Hazal Maraş, Ozon: «We prepared for Turkish sellers analytics and promotion tools, and training courses for selling in the Russian market»

This year Ozon Global opened an office in Istanbul. It was headed by Hazal Maraş, an expert with over a decade of experience in retail and commerce. Previously, she was a Seller Acquisition leader in Hepsiburada/Hepsiglobal, Turkey. We spoke with Hazal about how her team helps Turkish sellers learn about consumption patterns in Russia and promote their products. Also we learned how Ozon office managed to halve the delivery time of Turkish goods to Russia. Below you will see a link where you can read the interview in Russian. 

Remind readers, when and for what purpose was the Ozon office opened in Turkey?

In August 2022, we opened an office in Istanbul to expand our collaboration with Turkish sellers.

What are the departments of the Ozon office in Turkey? Could you briefly describe the structure and objectives of each department?

The team in the Turkish office currently consists of 9 people and includes: Key Account Management, Business Development and Analyst teams. The team in Turkey is responsible for establishing business processes in the region, attracting new sellers and providing support and quality service to Turkish sellers.

Ozon Global's team in Ozon's headquarters in Russia also supports business operations in Turkey. However, the team in Turkey is the link between sellers from Turkey and the Russian marketplace.

What does it take to attract Turkish sellers and retailers to Ozon? What are the main challenges you face in this work, and what tools do you use to overcome them?
 
 Our main long-term goal is both to increase the foreign trade volume of our Turkish sellers and to create a high volume of sales by satisfying the demand of our customers in the Russian market.
 
 One of the main problems faced by many Turkish sellers is the lack of knowledge of the specifics of the Russian market. They are not familiar with the consumption patterns of the Russian population and face communication barriers. We strive to provide Turkish sellers with all possible support to overcome the existing barriers. For example, we offer Turkish language customer service to Turkish sellers and have prepared several training courses with tips for selling in the Russian market.
 
 Besides, all sellers in the marketplace would have access to analytics tools developed by Ozon. These tools can help to create a portrait of the potential customer, examine how to increase sales, and analyze which products sell best in which regions. With careful use of the analytics tools, sellers could significantly increase their sales.

What digital projects are you currently developing in your company? Are they related to working with sellers/retailers or customers? Can you tell us 2-3 such projects?
 
 Ozon offers various tools for sellers to help them to increase sales. For example, Ozon has an extensive pool of different promotion tools. According to statistics, sales are 3.7 times higher for sellers who have made promotional campaigns on Ozon. Sellers now have two types of advertising campaigns at their disposal: Product advertising in search results and on product cards, and media advertising in the form of banners and videos.
 
 We have also recently launched digital advertising campaigns on Youtube, Google and TikTok in Turkey to promote the Ozon brand in the Turkish market and attract new sellers.

Let's talk about logistics. It’s a hot topic today. What are the main difficulties in logistics of goods both within Turkey and delivery to Russia, and how do you solve these difficulties? 
 
 One of the challenges we faced when entering the Turkish market was setting up logistics processes that would ensure fast and convenient delivery from Turkey to Russia. Customers in Russia are used to short delivery times within Russia and high-quality logistics services. We had to set up logistics processes so that deliveries from Turkey would not take weeks to reach Russia.
 
 To shorten delivery times, we introduced our own logistics solution for transporting goods from abroad to Russia – Ozon Global Partner Delivery. The new logistics service has allowed us to cut delivery times in half – now delivery without assembly takes from 8 days. We hope that the fast delivery will increase the attractiveness of Turkish goods for Russian customers.
 
 The other available option is to use an integrated delivery method. In this case, the delivery time would be from 14 days. In the integrated delivery method, all steps of the delivery are controlled by the seller and not by Ozon Global as in Partner Delivery.

Alisa Popova

Читать интервью на русском

More strategies for working with e-commerce platforms and consumer trends await you at Пятнадцатый форум финансовых директоров розничного бизнеса Retail CFO 2023 (February 9, 2023). At the forum you will hear cases from the largest companies and will be able to ask your questions to their representatives. Colleagues, join us!

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