail trade, search engine optimization, and contextual advertising come to us, the strongest experts in the world. This is their main help.
Lyubov : Where is it more interesting to work: in a large company with its resources or small, but with good expert support?
AP : Everyone who worked in a large company understands that there are a huge number of restrictions. The fact that in Heverest.ru can be done in a week, in Eldorado, it might be necessary, if lucky, a month. And the fact that we can do in an hour in Heverest.ru would still take a week in Eldorado. And this is a big advantage. You can create, nobody bothers you. The only limitation is the budget and the general vision of the course by the investor.
UB : Let's finish Heverest.ru and move on to a question that is interesting to many, not only on Habré. You had the opportunity to realize the dream of many and take a trip around the world.
AP : Yes, 80 and a half weeks. 33 countries and 5 continents.
UB : And what made you give up everything and go on a trip?
AP : Actually, I can't list them all. If I sit down and start recording, there are a few dozen points. The reasons are the most obvious. My wife and I wanted to see the world. There were a huge number of countries where we wanted to go. And I understood that this would take years of work in Moscow with a vacation of 4 weeks. We wanted to see the world now, not later.
UB : Was it difficult to decide on such a move?
AP : Very. I'm still a man, did not cry, but several times I had a strong emotional excitement. You have been working in the same company for eight years, you are fine, there are career prospects. And all this is to quit, and it was very difficult to decide.
LB : Did your spouse take it any easier?
AP : The spouse was just happy. Because after a short career in Eldorado, she started her main favorite work. She is a wildlife photographer. Therefore, all these years and a half she was at work.
UB : Five continents, 33 countries, thousands of people who met with different cultures and characters. How did this affect your views on life and business?
AP : Those who knew me two years ago, and are meeting now, see that they are two different people. Before leaving, I was in some way even a misanthrope. Now I just enjoy the fact that I communicate with people every day. Out of 12 working hours a day, 7 have meetings with people. And I just get real pleasure from it. I hope people also see sympathy on my part and reveal themselves. This is the first thing to notice.
UB : What else has changed?
AP : Has changed in some way, too. People who have seen me before say: “Listen, you are 5 years younger.” Changed completely lifestyle, nutrition, exercise. I run every day now. I enjoy hiking. During the trip we climbed a large number of interesting mountains. This year, I hope that it will be possible to climb at least to Kilimanjaro and run the Istanbul Half Marathon.
Lyubov : You returned to Russia in mid-February and went back to work in early March. Was it difficult to turn on?
AP : Just the opposite. After a good two-week vacation, it's hard to get back into reality. Everything annoys you. Immediately everything is different. Because travel is not vacation, it is work, everyday work, building logistics. Still, this is a fairly high budget event.
But still, in a year and a half, I was full of travel. And the last three or four months I have already wanted to start doing something seriously, work. Therefore, having returned, he ran around 40 headhunters in a month. I talked with everyone, and still returned to the first sentence. It was from Fast Lane. And it was the most interesting.
UB : I want to ask a question that I think interests many. How much did the trip cost?
AP : I still haven’t considered the total figure. Because the job search and the work itself completely absorbed me. But I can say this: in fact, the journey itself requires a budget of at least $ 80 per day for two, plus money for air tickets, visas and insurance. About 25 000-30 000 dollars per year.
UB : Did you have a tourist trip, walks, hikes, and not just hotels, etc.?
AP : Yes, exactly. We had a very tight budget. On average, we spent less than $ 30 per night on hotels. It is, in principle, very economical. Food everywhere is very cheap.
LB : In the last two or three years, one can often hear decadent sentiments from the “Need to Fell, Where's My Tractor?” Series in Runet. In two years you have visited many countries, but nevertheless decided to return to Russia or is it only temporary?
AP : I had approximately the same decadent moods when I left, they say, it is necessary to bring down. And having traveled all the key business centers, having spent some time in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, having lived in New York for half a year, I can say that Moscow is actually no worse than a city. I now get great pleasure just by walking through the streets, looking at all these mansions and churches with domes. Moscow is a wonderful city.
UB : I hope this will inspire many. Thanks for the interview.
We talked with Anton about the prospects of the e-commerce market, the features of Fast Lane Ventures projects and, of course, travel.
Expert dossier:
Name: Anton Permogorov
Born in Moscow in 1976. In 1996 he entered the Faculty of Commerce “REA them. G.V. Plekhanov.
He began his career as a news correspondent at Computerra and a logistics manager at M.Video. But if journalism had to be tied, the “romance” with trade lasts for 12 years.
In 2002, Anton moved to Eldorado, where he created stores eldorado.ru, eto-online.ru, eldorado.com.ua and sulpak.kz
But after 8 years of work in Eldorado, he left the business in Moscow and went with his wife on a world tour. They shared their impressions in the blog 80weeks.ru .
In February 2012, Anton returned to Moscow and in March headed Heverest.ru
Yuri Bryzgalov : The main trend of the last year is the arrival of strong players from offline. For example, the Enter.ru GK Svyaznoy and the E5.ru X5 Reatail Group appeared. How will the market develop further?
Anton Permogorov : There will be a powerful development on all channels. We have stores of the old formation, “old school”, including networkers “Eldorado”, “M-video”, “Digital”, which maybe will show something. And there are new formats. This is Enter, E5 and someone else will most likely appear. This is a natural way of development for networkers. They have money for large projects. In Enter already invested more than $ 100 million. And behind them all the rest will be pulled. Plus, we still do not know anything about how large foreign e-commerce companies will behave. Amazon and no one have come here yet.
')
LB : Last year we were admitted to the WTO. Perhaps this will lead to the arrival of Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba, etc. How will this affect the market?
AP : It already affects. And at the saddest level. Now, the amount of duty-free import of goods, in my opinion, is one and a half thousand euros per month. In principle, nothing prevents you from ordering 500,000 rubles a year of goods abroad. And naturally, these goods are 20-30% cheaper than in Russia. If you work here in “white”, then you will be very weakly competitive, selling goods that are in the west.
YB : Before the interview, you said that you ordered a bicycle on Ebay 30% cheaper than it is sold in Russia.
AP : Yes. This is a sad situation. And the only option for e-commerce is to limit such Internet sales by lobbying and imposing fees that are mandatory for all.
UB : Are there any other options besides bans? For example, rely on advantages in logistics, market knowledge, etc.?
AP : Why does Amazon not go to Russia? They are considered a company with one of the best levels of service. And they understand perfectly well that if they come and start working with the Post of Russia, their image will spoil very much. If they come tomorrow, and it turns out that they surreptitiously opened their logistics network, then they might have something to do. But this, of course, from the realm of fantasy.
The second question was about working with the assortment. I think that deploying a procurement network within any large network is not a problem. We saw how IKEA worked, how they optimized the product range, how MediaMarkt worked. And for Amazon, this will not be a problem. It seems to me that they can recruit 100 people a day for purchases, for a year - a thousand. And they will form a normal range.
UB : If you dwell on those people who read Habrahabr. These are owners and managers of medium and small online stores. What fate awaits them in the next couple of years?
AP : It's all about business. You need to look for your niche. Show unique product offer. But I think that none of the small players have a chance in electronics.
UB : What segments do you have?
AP : There is a huge amount of demand in clothes. Choose a niche, bring a unique product, an interesting range, and the price in general will not be a determining factor for the client.
UB : In early March, you started working at Heverest.ru. I want to understand why after the trip decided to return to the Internet trade?
AP : It's all very clear. You are most valued in the market if you are a specialist, and not a broad profile person-orchestra. Accordingly, if you make an e-commerc switch somewhere else, and therefore somewhere else, then your price will not increase much. But if you dig in one direction, the better for your professional growth.
UB : Despite the fact that Heverest.ru is the leader of its segment, it’s still an average online store. Why did you choose him and not return to the electronics trade as the head of a large project?
AP I changed the product groups, because the assortment should excite you a little. You have to love it. I even find it difficult to force myself to enter an electronics store in order to choose and buy something.
YB : Heverest.ru is a Fast Lane Ventures project. This company is often criticized for “stealing” ideas and projects. Maybe you had a desire to make a completely original project, how much can we talk about an online store?
AP : If we look at Heverest.ru, we will not see a single similar project in Western markets, because this is a completely self-made project from scratch. Roughly speaking, Heverest.ru is not a copy of any site, so my conscience is clear.
On the other hand, when I worked at Eldorado and ran an online store project, a shareholder of the company simply said to me: “Anton, when you become an expert in e-commerce, then you will come to me and say:“ I am a big expert, and I want to do it like this, "and now you go to the BestBuy.com website and make an absolute tracing paper." I agreed.
UB : And it worked?
AP : It worked at that time.
AP o: There are several very respected people on the board of trustees and among investors at Heverest.ru. What is their help?
AP : We know Oscar Hartman perfectly. This is a person who, in my opinion, is the best in the country who understands e-commerce. He knows everything about conversions, e-mails, etc. He himself went through all this, creating a one hundred millionth business from scratch in four years. He helps us a lot. Gives a very serious introductory, which only manage to do. Similarly, Leonid Boguslavsky . We communicate on his initiative with world-class experts. Experts in retail trade, search engine optimization, and contextual advertising come to us, the strongest experts in the world. This is their main help.
Lyubov : Where is it more interesting to work: in a large company with its resources or small, but with good expert support?
AP : Everyone who worked in a large company understands that there are a huge number of restrictions. The fact that in Heverest.ru can be done in a week, in Eldorado, it might be necessary, if lucky, a month. And the fact that we can do in an hour in Heverest.ru would still take a week in Eldorado. And this is a big advantage. You can create, nobody bothers you. The only limitation is the budget and the general vision of the course by the investor.
UB : Let's finish Heverest.ru and move on to a question that is interesting to many, not only on Habré. You had the opportunity to realize the dream of many and take a trip around the world.
AP : Yes, 80 and a half weeks. 33 countries and 5 continents.
UB : And what made you give up everything and go on a trip?
AP : Actually, I can't list them all. If I sit down and start recording, there are a few dozen points. The reasons are the most obvious. My wife and I wanted to see the world. There were a huge number of countries where we wanted to go. And I understood that this would take years of work in Moscow with a vacation of 4 weeks. We wanted to see the world now, not later.
UB : Was it difficult to decide on such a move?
AP : Very. I'm still a man, did not cry, but several times I had a strong emotional excitement. You have been working in the same company for eight years, you are fine, there are career prospects. And all this is to quit, and it was very difficult to decide.
LB : Did your spouse take it any easier?
AP : The spouse was just happy. Because after a short career in Eldorado, she started her main favorite work. She is a wildlife photographer. Therefore, all these years and a half she was at work.
UB : Five continents, 33 countries, thousands of people who met with different cultures and characters. How did this affect your views on life and business?
AP : Those who knew me two years ago, and are meeting now, see that they are two different people. Before leaving, I was in some way even a misanthrope. Now I just enjoy the fact that I communicate with people every day. Out of 12 working hours a day, 7 have meetings with people. And I just get real pleasure from it. I hope people also see sympathy on my part and reveal themselves. This is the first thing to notice.
UB : What else has changed?
AP : Has changed in some way, too. People who have seen me before say: “Listen, you are 5 years younger.” Changed completely lifestyle, nutrition, exercise. I run every day now. I enjoy hiking. During the trip we climbed a large number of interesting mountains. This year, I hope that it will be possible to climb at least to Kilimanjaro and run the Istanbul Half Marathon.
Lyubov : You returned to Russia in mid-February and went back to work in early March. Was it difficult to turn on?
AP : Just the opposite. After a good two-week vacation, it's hard to get back into reality. Everything annoys you. Immediately everything is different. Because travel is not vacation, it is work, everyday work, building logistics. Still, this is a fairly high budget event.
But still, in a year and a half, I was full of travel. And the last three or four months I have already wanted to start doing something seriously, work. Therefore, having returned, he ran around 40 headhunters in a month. I talked with everyone, and still returned to the first sentence. It was from Fast Lane. And it was the most interesting.
UB : I want to ask a question that I think interests many. How much did the trip cost?
AP : I still haven’t considered the total figure. Because the job search and the work itself completely absorbed me. But I can say this: in fact, the journey itself requires a budget of at least $ 80 per day for two, plus money for air tickets, visas and insurance. About 25 000-30 000 dollars per year.
UB : Did you have a tourist trip, walks, hikes, and not just hotels, etc.?
AP : Yes, exactly. We had a very tight budget. On average, we spent less than $ 30 per night on hotels. It is, in principle, very economical. Food everywhere is very cheap.
LB : In the last two or three years, one can often hear decadent sentiments from the “Need to Fell, Where's My Tractor?” Series in Runet. In two years you have visited many countries, but nevertheless decided to return to Russia or is it only temporary?
AP : I had approximately the same decadent moods when I left, they say, it is necessary to bring down. And having traveled all the key business centers, having spent some time in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, having lived in New York for half a year, I can say that Moscow is actually no worse than a city. I now get great pleasure just by walking through the streets, looking at all these mansions and churches with domes. Moscow is a wonderful city.
UB : I hope this will inspire many. Thanks for the interview.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/143220/
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