The e-grocery market showed a quarterly decline for the first time in the last 2 years, writes Kommersant with reference to INFOLine data. At the end of April-June, the reduction was 3.2% compared to the first quarter, and the market volume amounted to 300 billion rubles. The main reason for this decline is the shortage of order pickers and couriers, due to which market participants have to narrow their work areas and cancel free delivery in some cases.
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According to analyst research, a decline in the Russian e-grocery market has been observed for the first time since the second quarter of 2022. Despite the fact that the figure grew by 47% year-on-year, this dynamics was still lower than the level of the first quarter of 2024, when the market for online sales of consumer goods increased by 55%.
In the face of an increasing shortage of personnel, especially collectors and couriers, large e-grocery operators are optimizing costs by reducing delivery zones and increasing its cost to remote urban areas, explained the decline in the market , General Director of INFOLine-Analytics Mikhail Burmistrov . In March 2024, the shortage of couriers throughout Russia was 140 thousand people, and by the end of this year it could grow to 300 thousand, the Restomania delivery service expects. Against this background, a number of operators in the summer limited delivery, for example, to city parks.
According to Data Insight senior analyst Olga Pashkova , market participants are also gradually reducing the volume of promotions, marketing costs and optimizing all processes. This may lead in the foreseeable future to a redistribution of shares of delivery operators.
According to INFOLine estimates, in the second quarter of 2024, the volume of food orders from Wildberries decreased by 22.4% compared to the beginning of the year, to 22.9 billion rubles, from Ozon – by 7.9%, to 25.8 billion rubles. , at Lenta – by 7.7%, to 17.7 billion rubles, at Cooper (ex-SberMarket) – by 6.7%, to 52.7 billion rubles, at VkusVilla – by 4%, to 44.8 billion rubles. Ozon Fresh, Cooper and VkusVille explained this as a seasonal decline. Wildberries provided only figures for the first half of the year: product sales on the service increased by 32% in units and by 42% in money year-on-year.
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