Platypus New Impulse-50

Platypus Online is a next-generation product delivery service that combines traditional and modern technologies. retail trade

As of June 2021, Utkonos Online is part of Alexei Mordashov's Severgroup.

Performance indicators

2020: Sales growth by 66% to RUB 16.4 billion

On January 29, 2021, the online grocery store Utkonos announced record figures for fiscal year 2020. The company's sales, including B2B and Delivery to Products, grew to 16.4 billion rubles, which is 66% more than in 2019. It is noted that the company's growth rate has become the highest in its history.

"The past 2020 for Utkonos has become the most dynamic period of development in all areas. In 2021, we will continue to focus on personal attention for each buyer, "commented Danny Perekalsky, CEO of Utkonos Online.

The average check increased by 9% compared to 2019 and amounted to 6147 rubles, and the number of investments in the order reached 48 units. The share of purchases in the mobile application increased by 7.1 percentage points compared to 2019 and amounted to 49%, and the total revenue from orders issued on iOS and Android platforms amounted to 7.93 billion rubles - this figure is 96% higher than the same indicator in 2019.

In 2020, the main growth drivers were the opening of the Mosrentgen and Volkovsky fulfillment centers with quick delivery from two hours To Moscow inside the Moscow Ring Road and the nearest, To Moscow area as well as the launch of the Butovo warehouse after reconstruction. One of the most significant events of 2019 was the company's entry into the market in October. St. Petersburg

Despite the increased demand for the delivery of products, Utkonos not only retained the level of service and quality of service, but also increased the consumer loyalty index (Net Promoter Score) by more than 17 percentage points. to the average value for the year 76.6%, and in the 4th quarter to the level of 81%, noted in the company. The level of procurement of orders at the end of 2020 amounted to 99.4%. In addition, customers of the online store highly appreciated the loyalty program "Platypus CLUB," which charges up to 2% of bonuses from purchases and provides free delivery on all orders.

In addition, the company has been observing increased security measures throughout almost the entire year - both in relation to customers and in internal processes. It is also noted that since the spring period of 2020, the company has significantly increased the throughput of operations, which made it possible to fulfill orders normally by the end of the year, even in the pre-New Year period.

In 2020, the company expanded the assortment matrix to 44,500 items of goods. The most popular product categories were "Vegetables and Fruits" and "Dairy Products." In 2021, Utkonos Online plans to significantly expand the range to more than 100,000 SKUs, and will also continue to develop the direction of rapid delivery. In addition, it is planned to continue expansion into the regions of the Russian Federation by entering million-plus cities.

History

2022

Lenta placed shares worth 20 billion rubles to pay for the purchase of Utkonos

As it became known on June 21, 2022, Lenta placed shares worth 20 billion rubles to pay for the purchase of the online hypermarket Utkonos. The securities are placed in favor of the retailer's main shareholder, Severgroup. Read more [[Feed
Retail
PilC Feed|here]].

New Year's Eve glitch

The online store "Utkonos" with the help of its own team switched to a new IT architecture, which is based on the SAP S\4HANA platform. It was not without interruptions, as a result of which access to the store was limited on January 1 to 11, 2022. The Utkonos website until the morning of January 11 had an announcement that the order and delivery of products would be resumed on January 12. [1] (more)

2021

Lenta bought Utkonos for ₽20 billion

On December 16, 2021, Lenta announced the purchase of Utkonos for 20 billion rubles. The retailer will finance this deal with an additional issue of its shares.

According to the press service of Lenta, the acquisition of Utkonos will allow the company to increase its share in the online market by integrating an additional product delivery platform with a loyal customer base, unique competencies and competitive advantages. The deal will also allow the company to compete more effectively in the online market in Moscow, especially in the price segments, according to Lenta.

Earlier it was reported that the investment company Severgroup (a shareholder of Lenta and Utkonos) in the future may combine the assets of these retailers. As a result of this transaction, the online division of Lenta-U will be created, which will be headed by the CEO of Utkonos Danny Perekalsky. He will be responsible for shaping the strategy, expanding Lenta's online business and achieving key operating and financial indicators. Perekalsky will report to Lenta CEO Vladimir Sorokin.

By mid-December 2021, Utkonos manages two of its own darkstorms with a total area of ​ ​ 80 thousand square meters. m and two rented darkstorms with a total area of ​ ​ 21 thousand square meters. m, located in Moscow and the Moscow region. The company uses its own logistics infrastructure, consisting of 920 cars, and also independently collects orders in darkstors. For 9 months of 2021, the total audience of "Platypus" amounted to more than 330,000 customers, according to a press release.

Lenta shares responded with growth to reports of the transaction. At 10:58 Moscow time on December 16, 2021, securities rose in price by 7.22% - to 1233 apiece, according to trading data on the Moscow Exchange.^[1]

New data center "Platypus": how it works and why the monovendor approach was chosen

Another powerful round of business development at Utkonos and the expansion of the client base required the creation of a new data center. Its construction was entrusted to the Jet Infosystems. Sergey Andronov, director of the Center for Network Solutions "Jet Infosystems," spoke about the main goals, characteristics, design and construction of the data center. Read more here.

2020

185,186 new buyers, mobile app installed more than 1m times

On December 28, 2020, the online grocery store Utkonos summed up the results of the year and announced key achievements for the period. Access to St. Petersburg, as well as the launch of three fulfillment centers, opened access to purchases of products from home to even more people, and the Utkonos Mini format provided the opportunity to receive orders two hours after registration.

So, according to "Platypus":

• From January to December 2020, 185,186 shoppers placed their first order in the online store;
• The Platypus Online mobile application for Android and iOS has been installed more than 1 million times;
• The company's couriers delivered orders totaling more than 80.6 thousand tons;
• Delivery vehicles traveled 20 million kilometers - 500 times the length of the equator;
• The company's workforce grew to 5,300;
• NPS (consumer loyalty index) in the second half of the year was 82%;
• The level of picking orders at the end of the year in December exceeded 99.5%, which means that out of 10,000 ordered goods, more than 9950 items will definitely reach buyers;
• Toilet paper was found in 25% of orders, and buckwheat in 11%.

The leader in sales growth at Utkonos Online was the FROV category (fruits and vegetables), which showed an increase in revenue by 90% by 2019, and the most popular goods by the number of positions sold in 2020 were:

• Mineral water - 1,958,304 units sold
• Yoghurts - 1,944,345 pieces
• Drinking water - 1,888,435 pieces
• Potatoes - 1,877,408 kg
• Ultra pasteurized milk 3.2% - 1,693,653 pieces
• Glazed cheeses - 1,573,427 pieces

Another achievement of the company was the launch of its own loyalty program "Utkonos Club" in September, at the end of 2020 more than 95,000 buyers are already actively using it. An important step was to create priority delivery for people at risk during a pandemic. The company set up a separate delivery line that allowed access to "no wait" purchases for more than 6,000 seniors. In addition, the utkonos.ru website was recognized by the Ministry of Digital Science as a socially significant information resource, and was included in the corresponding list of information resources of the Russian Federation.

Launch of a multi-temperature fulfillment center in St. Petersburg with its own WMS system

On November 12, 2020, it became known that the Utkonos online grocery store launched a multi-temperature fulfillment center (FC) in St. Petersburg on the territory of the Kubinskaya logistics terminal, which the company rented in the summer of 2020. The capacity of the FC will allow the company to sell up to 10 thousand orders per day. Investments in the opening amounted to more than 250 million rubles.

FC "Kubinka" with a total area of ​ ​ 9,486 square meters. m - the first hub Utkonos ONLINE, opened in St. Petersburg as part of the implementation of the regional expansion strategy, as well as the third warehouse launched by the company in 2020. The warehouse is managed in its own information system (WMS). The program is based on a microservice architecture and supports unlimited development of functionality, as well as rapid development and implementation of changes. As of November 2020, the warehouse consists of 5 refrigeration chambers and a loading zone, which is designed for simultaneous maintenance of 17 cars, as well as a separate office space with an administrative and economic complex. FC "Kubinka" with a 3-level mezzanine carries out round-the-clock acceptance of all categories of goods, and also performs selective quality check of incoming batches. Storage areas are divided by the main temperature conditions. The current range consists of 15,800 SKUs, including the FRESH and ULTRAFRESH categories. The company plans to expand the product matrix in St. Petersburg to 30 thousand items by the end of 2020.

The opening of Utkonos ONLINE delivery in St. Petersburg is a key event in the life of the company over the past few years. We have thoroughly prepared to offer residents of the northern capital a high level of service and a large range of products. This fulfillment center "Kubinka will make it possible to implement the company's ambition plans in the new region - Elena Obraztsova, Operations Director of Utkonos ONLINE.

At the time of commissioning, 70 specialists of various warehouse operations were involved in the warehouse, and by the end of 2020 the online store will expand the staff to 400 people. To ensure delivery at the initial stage, Utkonos ONLINE acquired 30 specialized vehicles with temperature control, which serve the territory of the city inside the ring road.

In the future, the retailer will expand the delivery zone beyond the ring road and affect some cities of the Leningrad Region, as well as reduce the waiting time for an order. It is expected that in 2021 the Kubinka FC will deliver more than 3 thousand orders per day during the high season. In addition, in 2021, Utkonos ONLINE plans to open fulfillment centers in several million-plus cities.

Over the past 20 years, we have been building an online store with home delivery, thanks to which people can spend more time with their favorite activities with those they love. We are very proud that we opened Utkonos for residents of St. Petersburg. Over the past 14 years, I have spent a lot of time in this city, I love it very much and am glad that I was able to personally deliver the first orders for new buyers.

2019

As of February 2019, the company provides delivery of food, goods for children, as well as household chemicals, animal goods and much more in Moscow and a number of districts of the Moscow region. More than 30,000 items can be ordered without leaving your home, with delivery at any time and place. Over the years, the company has simplified the process of ordering goods, balanced the assortment in accordance with the preferences of buyers, developed and implemented an automated quality control system at all stages of the movement of goods. More than 2,000 employees and a huge warehouse with an area of ​ ​ over 40,000 square meters. meters ensure the delivery of several tens of thousands of orders.

Revenue growth by 1.4% to 8.77 billion rubles, losses - 2.91 billion rubles

Utkonos completed 2019 with revenue of 8.77 billion rubles, which is 1.4% more than a year earlier, when sales were measured at 8.65 billion rubles.

At the same time, the net losses of the online retailer increased 2.2 times - from 1.31 billion rubles in 2018 to 2.91 billion rubles a year later. Such data are provided by the Interfax agency with reference to the SPARK-Interfax analytical system.

It also states that the commercial expenses of Novy  Impulse-50 LLC (an operating company for Utkonos) in 2019 reached 2.5 billion rubles against 1.67 billion rubles a year earlier. Management costs rose 1.6 times (to 1.86 billion rubles from 1.19 billion rubles). The loss from sales more than doubled - to 3.48 billion rubles from 1.64 billion rubles a year earlier.

According to InfoLine analysts, Utkonos in 2019 increased its turnover by 0.4%, to 10.19 billion rubles. The maximum growth in turnover occurred in the III and IV quarters of the past year, amounting to 8% and 6.9% relative to the same periods of 2018 year, respectively.

The company remained the largest player in the e-grocery segment with a 22.6% share. But since 2017, its market share has decreased significantly (from 44.3%), analysts say.

The share of the closest competitor of Utkonos - the online supermarket Perekrestok.ru - in 2019 turned out to be 9.6%. At the same time, it demonstrates higher growth rates: the revenue of the Perekrestka online store in 2019 jumped 3.3 times (to 4.31 billion rubles).

Utkonos itself says that advertising support, updating the brand philosophy and improving the level of service for buyers are the key factors in the company's growth. According to the retailer's own data, by the end of 2019, the mobile application brings the company 49% of all orders (revenue from orders made through the iOS and Android platforms in 2019 amounted to almost 4.1 billion rubles, which is 23% more than in 2018).^[2].

Range of online store - 40 thousand SKU

As of December 2019, the online store's range includes 40,000 SKUs. Utkonos employs more than 3,000 employees, has a distribution center with an area of ​ ​ 61,500 m2 with various temperature storage areas, an automated quality control system at all stages of goods movement, as well as a fleet of cars equipped with special refrigeration chambers. The delivery system allows you to provide two-hour intervals for receiving an order and various payment methods.

45% of total sales of Russian online food stores

According to the research agency Data Insight, Utkonos with a turnover of 10.2 billion rubles is the leader in the online food market and as of December 2019 occupies 45% of the sales of Russian online food stores.

CDO "Platypus" Danila Naumov - about how the company prevents the outflow of customers and generates prices with the help of Big Data

Speaking at the TAdviser SummIT conference on November 27, 2019, Chief Data Officer (data director) of Utkonos Danila Naumov told what role data plays in the digital transformation of companies and how work is built with them in their store, in particular.

A separate division according to the data was allocated to Utkonos in 2019. Danila Naumov joined the company in March, heading this direction. As of November, his team has 25 people, of whom 7 employees are data analysts, 6 employees are data engineers, and the rest are business analysts. According to Naumov, he went a long way in recruiting a team, and it is not yet fully staffed. There is a shortage of specialists in the field of data science on the market.

One of the contractors of Utkonos, who works with universities and recruits interns not only to himself, but also for his clients, helped to find talented interns in the new team of the company. Another way to attract talent in the field of data is hackathons, which are satisfied with the company.

Looking for talented specialists of the middle and senior level is an even more difficult task. Such specialists cannot be attracted by financial motivation alone. For data scientists, a very important point is the business result from their work, the integration of their results into business processes. They have a real impact on the development of the company. Therefore, in addition to financial motivation, we attract them with responsibility and interesting business tasks, - explained Danila Naumov.

One of the first tasks for which the Data Office was founded at Platypus is related to demand forecasting. Based on the analysis of data, a daily forecast is issued for the entire assortment of the store for two weeks in advance. As of November, this task has been launched into the product in half of the store's assortment.

Many factors are used for the forecast, mainly derivatives from the sales history for a specific article. For example, average sales for a quarter, for 30 days, etc. The company has formed a landfill where all hypotheses to improve forecast accuracy are tested.

Another task is to predict the number of orders. It takes into account seasonality trends, calendar holidays, margins that business, marketing budgets, etc. This also includes weather-related factors. The business for a long time felt that in bad weather, "Platypus" had more orders, but it was not clear how much. As a result of the analysis, it turned out that 1 mm of precipitation brings an additional 18 orders per day, and a temperature deviation from normal by 1 degree down - an additional 7 orders per day.

This data is used, for example, to calculate the periods of a surge in demand on the sales history, as well as when forecasting for short intervals.

From the point of view of targeted marketing, the company makes the most of the customer data it has. Due to this, each purchase is personalized, Naumov noted. One of the key sources is the history of the customer's interactions with the store. The company can build its recommendation system on the site based on purchase statistics and create a recommendation basket for the buyer.

The client should not remember what else he needs to buy, Utkonos should do this for him and form a relevant basket, - explained Danila Naumov.

Along with targeted marketing, the data helps Platypus work with customer outflows - building models that predict outflows and optimizing campaigns that can return them. By default, Platypus had one campaign - a 10% discount on an order from 3 thousand rubles and free shipping. At the same time, there was information in the purchase history on the use of promo codes offering larger discounts when ordering larger amounts.

After analyzing the data, the company realized that deeper promo codes could return some segments of customers, after which they built a model and conducted A/B testing. It showed an increase in margin in the control group, after which Utkonos continued to work in this direction.

Another important task for which data analysis is used is pricing, said Danila Naumov. The process is constructed as follows. Every day in "Platypus" monitor the sites of competitors for various products. Each product in the company has a price segment (premium, medium or low) and a development strategy for this segment. At the same time, there is an understanding for each of them, from which competitors it is necessary to rebuild. There are also purchase prices that limit the final price. As a result, for each product in "Platypus" there is an interval of possible prices, among which you need to choose the optimal one.

Then the company began the task of calculating elasticity. A lot of work was done to "clean up" demand from the period of absence of goods, from periods of promotions, seasonality, etc. As a result, elasticity was calculated for 59% of assortment items. For the rest of the goods, this could not be done. Among the reasons for this - for some goods, the price range is very short.

Elasticity calculation allows you to select prices that will maximize different KPIs, for example, revenue and margin. Due to this, Utkonos expects to get an effect in the form of a 4.1% increase in revenue.

Danila Naumov outlined three main areas where the company is moving in the framework of digital transformation: it focuses on increasing the flexibility of developing and bringing new products to market, attracting and retaining talent, as well as meeting the business need for data and embedding advanced algorithms in business processes.

First of all, we decided to focus on the supply chain, on pricing for the commercial management, on targeted marketing. And in the future, my strategic goal is to introduce advanced analytics into the work of each department. This includes, among other things, analyzing video recordings in a warehouse to identify fraud, recognizing text for accounting and highlighting key points, embedding sound recording analysis about a working engine in the courier-forwarding application to predict breakdowns in order to optimize repair costs, - explained Danila Naumov.

О TAdviser SummIT

TAdviser SummIT was held in Moscow on November 27, 2019 and attracted more than 700 participants - heads and experts of IT divisions of the largest companies and government departments of Russia, representatives of IT developers and contractors. During the event, the prospects for digital transformation of business and government agencies, the development of technologies, products and services were discussed. About 60 reports were made in the plenary part and five thematic sections. The event was held in 5 halls of Radisson Blu Olympiyskiy.

Availability of day-to-day delivery throughout Moscow and access to Tula

On September 9, 2019, it became known that the representative of the Utkonos online food market expands the coverage area of ​ ​ the fast delivery service, which is now available throughout Moscow within the Moscow Ring Road. Residents of the capital will be able to get their purchases on the day of ordering from 19:00 to 23:00, and orders issued before 01:00 will be delivered to customers in the morning.

In addition, the retailer announced that residents of Tula can now place orders in the online hypermarket. Thus, delivery from Utkonos outside the Moscow Big Ring is already available in four settlements, including Kaluga, Tver and Zavidovo.

Company representatives report further plans to reduce the time between registration and receipt of orders to 4 hours, and are also considering the possibility of entering other cities outside the Moscow region.

In Platypus, it is important for us to meet the needs of customers, and the speed of receiving orders is one of the key factors in choosing our online hypermarket. The company's development strategy includes further improvement of logistics capabilities, including rapid delivery service and expanding the geography of its presence. Tula is one of the most economically developed cities in the center of Russia with high purchasing power and a favorable geographical position. We are pleased to offer the residents of the region a high-tech service for the delivery of a wide range of high-quality products, which will allow you to gain a positive shopping experience and save time,

Resumption of delivery to products

On August 19, 2019, it became known that Utkonos, an online grocery hypermarket, is resuming the service for receiving orders from food products. Earlier, the delivery service to delivery points was suspended due to the transfer of warehouse operations and logistics capacities to another distribution center of the company.

Products are one of the important and interesting projects for the retailer, since this format of food shopping is in great demand among young buyers of the online hypermarket who value their time. Points for issuing orders are located in large shopping and business centers, residential complexes, which allows active residents of the metropolis to pick up their order at a convenient time without being tied to a courier. It is worth noting that almost 50% of orders for products are issued through the company's mobile sales channels.

Having completed the process of migrating warehouse capacity to another site, as well as setting up all processes, we can again offer customers a service for the delivery of orders to products. Our customers are loyal to this type of delivery, so it was important for us to return this service with a high level of service as soon as possible,

Products of the online hypermarket "Utkonos" are automated points for issuing orders, equipped with refrigeration and freezers to preserve the freshness of products that require special temperature regimes.

CIO "Platypus" Maria Artamonova - about the large-scale transformation of IT and plans for technological development

In August 2019, Maria Artamonova, Information Technology Director of the Utkonos online hypermarket, spoke in an interview with TAdviser about the new IT strategy, the transformation of the department's work and how the company uses the latest technologies to retain advantages in the market in the face of competitors. Read more here.

In August, 51% of all orders were made in the application and on the mobile version of the site

On September 2, 2019, it became known that the Utkonos online hypermarket announced a record share of orders through mobile sales channels. In August 2019, more than 51% of all retailer orders were issued in the official application and on the mobile version of the site.

The Platypus app is adapted not only for smartphones, but also for all tablets running iOS and Android and allows you to make purchases in one click. Since launch, users have installed the application more than 820 thousand times, while iOS and Android account for 52% and 48% of installations, respectively. The monthly growth of orders through the application is more than 20% for the period January-July 2019 compared to the same period in 2018. At the beginning of September 2019, the monthly audience of the mobile application has over 100 thousand users, and the mobile version of the online hypermarket site has more than 600 thousand people.

Users of the Platypus application have access to an adapted online showcase, a synchronized personal account, as well as the ability to select the delivery time interval even before ordering. Compared to the site, the application has advanced features, and the most popular functions among users are: order repetition, courier tracking on the map, voice search and product search by barcode.

As noted in the company, the behavior of users in the application is quite different from the behavior on the site. For example, on the site, buyers more often use "listings" to add products to the cart and only in 20% of cases click the "buy" button directly on the product page. At the same time, more than half of all clicks of the "buy" button in the application occur on the product card page.

For us, the mobile application is one of the key areas of customer experience and the most important sales driver. We are very pleased that customers are increasingly choosing the Platypus app as a palm shop. High ratings and sales growth suggest that we are moving in the right direction, betting on mobile sales channels, regularly improving the application and mobile version of the site,

2017: First productomats

The first products in Russia appeared in 2017, when Utkonos installed branded points for issuing orders in business centers, fitness clubs, parking lots, as well as in general areas of residential complexes in Moscow.

2012

As the company's business was previously characterized by the former deputy general director for IT and innovation at Utkonos, Dmitry Sytin, is a cross between an online store and a retail chain selling products. Business infrastructure - an Internet showcase with a sufficient assortment and quality of products at the hypermarket level (about 25 thousand items), convenient ordering technology, a fairly wide network of local stores (95 stores in Moscow), round-the-clock timely delivery of products in the four-hour interval indicated by the client (the company's fleet - more than 500 cars), the ability to pay for the order in various ways and partial refusal (2012 data).

The core of the company's information infrastructure is SAP R3 v.4.7, which has been operating for more than six years and, Dmitry emphasized, and then the transition to new versions was not planned, since the existing customized version suited the business. A self-described system worked in the warehouse, employees - universal terminals of the picker (UTK) of their own design based on the PDA, into which the collected orders are "poured." At the same time, Dmitry Sytin emphasized that the hypermarket does not work from the wishes of the client, but from the presence of products in the company's warehouse, and this is primarily due to Russian realities - suppliers, unfortunately, are not yet able to ensure timely delivery of goods to the hypermarket, he said.

Among the main problems, the representative of Utkonos identified two - the population's bias towards ordering products via the Internet and the complexity of the logistics mechanism of mass service, aggravated by the complexity of the situation on the roads of Moscow and the Moscow region.