Russian Post to open stores with Russian goods on e-commerce platforms in India, Pakistan

MOSCOW. Oct 11 (Interfax) - Russian Post and the Russian Export Center (REC) plan by the end of 2021 to explore the possibility opening national stores for Russian goods on e-commerce platforms in India, Pakistan and Kazakhstan, Deputy Digital Development Minister Oleg Pak said in a letter to the government, a source familiar with the contents of the letter told Interfax.

Russian Post and the REC announced the opening of a national store with Russian goods on the marketplace of Amazon's German division on Thursday. They said this will help exporters enter the European market without significant costs, as well as test the potential customer base and expand sales channels.

"In order to further develop the project, the possibility of scaling a chain of national stores in Central, South and Southeast Asia is being considered. For this there are plans to explore by the end of 2021 the possibility of opening national stores on e-commerce platforms in Kazakhstan, India and Pakistan, as well as hold negotiations with representatives of e-commerce platform Lazada (Singapore) to determine a model for cooperation aimed at exporting Russian goods to Southeast Asia," the source quoted the letter as saying.

The source said this refers to online marketplaces such as Kaspi.kz in Kazakhstan, Amazon.in and Flipkart.com in India and Daraz.pk in Pakistan.

These measures are part of a Russian Post project to offer a comprehensive product to shepherd Russian businesses into the domestic and export e-commerce sectors (Pochtabizness digital platform), the source said. The implementation of the second part of the project, to help companies enter the domestic e-commerce market, has not begun yet.

"The finalization of the legal aspects for launching work is planned for December 2021, and the launch of the block is planned for January," the source said.