E-commerce in Russia: selling via marketplaces

Marketplace is an electronic trading platform on which companies can display their goods for sale. In Russia, there are many marketplaces. The most well-known Russian marketplaces are Wildberries, Ozon, Yandex. Market, SberMegaMarket, and similar services. For customers, the marketplace looks like a large showcase with many products from different sellers and manufacturers. The marketplace often independently organizes the entire process from ordering and receiving money to delivery to the customer. At the same time, a seller who works through a marketplace may not have his website or warehouse.

When selling goods online via the marketplace, it is necessary to prepare permits, declarations, or certificates if your goods need to be certified. Marketplaces do not yet require them, but at any client’s request, the supplier will be required to submit them.

When shipping goods to the marketplace warehouse, the seller must mark his goods (each unit); a barcode can be generated directly on the sites in your account.

Most marketplaces have basic rules for packaging goods. Instructions and requirements for packaging goods can be found in your account on the online site.

The seller should start to work with the marketplace by registering a personal account and accepting the offer. Some marketplaces, e.g., Wildberries, charge registration fees to avoid fake accounts.

After successful registration, the seller can start to create Product Cards in accordance with the terms of the marketplace.

Most marketplaces work with suppliers under a commission agreement. Such an agreement is regulated by Article 990 of the Civil Code of Russia.

Under a commission agreement, one party (the commission agent) undertakes, on behalf of the other party (the principal), for a fee to carry out one or more transactions on its behalf, but at the principal’s expense. In relation to commission trading through the marketplace, on one side, the marketplace acts as the commission agent, and on the other side, the seller offering its goods and services for sale acts as the committent.

Also, the agreement between the marketplace and the seller may contain provisions of the Civil Code of Russia on the provision of paid services (Chapter 39) and agency (Chapter 52).

The marketplace advertises the seller’s goods — the committent, and then organizes their sale: storage in a warehouse, delivery, acceptance of money, and, if necessary, return. For these actions, the seller pays a commission to the marketplace. The amount of commission depends on the model of work with the marketplace.

Depending on the terms of the contract, the marketplace can make transactions on its behalf — this is how Ozon works, for example, or on behalf of the seller — such conditions are provided for in the Wildberries offer.

As a rule, the company cannot influence the terms of cooperation with marketplaces.

Marketplaces provide a standard agreement, which a company can join or not. Moreover, the site most often has the right to change the conditions unilaterally at any time. For example, the Wildberries offer states that the marketplace has the right to change or add to the agreement at any time by posting information about this on its portal.

Marketplaces in Russia have different schemes of cooperation.

The most common are three interaction models for trading companies:

Some marketplaces offer a combined approach. Thus, Ozon sellers can combine models: transfer some goods to the Ozon warehouse and ship others from their warehouse or the warehouse of a fulfillment operator.

A product subject to mandatory labeling is marked with a special sign - a data matrix code. The code is entered into the state monitoring system. After this, the tracking system receives all information about the movement of goods along the chain from manufacturer to buyer.

Generally, the set of documents from marketplace to seller is the following:

• Report on sales of goods - it contains the amounts and dates of sales;
• Universal document (invoice) with the amount of commission
• Act of acceptance of additional services - it indicates the cost of delivery, storage, and other services of the marketplace.

Generally, a set of documents from a seller working under the FBO model is the following:

• waybill;
• waybills and VAT invoices when transferring goods (for standard tax system);
• acceptance certificate on receipt of goods according to the waybill.

An important point when starting to work with marketplaces is setting up accounting. Many companies use specialized programs to account for goods, for example, 1C Trade Management, which operates by logisticians, managers processing orders, warehouse workers, etc. Data for accounting is downloaded from 1C Trade Management to 1C Accounting. Many marketplaces allow you to integrate your account via API with your accounting and warehouse software to manage product balances and automatically receive sales documents. Also, when a supplier works with several marketplaces at once, it is advisable to use a module for working with them. The module is built into the system and allows you to exchange data with trading platforms. It will be visible in the system as a separate office. The module allows you to:

• manage product cards;
• change prices;
• synchronize balance data;
• manage FBO deliveries;
• automate warehouse operations for FBS and ship orders faster;
• upload the commission agent’s report directly to 1C;
• receive and analyze data on sales, cost and turnover of goods, and business margins; plan deliveries based on sales data.

In Russia, there are now many solutions from various companies for working with several marketplaces at once in a single system associated with warehouse and accounting. This solution will help avoid mistakes and double work when entering data.